Investing in Women Accelerates Progress for Everyone—International Women’s Day 2026
The world is making steady progress toward gender parity. According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2025, 68.8% of the gap has closed—but at the current pace, full parity is still 123 years away. As International Women’s Day (IWD) marks its 115th year this March 8, the milestone is a reminder that momentum matters. We’ve come a long way over the last century, but there’s still real work ahead for the next one.
This year’s IWD theme, #GiveToGain, puts a fine point on it: It celebrates the “social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women” while also recognizing how much more is possible when we invest in one another. By giving, we gain. This is how we scale momentum toward parity.
Many of the greatest breakthroughs—by women and by people of all genders—were made possible by networks of support. When we build networks of support that empower people to reach their highest potential, society wins.
Below are three examples of women in science over the last century whose achievements were amplified by the support systems around them:
1. Marie Curie: Chemist and Physicist, First Female Nobel Prize Winner (Physics 1903), First Person to Be a Two-Time Nobel Prize Winner (Chemistry, 1911)
Before she became a two-time Nobel laureate, Marie Curie was Maria Skłodowska, a young woman in Russian-occupied Poland where higher education was banned for women. Her family was financially challenged through the iron grip of the Tsarist regime.
Foundational to her life’s work, was an early agreement she made with her sister, Bronya. Curie took jobs as a private teacher and governess to financially support her sister through medical school. Bronya completed her studies and repaid the favor. Curie moved to Paris and enrolled at the Sorbonne.
The sisters’ pact of mutual support—an example of women helping women—not only uplifted each sister, but it enabled Curie to pursue advanced studies in physics and mathematics. From that opportunity flowed her discoveries of polonium and radium, foundational work on radioactivity to break an early glass ceiling—the Nobel Prize.
Marie Curie trained and worked with a significant number of young women scientists at her Radium Institute, including Marguerite Perey, whom she took on as a personal assistant and helped learn how to isolate radioactive elements early in her career. Curie also influenced her daughter Irène Curie’s scientific development, encouraging her to conduct experiments that contributed to the discovery of artificial radioactivity and later to a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
2. Chien-Shiung Wu: Physicist
Chien-Shiung Wu’s path in physics was shaped by her family. Her father, Wu Zhong-Yi, championed girls’ education and founded the Mingde Women’s Vocational Continuing School, which Wu attended, inspiring her academic ambitions to achieve the highest levels of education.
After earning her degree at National Central University, Wu was encouraged by physicist Jing-Wei Gu to study abroad when opportunities in China were limited. With financial help from an uncle, she went to the United States in 1936 for graduate study at the University of California, Berkeley.
Wu later designed the experiment that disproved parity conservation, transforming particle physics. Although her male colleagues received the Nobel Prize, snubbing her pivotal contribution, her pioneering work in physics earned her worldwide recognition and continues to inspire generations of women scientists.
In her long career as a professor and researcher, Wu mentored emerging scientists, becoming a role model for women in STEM and advocating broadly for girls in science and technology.
3. Katherine Johnson: Mathematician, American Human Computer
Katherine Johnson’s career in mathematics was profoundly shaped by the mentors who recognized and nurtured her talent. At West Virginia State College for instance, young mathematics professor W. W. Schiefflin Claytor saw exceptional promise in Johnson. He not only told her she “would make a great research mathematician” but also ensured she was prepared for that path by tailoring advanced coursework—creating a class in analytic geometry specifically to challenge and inspire her.
After graduating summa cum laude in 1937, Johnson eventually joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)—later NASA—where she became part of the West Area Computing section under the supervision of Dorothy Vaughan, another pioneering mentor and leader. Vaughan’s support helped Johnson navigate the technical and cultural challenges of a segregated workplace, enabling her to take on increasingly complex work.
At NASA, Johnson’s deep mathematical expertise and continued collaboration with engineers placed her in key roles on historic missions. She famously verified orbital calculations for John Glenn’s Friendship 7 flight and computed trajectories for the Apollo lunar missions—contributions that were vital to the success of the U.S. space program. Her mentors helped open doors, but Johnson’s own brilliance and persistence kept her advancing in a male dominated field. Today her legacy continues to inspire students and professionals in STEM, showing how guidance and opportunity together can launch extraordinary achievement.
Across the most celebrated people in science, breakthroughs rarely happen in isolation—they’re powered by networks of sponsors who open doors, mentors who legitimize talent, and institutions that provide access to resources and credibility. Behind the scenes, practical support from family and collaborators often makes the difference between raw potential and sustained impact.
IWD 2026 #GiveToGain is a call to action: To advocate, promote, educate, mentor/sponsor and give financially and/or volunteer at nonprofits supporting women and girls—there are many ways to participate. At SiTime, we believe everyone should have a shot at success. Our culture celebrates diversity. Our imperative to drive meaningful change starts with nurturing an environment where employees can step forward and take on new challenges, including outside of our organization through our Volunteer Time Off (VTO) program to strengthen the wider communities where we live. As we strive to uphold a spirit of #GiveToGain, last year SiTime supported youth by donating over 350 backpacks and 2,500 STEM kits to students—an increase of more than 100% from the previous year.
There is a famous maxim that luck occurs when preparation meets opportunity. In the drive toward gender parity, what if we stopped waiting on luck and instead intentionally cultivated greater preparation and more opportunities through a network of giving, collaboration and support? That’s the heart of #GiveToGain. When we invest in women and girls, it is a multiplier for progress—Communities grow stronger, innovation accelerates and everyone benefits.