International Women’s Day 2025: We Do Not Have That Kind of Time

Every year, we are reminded that gender equality remains an unfinished fight, one that is not merely about breaking glass ceilings but about dismantling the entire structure that keeps women trapped beneath them.

First observed in 1911, International Women’s Day was born from radical roots, initially marked by the Socialist Party of America. Over a century later, the United Nations has adopted it, assigning themes each year to reflect the ongoing struggle. This year’s theme, Accelerate Action, is not just a demand, it’s a warning. The 2025 International Women’s Day report estimates that at the current pace, full gender parity won’t be reached until 2158.

That means women today will never see a world where they are treated as equals. That means our daughters and granddaughters will inherit the same fight, and at this pace, their granddaughters will too. We do not have that kind of time.

Progress isn’t inevitable. The myth that “things are getting better” is convenient but misleading. Rights can be lost. Change can stall. Backlash can, and does, push us backward. The question isn’t just whether we’re moving forward, it’s whether we are moving forward fast enough to counteract the forces trying to drag us back. Because if we don’t, what then? Another century of waiting? Another century of women making the same arguments, fighting the same battles, mourning the same injustices?

Femicide is a crisis. Russell (2001) defines it as “the killing of females by males because they are female.” It is not incidental, it is systematic. It encompasses honour killings, domestic violence, and sexual violence. And it is getting worse. Whittington et al. (2023) found that 82% of murders between intimate partners have a female victim, often following prolonged abuse. In 2020 alone, 81,000 women were murdered globally.

We cannot accept these numbers as statistics, they are lives stolen. Yet many legal systems refuse to recognise femicide as a distinct crime. McGoldrick et al. (2024) highlight that in Ireland, femicide is neither fully recognised nor defined in law. Women’s Aid Ireland reported a 43% increase in domestic abuse contacts in 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown. The United Nations reported 89,000 gender-related killings in 2022, the highest in over two decades.

The misclassification of femicide cases, labelled as “domestic disputes” or “isolated incidents”, exacerbates the problem. Femicide is structural, not anomalous. These deaths reflect a society that devalues female life. Why are governments still debating whether femicide should be a distinct crime? Why are laws that could prevent these murders still not fully implemented? The answers lie in complacency, and in a refusal to acknowledge male violence as a systemic issue.

The digital age has introduced a new form of radicalisation, shaping boys into misogynists and fuelling violence against women. Horeck et al. (2023) showed that in 2020, the site Everyone’s Invited gathered testimonies of sexual harassment in schools, prompting an Ofsted report (2021) finding over 90% of girls had experienced harassment or abuse. Yet many boys retreated into denial, refusing accountability.

This culture is nurtured online by incel forums and red pill ideology, which legitimises oppression and frames women as inherently manipulative or deceitful. Extreme misogyny is no longer confined to fringe spaces, it is seeping into mainstream culture, shaping young men’s attitudes toward women. Meanwhile, everyday misogyny, from coercion to sexual femicide, remains underreported and under-analysed.

This is where Dawn Intelligence comes in. The sheer scale of gender-based violence, both online and offline, cannot be addressed through awareness alone. Dawn Intelligence uses real-time data to track and predict trends in violence against women, highlighting high-risk areas, demographic vulnerabilities, and emerging threats. By translating data into actionable insights, Dawn enables schools, workplaces, and policymakers to respond proactively, rather than reactively, to the epidemic of violence.

From mapping harassment hotspots to flagging rising patterns of femicide and domestic abuse, Dawn empowers decision-makers to intervene before harm escalates. It is a tool that bridges the gap between awareness and action, cutting through performative activism to create measurable impact. Where online outrage fades after a hashtag trends, data-driven intelligence sustains the fight.

The commodification of women’s bodies, through sex work, extreme beauty standards, or platforms like OnlyFans, is part of this structural violence. Economic coercion, objectification, and normalized misogyny all feed into a culture where women are treated as disposable. Koss et al. (2022) found one in three women experiences sexual violence during undergraduate studies, demonstrating that even spaces designed for learning and growth are not safe.

Social media amplifies these pressures. “Fitspiration” and body positivity trends often increase body dissatisfaction rather than alleviating it (Ladwig et al., 2024). Anti-aging procedures and extreme cosmetic standards weaponize female bodies, framing compliance as empowerment. Women are told they have freedom, but refusal is framed as failure.

A society that sees women as objects will never see them as equals. Reproductive rights are under attack globally, from Roe v. Wade to restrictive laws in Latin America, Africa, and Poland. Empowerment is being reframed as submission, and liberation is being gaslit as control.

International Women’s Day 2025 is a reminder: awareness alone is not enough. Misogyny is rising, femicide is increasing, and structural oppression persists. But with tools like Dawn Intelligence, we can accelerate action. By tracking real-time trends, predicting emerging risks, and providing practical solutions, we can move beyond hashtags and virality toward interventions that save lives.

We do not have that kind of time. The only way forward is sustained action, informed by evidence, powered by technology, and grounded in the reality that women’s lives cannot wait another century for equality.