IWD 2026: Give to Gain – Why Investing in Women Benefits Everyone
For International Women’s Day 2026, the theme is “Give to Gain”, and two of the UK’s top business schools are showing exactly what that means in practice. From Oxford’s golf access program to Cambridge’s peer mentorship network, these initiatives prove that investing in women creates gains for all of society.
What Does “Give to Gain” Mean for International Women’s Day 2026?
International Women’s Day 2026 arrives with a theme that is both a call to action and a philosophy: Give to Gain. At its core, the theme challenges individuals, institutions, and organizations to invest in gender equity not as an act of charity, but as a strategy for collective growth. When women are given access, mentorship, and opportunity, the return on that investment does not stop with women. It ripples outward to businesses, communities, and the wider economy.
Nowhere is this principle more powerfully demonstrated than in the United Kingdom’s world-leading business schools. At the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and Cambridge Judge Business School, the Give to Gain ethos is not a slogan. Rather, it is being lived, measured, and scaled in 2026. Their initiatives offer a blueprint for how giving access and mentorship to women creates gains that benefit all of society.
Give to Gain in Action: Oxford Saïd Business School and the Power of Access
Why Access Is the First Act of Giving
Patti Brown, Associate Dean for Accredited Programs at Oxford Saïd, has identified a surprisingly specific barrier to women’s advancement in business: the golf course.
It sounds trivial. It is anything but. Research consistently shows that informal networking environments, such as golf days, client dinners, and sporting events, are where relationships deepen, sponsorship is offered, and career-defining decisions are made.
One example in research by the global nonprofit Catalyst found that 46% of women feel excluded from informal networks at work, with golf being one of the leading spaces they feel shut out of, and that exclusion from these informal networks is the single biggest impediment to reaching their career goals.
When women are absent from these spaces, they are not just missing a round of golf. They are missing the relationship capital that accelerates careers.
In an article in LinkedIn, Patti pondered these questions: “Why aren’t we teaching our women to play golf as part of business education? We train them to negotiate, master case studies, and even tackle the thrilling world of financial accounting. We occasionally dip into the male-dominated realms of leadership, but why stop there? Why aren’t we handing them the ultimate business power move—a low golf handicap, the real key to the kingdom?”
Patti’s response is the “Gals Who Golf” program, launching this spring for MBA women at Oxford Said. Designed to be a supportive, confidence-building introduction to the game, it is a direct intervention in one of the most persistent but least-discussed forms of professional exclusion.
The Broader Give to Gain Principle at Oxford
“Gals Who Golf” is an example of what intentional access looks like in practice. It is not about creating a parallel track for women; it is about removing an invisible barrier to the main track.
Patti frames this as “intentional multiplication”: when women feel confident in both formal and informal leadership environments, they expand their networks, their influence, and their impact. The gains extend well beyond the individual. When women rise in leadership, institutions become more diverse in thought, more resilient in strategy, and stronger in culture. As Patti puts it:
“When women rise, our institutions and our industry rise with them.”
Patti Brown, Associate Dean for Accredited Programs – Oxford Saïd Business School
This is the Give to Gain logic in its clearest form. One golf program. Multiplied across careers, cohorts, and industries. A gain for all.
Give to Gain in Action: Cambridge Judge Business School and the Mentorship Multiplier
Peer Mentoring That Crosses Disciplines and Borders
At Cambridge Judge Business School, the Give to Gain theme is being expressed through structured mentorship at scale. In March 2025, MBA students Jose Francisco Zubizarreta Rodriguez and Olivia Jenkins launched the MBA–MPhil Mentoring Programme, a student-designed initiative connecting MBA mentors with MPhil mentees across 11 countries and multiple industries.
More than 35 mentees benefited from guidance on career planning, interview preparation, and, critically, network access. One participant reflected that the program provided “tailored advice and access to networks I wouldn’t otherwise have reached.” This is a quiet but profound statement about what mentorship actually transfers. It is not just information. It is connection. It is the opening of doors that might otherwise remain closed.
This is giving at its most direct: experienced students giving time, insight, and networks to those earlier in their journey. And the gain? A more connected and more confident cohort of future (women) leaders.
