Updated: 3 March 2026
International Women's Day 2026 #GiveToGain
Marked annually on 8 March, International Women's Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
When we give, we gain. Together, let's help forge gender equality through abundant giving. The IWD 2026 Give To Gain Campaign encourages a mindset of generosity and collaboration.
Give To Gain emphasizes the power of reciprocity and support. When people, organizations, and communities give generously, opportunities and support for women increase. Giving is not a subtraction, it's intentional multiplication. When women thrive, we all rise.
Whether through donations, knowledge, resources, infrastructure, visibility, advocacy, education, training, mentoring, or time, contributing to women's advancement helps create a more supportive and interconnected world.
What will you Give to Gain gender equality?
Scroll down to find information about events, initiatives and training across UCD campuses and our International Women’s Day Training and Support Bundle.
For more information on IWD2026: (opens in a new window)https://www.internationalwomensday.com/
Message from Prof Aoife Ahern, Vice President for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Across the campus there will be many events taking place to mark International Women's Day (IWD). The theme of IWD in 2026 is Give to Gain. In UCD, we are focussing on how we can all give generously to help women to thrive, which will be to the advantage of our entire community. There are many ways that we can each give - this may be through donations, knowledge, resources, visibility, mentoring, education, training and time to contribute to women's advancement. This is something that we can all do, and I ask you what would you give to gain gender equality?
Learn more about UCD's commitment to Gender Equality: UCD Gender Equality Action Plan 2024-2029.
Events, training and initiatives across the University
The College of Health and Agricultural Sciences is holding an event on 3 March to mark for International Women's Day on Exploring What Helps Women Thrive with keynote speaker Mary Hayes from Women's Aid and hosted by Prof Barbara Dooley, Emeritus Full Professor in Psychology. Other speakers include Prof Matthew Sadlier, Consultant Psychologist, and Aghogho Okpara, UCD Medicine Student. Find out more on the UCD School of Medicine website.
TheCollege of Engineering & Architecturewill be hosting a Coffee Morning in celebration of International Women's Day 2026 onTuesday 10 March 2026 for all staff and faculty in our College. Details are available on Workvivo.
The UCD Engineering Graduates Association will be releasing an (opens in a new window)exciting piece on LinkedIn to showcase some of our female UCD graduates and faculty at different career stages ahead of International Women's Day 2026 to shine a spotlight on female engineers.
The College of Social Sciences and Law is organising a conversation with female colleagues on 11 March at 1pm in Newman to mark International Women's Day: Dara Gannon (SPIRe); Lisa Madsen (CoSSL); Imelda Maher (Law) and Sara O'Sullivan (Sociology). The theme for this year’s conversation is “Give to Gain," which emphasizes a mindset of generosity, collaboration, and reciprocity to accelerate gender equality in UCD and beyond. Lunch will be served.
International Women’s Day Training and Support Bundle
EDI are delighted to offer two sessions tailored for women in academia and research and women in leadership and management to mark International Women's Day. Some places are still available, register on the EDI Training and Events Calendar.
Women and Leadership - Don’t Let Imposter Feelings Hold you Back
The call for women to step into positions of seniority and leadership is widespread. Many women are aware that unconscious bias is still subtly affecting their career progression and that feelings of not being good enough – what we often describe as Imposter Syndrome feelings – stop them volunteering or going for positions of leadership. If not addressed the Imposter Syndrome can cause individuals to experience significant stress, anxiety and fear. It can drive them to burn-out or inhibit them from achieving their full potential, prevent them from making valuable contributions to projects or meetings and deprive an organisation from seeing the very best that their staff can give.
The workshops will explore:
- What is Imposter Syndrome
- Who might experience imposter feelings and why
- Solutions - Ways to move forward
- How to manage feelings around success and failure
- How to manage our Inner Critic
- Powerful female archetypes to give insight to leadership skills and presence.
On the EDI eLearning section of our website you can also find information about the new Menopause in the Workplace online course, and a curated LinkedIn Learning Collection called "Inspire Inclusion - Women in Leadership and Supporting Women at Work". This collection features courses and videos on female empowerment, leadership, inclusion and supporting women in the workplace. Find out more on the website.
UCD now holds an Institutional Silver Award
UCD has been awarded the prestigious institutional Silver Athena Swan Awardin recognition of its ongoing commitment to advancing gender equality and building capacity for evidence-based equality work across all equality grounds, building on our Bronze Awards from 2017 and 2020. We extend our gratitude to the entire University community for their support and engagement throughout this process.
To achieve this accreditation, the University conducted a thorough self-assessment of gender equality challenges and demonstrated significant progress and impact since receiving our Bronze Award in 2020. Additionally, UCD engaged in consultations with employees and students, using their feedback to strengthen the application and guide the development of theGender Equality Action Plan 2024 - 2029.
To view UCD's Gender Equality Action Plan 2024 - 2029, please click here.