IWD 2026: Rights, Justice, Action

We centre International Women’s Day by dropping the fluff and focusing on rights, justice, and action for women and girls. We name the weight of the moment, then show how rest, boundaries, and strategy turn exhaustion into sustainable courage and change.

• honouring women’s stories and why visibility shifts language and policy
• navigating triggers and practising body-led boundaries
• gathering with women to regulate, plan, and act
• ethical choosing with money, media, and attention
• workplace solidarity and the 3.5 percent tipping point
• rest, sleep, and nervous system care as resistance
• perimenopause, caregiving stress, and practical regulation
• closing with the poem We See You and an invite to share stories

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:30

And this week is no different. It's much more women's day. And the outline state. We're not celebrating. There's no cupcakes. And we are not buying any commercial merch. We are only focusing on the message of this year's theme. Which is rights, justice, action for all women and girls. The rest, who knows what we're gonna say. This episode is for all the women who are fighting for justice, to all the women showing up regardless of the multiple issues that are impacting them. It's for all the women living in fear, and to all of the women who lead and embody change. We see you and we honour you. And to all the mothers and grandmothers, aunties and besties who are role modelling love and respect, and to the carers, the nurturers, the creators, the activists, the communicators, the space holders, the healers, you are the heartbeat of our community.

Naming The Theme: Rights And Justice

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Well, I would say that it's feeling quite hard right now, and it feels like the world is imploding, that we're witnessing some of the worst atrocities. Well, they happened a long time ago, some of them, but we're actually seeing it for the first time now, and that justice is moving far too slowly. Yet even as we see brutality, we can unite in our strength and solidarity as sisters, friends, and leaders. Women who have huge hearts and kind minds. This episode is for the rebels with causes, who care about principles, integrity and their value, and who are learning that self-care, sleep, and skills are not luxuries, but they're the fuel for sustained, courageous leadership. I also want to celebrate all of the courageous women who are stepping forward and telling their stories. Stories that would have in the past been swept under the rug, that would have never ever seen the light of day or been given airtime. We are now hearing women's stories for the first time, I feel. Women like Giselle Pellicott's amazing interview with the BBC, to Louise Thompson, who was lobbying for better care in maternity during labour and postpartum. And of course, Georgie Wilman, who won a batter for the for her film This is endometriosis. I'm wearing leopard skin today. This is my way of showing up as a rebel. Um, Lucy, let's get into it. Let's start with the first questions. How do we keep fighting for justice without abandoning our own bodies, taking rest, and focusing on our emotional well-being?

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Oh, this is a big one, isn't it? Because every single woman I am speaking to and with over the last few weeks, they're they're almost like they're just frazzled. That's probably the best word. They're functioning, but it's almost like you know, they're just on high alert, they're exhausted. Quite a few women are getting poorly. Um, and I'm noticing that whether it's coming down with colds or you know, pain is just coming forward because we are holding so much, and I keep saying the same message. We can't make the change, we can't, you know, do the important work if we're all just too mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. Um, and so I've got to say I've been doing quite well. I think last year I noticed how much information was coming into my life. So I started this year saying I'm really going to be discerning about the how much news or social media or how many conversations that I have that actually aren't adding value and also being really conscious about the times of the day which I consume stuff. So it's really about having some boundaries. Um it's yeah, I'm gathering with a lot more women. Um, they are the people I'm allowing to come into my boundaried area, and each and every one of them, every one of those conversations, it comes from a place of fear and frazzled and bewilderment. But actually, when we start conversing, it gives me so much hope. And I feel like that there's a different energy this year to what it was last year, but again, above anything, keep calm, stay grounded, you know, because we can't have exhausted women when we need women's energy more than ever.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Absolutely, and we do need, I think, just to make it really clear to everybody listening, we do need space to process what we're seeing, what we're hearing, what we're learning. You know, we can't we are not built to just keep pushing forward, it's just not how we are. We hold so much more and we feel it deeply, you know. We are the carriers, and so for that, we have to be able to take space and time in a different way. For me, my heart has been really impacted, and I've been crying a lot more because I've been watching things and it's been moving me so deeply that I've been, you know, um it's like I can feel there's a a need for tears, but I'm also you know, I'm also sort of saying to myself, actually, I don't really want to cry because that's painful. But then when I watch something like I watched Giselle's interview, you know, though I just cried because I was and then I was like, that was so lovely. Like I don't mean it in loving like I felt I felt so deeply enough, and those tears were really needed and they needed to come, and I felt a sense of relief, you know, and the way she talked about rape and the way she talked about sexual crimes is so powerful, you know. It's it's the language that she uses, it's her power, her strength, and also how women respond to her. For me, it's just um that's what happens when we unite and come together in the right way. And I feel like for us to think that we we can just push through and you know, comportmentalize and all those sort of phrases, I don't think that is what we're here to do, actually. I think we're here to grieve, to mourn, to shout, say.