Women’s Voices: Building the Table, Then Adding Seats
Cambridge’s student-led Women & Gender Equality Special Interest Group (SIG) takes the Give to Gain theme and makes it communal. The SIG brings together women and allies for mentorship, leadership development, and the kind of honest, generative dialogue that shapes careers and cultures.
The SIG’s own mission statement captures the spirit of IWD 2026 with striking clarity:
“If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair — and while you’re there, pull up a seat for another woman.”
Women & Gender Equality Special Interest Group – Cambridge Judge Business School
That is Give to Gain distilled to its essence: securing your place and then using it to create space for others.
Female Founders Day: Investing in the Next Generation of Leaders
Cambridge’s entrepreneurship ecosystem puts Give to Gain to work for women building businesses. In June 2025, the Female Founders Day and Peer Mentoring event brought together women entrepreneurs with experienced founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders. The event included one-to-one mentoring, pitch feedback, and panel discussions. More than 70 founders, investors, and leaders attended the broader Accelerate Cambridge Female Founders Day.
Astrophysics doctorate Dr. Ghina M Halabi, when reflecting on the event, offered a rallying call that speaks directly to the IWD 2026 theme,
“Progress doesn’t come from saying what’s expected — it comes from questioning what’s accepted and daring to rebuild what’s broken.”
Dr. Ghina M Halabi – Cambridge Judge Business School
Spaces like Female Founders Day are where the giving happens. Experienced founders giving time, investors giving access, and the entire ecosystem gaining from a stronger pipeline of diverse entrepreneurial talent.
Why Give to Gain Benefits All of Society, Not Just Women
It would be a mistake to frame these initiatives as acts of women helping women. The evidence points to something far more significant.
Give to Gain Global GDP
When women access leadership networks, companies make better decisions. When women receive mentorship, they go on to mentor others, multiplying the original investment. When women-led businesses receive investment and support, they create jobs, drive innovation, and generate economic growth. McKinsey estimates that advancing women’s equality could add $12 trillion to global GDP. That is not a women’s issue. That is an economic imperative.
Give To Gain, Not A Zero-Sum Game
The Oxford Said and Cambridge examples demonstrate that Give to Gain is not zero-sum. Patti Brown does not give access to women by taking it from men. Cambridge Judge’s mentors do not give time to mentees at the expense of their own advancement. These are acts of multiplication rather than division.
Future leaders gain when today’s leaders give mentorship. International Women’s Day 2026 is an invitation to understand this logic and to act on it.
How Organizations Can Live the Give to Gain Theme in 2026
The initiatives at Oxford and Cambridge are replicable. Here is what Give to Gain looks like at the organizational level:
Audit informal spaces. Where are business relationships actually built in your organization? Are women present and confident in those spaces? If not, design interventionssuch as Gals Who Golf that change that.
Build structured mentorship. The Cambridge MBA–MPhil model shows that peer-designed, structured mentoring programs deliver measurable value. Employee resource groups and mentorship schemes create the network access that accelerates careers.
Create intentional communities. The Women & Gender Equality SIG model, bringing allies and advocates together around a shared purpose, works at every scale, from startups to multinationals.
Invest in female entrepreneurship. Female Founders Days, pitch competitions, and investor matchmaking are not philanthropy. They are building pipelines for the next generation of business leaders.
IWD 2026: The Time to Give Is Now
International Women’s Day 2026 asks a simple question with a profound answer: what will you give so that others, and in turn, all of us, can gain?
Oxford Saïd Business School and Cambridge Judge Business School are already answering that question. Their initiatives show that the path to gender equity is not about lowering standards or redistributing finite resources. It is about opening doors, sharing networks, building confidence, and investing time in others. It is knowing that the return is a world in which talent is never wasted because of gender.
Give access. Give mentorship. Give your seat at the table, and pull up another chair for others.
That is the Give to Gain promise for IWD 2026. And it belongs to all of us.
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Vanya Maplestone has a Bachelor of Commerce with majors in Interactive Marketing and International Management and an honors degree in Digital Marketing from Deakin University, Australia. Professionally, she has worked in research, content creation, and digital marketing for over 10 years in five countries. More recently, she was the Head of Marketing at a private business school in Spain. Vanya is the Editor in Chief at MBAGRADSCHOOLS and MASTERGRADSCHOOLS.
