Worklogic Director Jodie Fox and Principal Consultant, Tanya Hunter write on International Women’s Day 2026 and this year’s theme – Give to Gain.
The theme for 2026 International Women’s Day is Give to Gain, emphasising the power of support and reciprocity. As I was reflecting on the theme, I thought of all of supportive women who have been so helpful though my professional life. It made me wonder if support and collaboration was a particularly ‘female’ trait.
Like me, some of you might have raised an eyebrow at the New York Times Opinion piece in November last year originally titled “Did women ruin the workplace?”*. Sigh. The premise of one of the conservative feminists interviewed for the piece was that men and women are fundamentally different at work, that these differences can be explained in the mists of evolution and that the ‘feminine vices’ that women display can be blamed with what is wrong with the workplace. 
Where to start…. ?!
But it’s not just the New York Times, I often come across the language of “male traits” and “female traits” when people are describing their culture at work. Women are collaborative. Men are competitive. Women gossip. Men are decisive. I’m not saying that socialisation patterns don’t exist, we are all shaped by the culture we grow up and live in. But every time I hear “men are…” or “women are…”, I can think of six counterexamples right away. The gender framework is an easy one to reach for, but it doesn’t explain the realities of difficulties at work.
In my experience working inside organisations, what looks like personality, or a ‘gender vice or virtue’, is often structural. Take gossip. It is frequently described as a female vice. Yet I have seen as many men gossip as women and with similar negative effects on fellow employees, the team and workplace culture. A 2019 study from the University of California concluded that men and women gossip at equal rates, both positively and negatively, although women engaged in more neutral gossip than men.[1]
Gossip thrives where information is scarce, where decisions are opaque, and where people feel removed from power and disengaged from control over their work. It is often less about gender and more about power — people trying to make sense of uncertainty, trade in knowledge and take control. It might be that historically it was more likely that groups of feminine workers were the ones who needed to use informal channels like gossip to understand what was going on. As the study above suggested, the idea that gossip is a negative thing that women do is a way of keeping women in their place, Moreover, classifying all social talk as gossip, also devalues the social information-sharing that helps build workplace culture.
Like gossip, collaboration is viewed as something women bring to the workplace. It is often described as a feminine virtue. While my personal experience has been of helpful female colleagues and mentors, I’m not convinced that women are especially collaborative. Collaboration is a function of psychological safety and maturity. Secure leaders collaborate. Clear systems enable collaboration. Shared values and purpose strengthens it.
The most collaborative professionals I’ve seen have not been defined by gender, but by confidence, generosity and a humility that recognises that we all have something to learn from each other. And that we are all better when we work to support and value each person’s contribution. Valuing collaboration, emotional intelligence and inclusivity are positive leadership traits, and are not restricted to one gender.
The feminism I sign up to is not about assigning traits from Mars and Venus. It is about building workplaces that are fair, transparent and adult. Let’s stop telling women what they are like. Let’s stop telling men what they are like. Instead, let’s help people, no matter how they identify, to build ways of working that support everyone in the workplace. Let’s start valuing collaboration as a positive behaviour that builds capability and understanding across teams. The future of work is not masculine or feminine.
The future of work is human.
*Later the title was changed to “Did Liberal Feminism ruin the workplace” – the first title captured the premise more accurately.
[1] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550619837000