Kathriona Devereux: Enough inspirational quotes... here’s what women really want

International Women’s Day is not doing it for me anymore.

Every March, we are treated to a familiar programme: inspirational speakers, fireside chats with trailblazing women, pink cupcakes, and branded lanyards. Social media is filled with quotes about empowerment or inspirational historic female figures.

And yet, when you turn on the news, it is stories of female despair.

Girls’ schools bombed. Women and children trapped in war zones. Mothers struggling to feed their families in Gaza, Sudan, and Cuba, and countless other places that barely make the headlines anymore.

We’re told the war situation is “complicated” but the pattern is depressingly familiar and simple: men start them, and women and children suffer the consequences.

Against that backdrop, marking International Women’s Day with anything other than protest and rage feels odd.

This is not to dismiss the importance of celebrating women’s achievements. But sometimes the day feels less like a call to action and more like a pink-washed feelgood festival. Panels of successful women discussing leadership. Companies applauding female employees while the gender pay gap quietly persists in the background.

Women don’t need another inspirational quote. We already know the problems. Cork comedian Kyla Cobbler joked recently, maybe it’s time for women to get “furious and jacked”.

Strip away the hashtags and the marketing, and what women are asking for is actually very straightforward.

End gender-based and sexual violence

Every year, women continue to experience abuse in their homes, workplaces and communities. Around the world, the scale of violence against women remains staggering.

Pay women equally for their work

It is extraordinary that in 2026 we still accept a world where women, on average, earn less than men. The gap may have narrowed in some sectors, but it has not disappeared.

Tackle poverty

Particularly the poverty that disproportionately affects women. In Ireland and elsewhere, single-parent families, most of them headed by women, face far higher risks of financial hardship.

Value the work that is still largely invisible

Caring for children, raising families, supporting elderly relatives - the unpaid labour that keeps societies functioning is still overwhelmingly carried out by women. Yet it is barely recognised in economic terms.

Invest properly in childcare, maternity services and women’s health

These are not luxury issues. They are the basic infrastructure of a fair society.

Then there is the strange commercial circus that now surrounds pregnancy and early motherhood. From targeted advertising to influencer marketing, pregnant women are treated less like mothers and more like potential customers.

A pregnant woman is a mother, not a prospective customer. What she and her baby need most is support, decent healthcare, time to recover, and the security of knowing they will not fall into poverty.

None of this is revolutionary. Women have been asking for these things for decades. Centuries.

So here’s a thought for International Women’s Day, ask yourself a simple question: can you help?

Could you pick one issue that matters - ending gender-based violence, supporting women in poverty, advocating for better childcare or maternity services - and do something about it?

Could you volunteer with an organisation working on these issues? Could you make a regular donation to a charity supporting women and children? Could you fund-raise? Could you speak up when you see inequality or harassment playing out in your workplace or community?

And maybe it is time to get furious too. Furious on behalf of the women in your life. Furious that inequality still persists in ways both big and small. But channel that anger into something productive.

The antidote to despair is action. So use this International Women’s Day as an inspiration to make life better for women here and around the world.

Green fingers

Spring has sprung. There, I’ve said it.

The full body clench and wincing face of winter is over. Time to start hoping for lush green days and new growth. As Audrey Hepburn once said “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

For the last week or two, I’m grateful that past-Kathriona found 15 minutes some time in October to lob spring bulbs into a few pots. Now, I’m continually thrilled at the splashes of colour from my pots of daffodils, tulips and grape hyacinths .

I’m no Diarmuid Gavin or Monty Don, but I’ve started to appreciate how a small investment of time in growing something - whether a seed to tree - repays doublefold, triplefold in a few months or years.

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree,” is a quote often attributed to Martin Luther King.

At a time when it feels like the world is falling to pieces, I went ahead and planted six fruit trees on a small family plot of land.

It was a restorative tree planting day - physical activity, outdoor sandwiches, and flasks of tea with my son and mother. At the end we took photos of the trees with the hope that in a few years’ time they might provide some sustenance and perhaps serve a generation or two of our family.

If a tree is too much of an ask, how about growing some veg from seeds? A few tomato plants in a sunny spot or your favourite lettuce leaves in a small container.

It is truly uplifting to see new life sprouting from a teeny seed, offering a much-needed dose of hope.

The Ancient Greeks summed it up nicely: “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.”