Holding Grief And Finding Solidarity

SPEAKER_00 6:36

Well, she's a really good example, and she talks about it in her interview about pace, because she said for the first four years, well, you know, after he'd been arrested to when the trial started, it was about four years, and she said she wasn't ready then to um say her name and you know, waive her right to anonymity, and then she did, and then she obviously got the support, but then after that, then she needed to go away and heal, and we didn't hear anything of her. She went eventually and wrote her book and stuff, but she then needed time to rehabilitate herself and refin herself, and now she's taken another wave, and this is again just the way of it's probably humanity, but definitely the way of the woman, where we go in cycles and we heal and we move forward. One of the things that I'm finding is that with every new story that comes out, it's it is triggering me. And I say that in the way of you know, a lot of these things directly have never happened to me. However, things have happened to women. Every single woman has got a story about whether she's felt unsafe or she's been misbelieved or she's actually been assaulted or attacked or bullied or something, and hearing some of these stories will resurface stuff. And I think because we're hearing so many of these stories, it's just like like we've talked about in other episodes, it's like we can't contain it anymore, it's just there, and so that's been really important for me to say, oh, okay, I'm feeling this because I'm triggered. Where has that come from? And just allow myself to pause um because I think there's a lot of triggered people walking around right now and just don't know what to do with it.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Absolutely, and this is where I go back into boundaries as well, because you mentioned boundaries, but you know, I have quite I have well, I have good boundaries and I have a very clear idea of what my boundaries are, and for me it's always a feeling in the body. Like when I get that feeling of no, a boundary is um letting me know that it's there. If that no then gets ignored, then that boundary is being crossed, and that's how I sort of like operate. Whereas before I didn't have boundaries, so it was like I was just this very open person, very open, very kind, very generous, you know, would give any. You still are, by the way. Yeah, I am still that for sure. Like I'll always be that person, however, I didn't have boundaries, whereas now I'll get a feeling for something if if something is becoming too much, or um, I'm getting sent too many things that are not serving me, um, or if someone is sort of taking up too much of my time and my space, it's like an infringement that starts to happen, and then I'll start to think, right, I've got a boundary coming up here, and my body is actually physically saying no to that. Um, it's not a personal thing often. It sometimes it might be that I don't like the person, that's a whole different thing. But what I now do is go, oh, that boundary speaking to me, like, what is that about? Do I need to go away, get some rest, or is this just a simple no exercise? Because what I want to be very clear about is by allowing myself to feel my nose and listening and honouring those no's, I can also think, well, what am I actually saying yes to? And I did this with a client last week. We did a whole session around no and yes, so simple. And she said, Oh my god, we've done so much deep work together. She said, But this is really deep. I said, The thing is, the body knows, and if you are brave enough to look back over your life and look at all the times your body said no and what you did about it, you're gonna learn a lot of things and you're gonna realise that your body was always telling you the truth. And now there comes a part of ourselves that then we have to identify or actually say to ourselves, my body knew, but I didn't listen. Um, and then we have to do the healing work around that, and I do think it's a big journey.

