What if 'Women's Day' didn't exist?

When I started brainstorming this question, a slightly unsettling thought surfaced: if International Women's Day didn't exist on the calendar, would we - as an industry - simply forget about the 50% of the population that makes the world go round?

It's an uncomfortable question, but an important one. Do we feel we have a certain "license" to tell real, gritty or challenging stories only during this one moment of the year - perhaps because the cultural context makes them safer to tell? In the everyday rush of client deliverables, revenue targets and pitch deadlines, it can be tempting to treat authentic storytelling as a secondary thought - or worse, something that feels a little too lofty for the average Tuesday.

The calendar nudge

To be fair, designated days do serve a purpose. They create visibility. They force conversations that might otherwise remain buried under the routine busyness of business.

International Women's Day acts as a powerful nudge - a moment that prompts brands and agencies alike to pause and reflect on the narratives we create and the assumptions we reinforce.

But the question remains: are we relying on the calendar a little too much? And more pointedly - are brands using Women's Day as cultural cover? The broader conversation is already happening, the sentiment is already warm, and a bold stance on gender equity in March feels timely rather than risky. Do it in August and suddenly the same story feels like it needs defending. That's the difference between brands that tell these stories across the year because they ought to be told, and brands that tell them because March makes it safe to - and it's important to call it out.

Consider the data. In India, women appear in nearly 45% of television commercials, which sounds encouraging at first glance. Yet scratch the surface and you'll see that male characters are still three times more likely to be portrayed as the authority in the room. Women, meanwhile, remain 1.5 times more likely to be depicted primarily as caregivers.

It's 2026, yet we're still defaulting to some very familiar scripts.

Breaking the loop

There’s another dimension that rarely gets discussed openly: who is actually in the room when these stories are being written? The gender composition of Account Management, Creative and Strategy teams shape which truths get told - and which ones quietly discarded. A woman's invisible calculations during a late-night run, or the quiet weight of postpartum reality, aren't insights you arrive at through research decks alone. They come from lived experience - or from teams where the right voices are genuinely present. 

Encouragingly, some of the work emerging this year feels refreshingly honest because it ignores the old "pink-it-and-shrink-it" playbook.

Generali Central Insurance's "Happy Women's Pay" campaign reminded us that celebration rings hollow if structural inequities persist. Women still earn roughly 73 rupees for every 100 rupees earned by men. The campaign shifted the conversation from symbolic recognition to economic fairness.

Australian activewear brand LSKD took a different approach with "She runs, but she's never just running." By placing viewers inside a woman's internal monologue during what should be a routine run, the film captured the invisible calculations - about safety, surroundings, and risk - that accompany something as simple as stepping out for exercise.  Ask women about this mental gymnastics, and you will be surprised how many will nod in recognition! After all, pepper spray wasn't invented without reason.

Meanwhile, Edelweiss Mutual Fund framed women's financial participation not as a gap to be fixed but as a powerful shift already underway. By positioning women as the fastest-growing force in finance, they moved the conversation from charity to capital.

Moving beyond the milestone

So what would happen if Women's Day disappeared tomorrow?

Maybe some brands would go quiet. But the brands that truly understand the cultural power of storytelling probably wouldn't miss a beat. Because the most meaningful stories don't emerge from seasonal prompts - they emerge from observing the world honestly.

Campaigns such as Shemaroo's take on the invisible glass ceiling or Prega News's candid portrayal of postpartum realities resonate not because they appear in March, but because they reflect lived experiences that exist throughout the year.

And perhaps that's the real challenge for our industry. Agencies need to believe that the best storytelling doesn't need a calendar invite.

Authenticity isn't a milestone. It's a daily commitment.

If we can stop treating gender equity as a March special and start treating it as a business lens - something embedded in everyday storytelling and strategy - we won't just have written another Women's Day column.

We'll have built an industry that actually reflects the world it speaks to.