March 2026 is Women’s History Month, and March 8 is International Women’s Day. Both celebrate the contributions of women throughout the world – and provide a time to look critically at the status of women and girls. This year’s commemoration finds that after decades of progress, rollbacks are leading to shorter lifespans, increased food insecurity and deepening poverty for women – not only in the developing world but in so-called first-world countries.
- One in every 10 women lives in extreme poverty.
- Access to safe birth control has diminished worldwide.
- Women are less likely to have access to legal protection.
- Women are less likely than men to have access to financial institutions or have a bank account.
- The digital divide remains a gendered one with 37% of women globally not using the internet.
And the less social class advantage a woman has, the more these problems compound.
Read what experts have to say about the state of women and girls in 2026
- Human Rights Watch, Trump spurs global rollback on the rights of women and girls
- UN Women, International Women’s Day 2026, Rights. Justice. Action.
- UUSC, UUSC at the Commission on the Status of Women
- Ms. Magazine, How Trump Gave America License to Roll Back Women’s Equality
- IRC, 10 women leaders, activists and campaigners …
- Equality Now: The Global Rollback
- The Guardian, Five Key Moments
- LinkedIn, What Women Think in 2026
- WOMEN AGAINST VIOLENCE EUROPE, …U.S. Abandoned Women’s Rights at the UN…
- The Interplay of Class and Gender in Shaping Social Inequality