Triggers, Boundaries, And The Body’s No

SPEAKER_00 10:28

This is where the justice piece comes in, uh, which is part of the the theme for International Women's Day. Um, because actually the justice is about fairness, about where we've been wronged, and what I'm seeing and feeling and experiencing is that women are gathering, um, whether it's on social media, whether it's walks in the park, talking to friends, um, we're starting to gather because we're having very common experiences where we're all feeling these yeses and no's, the ones that we felt we had to say yes to when actually our bodies were telling us no, we're getting those physical reactions, yeah, and it's almost like this collective womanhood experience is coming forth, and we're like, okay, you know, we're gonna have to do something with this because we can't suppress it anymore. Too many women collectively at the same time are having the same experience, and I know that I'm getting great calmness but also great courage from gathering with women. Um, and I just want to encourage all the listeners to do a few things that might support them while they're going through this collective, whether it's an awakening or rage or whatever it is we're feeling, probably all of it. Um, but yeah, gather around women and support content by women. So when you are doom scrolling, make sure that you're taking in the right kinds of information. Um, you and I both love being out in nature to really ground ourselves because actually it makes us realise that there's a lot of beauty and there's a lot of, you know, this is just another season, another cycle that we're going through. Hug someone, hug your dog, hug a loved one, because also we need that oxytocin um coming in to kind of stabilize us. And the other thing is go get crafty, create something, write some poetry, do some crochet, um, paint some rocks and go and leave them in the park and stuff. It's just that there are so many things that we can do that'll help us gather our energy for, and I want to say the fight, because it's not about a fight, but the change that we need, the justice that we need. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

I want to say that go through your bookcases and look at the books that you have and make sure the books that you've got are the books that you want in your house. I mean, I did a a s a very small cleanse and I got rid of the Deepak Chopra books that both myself and my husband own. Um, and we put them on the fire, and I put mine on the fire and he put his on the fire. He was adamant that he wanted to be part of that, and then we had this discussion about he said, Well, then we're gonna have the ash in the house in the fire. And I went, we can clear that bit out. I said, What is really important is that his books stop here, that we don't pass them on to someone else. I would always, always pass a book along to someone because I think they're really precious. But I was like, he doesn't deserve this these books to be passed along, so we end, we're ending it here because of his, you know, his name being mentioned in the Epstein files, I I think it's something like 3,000 times. Oh, of course. And some of his messages. So for me, there are small things that we can do that help us feel like we are making choices that um indirectly may affect them or may not affect them. But I can tell you now, if you stop buying products from these men and you stop supporting their work and stop, you know, and in fact, I'm I I'm just reminding myself I must stop following him because I probably am following him on um social media. So that's another action point for me to do as I come out of that. And we start cleansing and start filling those bookcases up with women's books written by women. I really now only I tend to only buy um female authors, I don't tend to buy um male authors anymore, and I stopped doing that um several years ago. So it's that kind of thing where we use our um purchasing power to make sure that we are buying from companies that support women, truly support women, um products that support women, authors that support women, and we really, really um do the female like down the line thing because I think that's so so important because women need more support in that way as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Yeah, and there's a lot of um conversations in my world around matriarchy, um, and people are still a bit nervous about talking about it because, like you know, people think it's the opposite of um patriarchy where women are the rulers, and it's absolutely not about that. It's about actually, you know, putting children, putting our planet, putting the animals, you know, right in the centre, and then we we create systems that support that. And actually, everything that you've just described is it's de-centering the men um who's who are trying to tell women how to live and how to dress, and that we're fat or we're ugly or we're aging, so that we go buy their products, we feel crap about ourselves, we buy their products and actually support the the companies who are actually investing in girls or women-led businesses around the world, or are actually championing change, or you know, uh being outspoken, or not at the very least, not doing any harm to women and girls around the world. And it's not that hard to find companies who are ethical and moral. And if you you're still struggling, just go and look at B Corp because that's kind of like the British standard of do no harm. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

So let's move into what it means to be a rebel with a cause in the workplace, especially if you're feeling afraid, exhausted, alone, overburdened, any of those.

