Beyond Women’s Month: The Fight for Gender Equality Never Ends

As Women’s Month comes to an end, the fight for gender equality cannot fade into the background. This month, I attended the 69th Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the United Nations in New York City, an event meant to advance women’s rights globally. Yet, sitting in those rooms where decisions are made, I was slapped by the lack of representation of young women, grassroots activists, and people from the Global Majority.

We talked about policies, frameworks, and commitments, yet outside those walls, wars keep raging, climate disasters displace millions, and women’s rights are systematically rolled back. The disconnect was undeniable. These high-level spaces continue to be exclusive and expensive, shutting out those who are most impacted by the issues at hand. Visa restrictions, travel costs, and bureaucratic obstacles prevent the very people who should be at the table from being there. And let’s be real: how can we make decisions that affect millions of women worldwide when they are not even in the room?

The rollback of women’s rights is not happening in isolation. It is deeply connected to broader systems of oppression, from attacks on reproductive rights to the criminalisation of migration. Bodily autonomy, immigration rights, and feminist liberation across borders are interconnected. A woman fleeing violence or climate disaster should not have to fight yet another battle just to seek safety. A girl should not have to justify her right to education, nor should a young feminist activist have to beg for funding to sustain her movement. Yet, this is our reality.

So, what do we do? We shift power. We fund women’s rights organisations and feminist movements, especially youth-led ones because they are the backbone of change. Grassroots activists are on the frontlines, doing the work, yet they remain underfunded and overlooked. We need more women, particularly those from historically marginalised communities, in decision-making spaces. We cannot continue to have policies made about us without us. Representation alone is not enough; we need actual power, resources, and decision-making authority to drive change.

Women’s Month serves as a reminder of both progress and setbacks. But gender equality is not a 31-day conversation, it’s a fight that continues every single day. The challenges are massive, but so is our collective power. Now more than ever, we must rally together, push back against oppression, and ensure that the voices of those most affected are heard, amplified, and centered.

The month may be ending, but the movement is not. The real work continues, and we are not backing down.

Author: Yasmina Benslimane, Award-Winning Feminist Activist