My mother couldn't get a credit card. Here’s how far we’ve come.

March 8, 2026 was International Women’s Day, and it reminds me of the progress we’ve made — and the setbacks we’re facing. It can be hard to see change when it happens slowly and unevenly. But we can understand it better by looking back 50 years and reflecting on everything women have achieved — and the immense challenges we’ve overcome.

It’s been 50 years since my mother entered the workforce, ambitious to build a career. But in 1966, when my mom started out, women almost never became managers. They rarely entered professions like doctor or lawyer. When my mom’s brother became a doctor, that job felt out of reach for her. Instead, she trained as a social worker, then a teacher.

My mother was also an ardent feminist. She tried to instill in us what she believed were essential principles. Never wear makeup. Never shave your legs. Never fall in love with a man, because he will have too much power over you. Do marry a man, though, so you have legal protection.

As a teenager, I rebelled against all of it. I fell in love, I went to nightclubs, I wore a great deal of makeup. I pushed back against what felt like rigid and unnecessary rules for being a strong, independent woman.

Years later, I understood why my mom felt she needed to be so absolute. Independence was more fragile then. Women were vulnerable, economically and legally, in ways that are difficult to imagine now. For example, in the 1960s, women couldn’t apply for credit in their own names, and marital rape was legal in every U.S. state.

Reflecting on the last 50 years helps me feel more hopeful: In most of the world, women have made real, albeit slow, progress.

But the setbacks we’re facing are real, too. After years of slowly narrowing, the gender pay gap in the U.S. widened in 2025. Last year also saw women leave the U.S. workforce at historic rates. And nearly half of the companies in our Women in the Workplace report say that advancing women is no longer a priority. I’m sure many of you can feel it in your workplace and in the broader culture.

Those shifts matter: they shape how hopeful women feel about striving to advance. I feel it too. And setbacks don’t land evenly: For some women, they mean lost opportunities. For others, setbacks mean exposure to poverty or violence.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is Give to Gain. That message can feel complicated in this moment, when some women feel they don’t have anything left to give. And yet, research shows that mutual support not only carries movements through their hardest stretches—it can also strengthen the people offering the support.

If you have energy to give, use it to support other women. Advocate for a colleague. Check in on a woman who is struggling.

Fifty years ago, my mother stepped into a workplace that forced women to hide their ambition, to accept low pay, and to tolerate legal vulnerability and even violence. Progress since then has been an uphill battle, but it has been real. Our work now is to keep it moving.