Gathering Women And Ethical Choices

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Um the first thing that I think that came to my mind when you posed this question was again about women gathering. And so for equality or parity in the workforce, what we need is more people, more allies supporting women. But actually, it's going to start with women supporting women. So if you know that your female colleague is getting a hard time or has not got that request for work or flexible working, or is being told that they can't leave at three o'clock to take their child to an appointment or miss their sports day, or whatever the thing is that is just making it harder or it feels unjust, then actually stand by her. Um, and the more women who stand by her within the organization and say, actually that's wrong or that's not right, or I'm not happy about that, um, that's when change happens. And um there's this theory, which is that if only 3.5% of a population rises up and says, This isn't right, we don't like this, then actually change is almost like inevitable. So if in your workplace two, three, four, ten women all stand together and and start calling out the BS or the misogyny or the um the silencing of women, all of those things, actually, you can make a real change. So, again, it's back to women gathering, and as we start doing that, then we'll get more of our allies on board and we will change the cultures. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Well, there's loads of thoughts I've got. I think there's a lot about like taking care of ourselves first and listening to the emotions. I think when we see what's going on, like there's a waking awakening or a waking up that's happening, and I think we're women are waking up in mass. And so as you start to wake up, you're gonna see a lot of things because you've already basically saying, Okay, I I allow myself to now see. And when you do that, you start seeing things everywhere, and that can be actually quite scary if you're not in um not talking to other women or not in groups where you can share this sort of thing, it can feel really isolating because it's like, is can am I the only person who can see the elephant is in the room? Is no one else seeing this elephant in the room? You know, and everyone's going on as normal, but you can see it. And I think we have to be really strategic about how we go about that next step. And so I think that's that's the thing for me. Like, awaken, see the elephants in the room, you know, spot what's going on, and then you need to start aligning and you need to start being strategic. Because it with all the best will in the world to say, Well, I'm now going to go quit my job because I've seen that that's really unfair. Well, most women are not in a situation where they can do that.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

Those And that's not justice. That's not justice.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

No, and and because I think it I think we all go into that like extreme place of going, Well, I'll I will then I will then that's and I have had women do that, you know, they're so incensed that they go, right, I'm out. This is the final, like as I always talk about the breaking points. That's the final breaking point. Now that I've seen that thing and how unfair it is, I'm leaving, you know, and they they walk and that and I'm like, good for you, you know, but a lot of women are not going to do that. So therefore the strategy, which is what you're talking to as well, like, okay, if I was if this was a if this was a business challenge, how would I approach that? Like, what would I do to approach that? And how do we um mobilise? Which conversations need to be happening, with whom? And how can I, you know, um put a case together basically? Because women are brilliant when we see what's going on. This is the thing that I love about this is one of the main reasons why I work with women, is because when they see the crap, they're like that the eyes go up and they're like, oh my god, and then creativity flows and things start to happen, and we start aligning, and we're like, right, you know, and if I'm as I'm watching all the lobbying going on at the moment, you know, and seeing all the different things, all the different cases for endometriosis and period pain and um menopause, you know, now it's the maternity side of it. That's all driven by women who've had awful experiences, who are really, really, you know, like have been really hard at it, working with other women who for some reason have been called together, and look what's happening. So laws are changing. So that's basically, and I think just to not give up, like have hope because the reason that you're in that position or that seat and you're seeing it, it could be that you have something to do with the change.

SPEAKER_00 20:50

And I think that that's a really important point that you said right at the start, actually, about um feeling isolated. Um, that's kind of like how the powers that be want us to feel, they want us to feel like you're the only one, you're the you're the weirdo here, don't cause a fuss. Um, and it's been the way of women forever, which is why we were told about you know, mean girls or queen bees, um, everyone stabbing you in the back. And it's just not true. And the minute you start going, whether it's researching online, um, asking questions, reading books, or just talking to another woman, you will find pretty damn quick somebody else who is experiencing or thinking what you're thinking, and then you've got two of you, and you're not alone, and then you find a third and a fourth, and before you know it, you have got this aligned group who are willing to, you know, because there's so much courage when you stand shoulder to shoulder, arm to arm, and you do something. And I think that's the thing that I found through all of the women in my life, they just make me stronger, they make me more courageous, they make me more of a rebel because I'm like, okay, this is not just me. This is this is just too much. Um and that's scary. That's why they want to keep us separate because together we're we're powerful.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

I saw this post on um Instagram by Artie Jewell, who is she's a black influencer who is really well known in the beauty industry. And I remember from my beauty days, and she'd done this post, you know, saying, I n I'll never understand how how women um work with men to hurt other women. I am with her on that, I would never understand it. And she's described it in two ways, and she said, There are the girls that will hold your hair back when you've thrown up because you've had too much to drink, and there are the girls who will hold you down whilst the frat boys have a go. And I was like, you know, but I what I want to say here is I think we know which are in our camp and which ones aren't. I think we know that. I definitely know that. I know who are in my, you know, my group who are for women, and I know the ones that are not, and I I have a different strategy for those those women, and they're on their own path, and I'm on my path. And and live and let live is what I what I say, as long as um you know they take responsibility for their actions. That's where I go um with it. Because for the on the whole, every single experience I've had with women has been positive, but there have been some situations where they haven't been and they've left a mark. But I'm really good at spotting that, and that's where my boundaries come back in, you know, that kind of like yes to you, no to you. Um, it's really quite black and white in my body. My body's black and white in the way that it navigates me. It's like absolutely not 100% yes. Anything in the middle is likely to be a no.

Rebels At Work: Strategy Over Burnout

SPEAKER_00 23:35

But that inner rebel, I think we we've all suppressed it so much that we don't recognise it, and especially when our livelihood is attached to it, or we've got other women who are maybe in positions of authority, or they might be the mean girls, the the cliques. And so I understand why so many women think it's just me, but I just want everyone to know it's not just you, and you just need to go find the other women. And and like Karen says, trust your gut feeling because you know the women who are the goodens, um, they are everywhere, but you're probably not having conversations, just go invite them for if you work from home, a zoom coffee, or if you are in the workplace, just say, you know, do you want to go for lunch? Um, and just start building those relationships because we need them. That's Rich calling. Sorry, I'm just gonna drive. All right, he can be in the conversation.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

I pause I've now put my phone on silent. Let's continue.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Bless him.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Um, he's always involved in in our conversation somehow. Um let's move on to the next question. How can sleep, nervous system care, and skill building become radical acts of resistance?

SPEAKER_00 24:50

Ah it is quite radical to rest, isn't it? Even now I still feel guilty. Um if it's a Sunday afternoon and I'm just sat there reading in a calm room or binge watching something, I'm thinking I should be cleaning this, tidying that, doing you know, a whole list of should, should, shoulds. And um, and I just want to say our rest is absolutely essential because you're never gonna get the energy to fight for justice or move into action um to protect women and girls around the world if you're knackered, if you're distracted with the dishes or the laundry. I mean, you know, does I I don't think I've ironed in years because it's just something that I'm just like, this is not this is not adding value. And I am very lucky that I sleep well. I've always slept really, really well. Um, but I know so many women who are going through pen perimenopause who aren't sleeping, and and I just see how depleted they are, and they keep trying to carry on and carry on, and they are completely and utterly depleted. So, yeah, your rest and your recovery and your restoration, it's a life skill. And over you with your sleep.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

I need a lot of sleep, but uh because I've got a seven-year-old who really likes to still get in my bed, it is my sleep has just been destroyed since I became a mum. Um, you know, she she's all over the place with that. So I'm also all over the place with that. And no matter how much we try to, you know, settle her and do all I mean it's it's still a little sometimes it's like, oh my gosh, it's like she's still a baby, you know. Um, but she wants to come and you know get in bed with me sometimes, and you know, I go with that because I just go with it. But it does affect my forever. It won't be forever, but it has had a brutal effect on my sleep because then yeah, as I said, I need a lot. Um but what I've noticed that's been really interested interested, interesting, is that like last night it was absolute chaos downstairs. Catalina and Ernie, the puppy, like the carnage that those two create together, because he's high energy because he's a he's a cocker poo, and he's seven six months old, and she's seven, and her energy is wild as well. So them two, when they're in a room, you're like, and I could hear it downstairs, and I just thought, I'm not going downstairs. And so I shut the door in the bedroom. I built like a bit of a fort around me, even I was like, I'm not going down. Good for you. And I just sat there and I just I and it went on and on and on and on, and I just thought, I'm not going. There was a part of me that was like, You're not going down, you will stay here and let that unfold. And whatever happens, happens type thing. Now Rich was also downstairs, so they weren't totally on the house on their own. And I just left it, and I just and it's so unlike me because the usual me would be right in the middle of it, sorting it all out. We often separate them when it gets to a certain level of freneticness, um, because no no one like no one's winning in the house. Um, because we're all then, you know, all our nervous systems are on high alert. So yeah, and nothing nothing bad happened, you know. Of course it didn't. You just got two little spirits getting all excited. Actually, it's called joyfulness. It's called joyfulness, but if you were in the house, you'd be like, Oh my god, because me and me and Rich are just you know, I mean, his his body is falling to pieces at the moment because he's so rigid because of the tenseness. Um, and I'm you know, I also can get quite tight in my body. So we sh we are showing that we're carrying extra stress through how our bodies are feeling. So, you know, and both of us are a bit like, how do we how do we manage this? Because we've had four months of two crazy, like a crazy puppy and a crazy child together in the same room. So yeah, I'm not moaning about that, but what what I'm trying to say is there's a part of me now that is sort of sort of letting things slide and moving further back from things because I just think I'm it uh it's not serving me, so therefore I'm just gonna let it in the whole grand scheme of things is this, yeah, is this really important?

SPEAKER_00 28:58

I and I just you've sparked a memory in me. And it was um it was during the COVID years where we were all a little bit confined, and I'd hear my girls making all this racket, and to me it sounded like they were like properly arguing, and I'd storm into the room and say, Will you shut up? They were like, We were laughing, mum. I'm just like, Oh, I'm sorry. But I could feel myself getting more and more and more tense because yeah, you when you hear it through other walls, it sounds worse than probably what's actually going on. Um but yeah, I think when you are carrying a lot, even the small things, when they wind you up or they attack you, you know, you feel it in your body, it's another signal, isn't it? To say, oh, I do need this rest and I do need this recovery. And I'll just like for me, it's always been bath time. I make sure that when I'm overwhelmed, I just go into my bathroom and I just have lots of bubbles and I just have a good old soak for 45 minutes an hour. It's like a little cocoon for me. Um, but quite often in the evenings, um, well, in the winter evenings, I like candles and um, you know, I know you have your log fire, and it's about building that little safe space that actually is it's all quite natural, really, isn't it? You know, whether it's the candles or whether it's water or fire, whatever, surrounding yourself with the elements just to create that calmness. And it might only be for half an hour, it that might be all it is. Um, so my life honestly is quite calm, but I've chosen it to be that way. I filter things out, and I can honestly go quite quite often, you know, a good couple of days before I've realized I've even turned the telly on. Um so yeah, rest restore, but you've got to have a calming environment. And if that means you need to barricade yourself in the room, do it.

Rest As Resistance And Nervous System Care

SPEAKER_01 30:52

And I think that's my point to everyone listening because they're you know, there's gonna be so many women who will be thinking, Oh god, yeah, the barricade moment. Like, we do need to know when those when those moments are needed and take them because otherwise, what's what the other response I could have had was to would have been to go downstairs and start shouting. I was like, it's not gonna serve, they're both frenetic, I'm gonna be frenetic, and then I'm gonna throw that my freneticness, my rage, at them both. That's what's that going to do? Like, realistically, what's that gonna do? So intuitive.

SPEAKER_00 31:23

But equally, they were just having fun, they were they were happy, and you're gonna come in there because you can't, for whatever reason, you can't be with this freneticness, yeah, and you're the one that's gonna be the bringer of doom, creating even more chaos when actually they just needed a calm voice to say, Should we settle down now? Exactly. Um, and that's what I mean. It's like that nervous system, it's like we just go into a rage where actually calming ourselves, we make better choices, and you made a good choice.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Yeah, let them let them hate. And peromenopause, and that's the thing with that is that you know, there are certain things in peromenopause that are just triggers. Like for me, it's like sniffing, people sniffing, snoring, um, breathing, people breathe in heavily. They're all like little triggers for me. So certain things in terms of this state in peramenopause where I'm just like, oh my god, that's really like to the point where I literally want to shout, and I have to take myself off, and I have to go, right, come on, we're going into that room, we're going to do some breathing, or whatever we're gonna do, or we're just gonna sit, we're just gonna relax, and then we will go back out when you've had a you know, like a moment to moment sometimes it can be half an hour to calm back.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

But you know, you're taking what you need, so then you can like you know, back to the the International Women's Day theme of rights, justice, and action. You're you're calming yourself and you're doing whatever you need to do so you can take the right action. And I think this is really the message that we have to take action, but we need to do it in a really calm and regulated way. So um the the thread that's going through our conversation is is all about how do we rest, how do we restore, how do we calm ourselves down so we're ready for for the fight or for the action that needs to be taken. So we're going to start closing this conversation down now. Um, so I'm going to just read a few words and then I'm going to well, Karen and I are going to read a poem that was actually written by Karen. Um, so I just want to say to all the women who are fighting for justice, who are holding families, teams, and communities together while the world feels like it's cracking. We see you, we honour you. If the path looks lonely, it's not. It's time to unite and align with others. You might need a bit of courage to do so, to walk in that room or make a connection, but it is so worth it because we are not supposed to carry this alone. Um, not at the expense of your health, your sleep, your spirit, and being with others actually rejuvenates you. So we would love to hear your ideas about how you can restore, how you can uh take action, um, bring your stories to life so that it helps others and to be seen. So until next time, make contact, share your stories, um, but above all, rest, and we're going to leave you with this beautiful poem that you can tap into anytime.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

So the poem is called We See You. To all the women who are fighting for justice, for all the women showing up through a storm of invisible battles.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

To all the women living in fear, carrying courage in trembling hands, to all the women who lead and embody change when the room is not ready for their voice.

SPEAKER_01 34:48

To all the mothers role modelling love and respect in kitchens, wardrooms, hospital wards. To the carers, the nurturers, the creators, the activists, the communicators, the spaceholders, the healers, we see you.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

We honour you. Yes, it's hard right now. Yes, it feels like the world is imploding, like we are watching the worst atrocities unfold, and justice limps too slowly behind.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Yet, even as we witness brutality, we remember this. We can still unite in our strength and solidarity, as sisters, friends, leaders. A web of women refusing to look away. If the path looks lonely, it's a sign. It is time to walk together.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

We are building round tables and rooms for women, places where voices meet at eye level, where no one has to shrink to fit. Come and join us.

SPEAKER_01 35:49

Bring your grief, your rage, your devotion, and your beautiful heart. There is room for you here.