When I was designing the poster, I wanted to focus on the idea that women’s strength comes from supporting one another. I thought about how International Women’s Day is celebrated globally, so I used the Earth as a central element to show that this solidarity crosses borders and cultures, and shaped it into a heart for the universal symbol of love and life.

The different hands represent women from diverse backgrounds, cultures and communities, and the fact that they’re all holding the symbolic earth puzzle pieces together shows that no one person carries the movement alone — it’s something we build collectively to create something whole and powerful. Each hand has delicately painted nails of very specific, symbolic colours;

Blue for stability, trust and wisdom. Red for passion, love, energy, and power.

Yellow for happiness, optimism, hope but also caution.

Pink for nurturing, innocence, and a delicate nature.

And purple for not only creativity and mystery, but also for it’s long association to International Women’s Day. All these represent feelings and aspects every woman collectively holds.

I included leaves and flowers around the image to represent growth, resilience, and hope. These natural elements symbolise how solidarity helps communities flourish and how women’s collective action can nurture positive change in the world.

Overall, the poster reflects the idea that strength isn’t just individual power - it’s the power that comes from connection, cooperation, and standing together. I wanted the feeling of the poster to be hopeful, inclusive, and empowering, reflecting global sisterhood and shared experiences across the world that directly ties to the International Women’s Day theme of “Strength in Solidarity”.

The winner of our Strength in Solidarity poster competition is Caitlin Joyce!

Runner up - Tara Russell

‘My poster for International Women’s Day lives right at the heart of ‘Strength in Solidarity’. Every element is doing its own small job, but together they form something powerful — a visual reminder that strength isn’t just individual; it’s shared, layered, and multiplied when we stand beside one another. The flowers and butterflies represent the quiet, steady growth that happens when women support women. They bloom across my poster as a reminder that solidarity nurtures strength — that we flourish not in isolation, but in community. The speech bubbles filled with symbols — the raised‑fist feminism icon, the puzzle pieces, the fingerprints, the reaching hands — show how many different identities, struggles, and stories come together to build collective power. Each bubble is a voice, a perspective, a lived experience. Alone, they’re meaningful. Together, they’re unstoppable. Likewise, the hands rising at the bottom bring the message home. Different skin tones, different shapes, all reaching upward with blue hearts glowing in their palms. They’re like a crowd stepping forward as one — a community choosing courage, choosing compassion, choosing each other. That’s solidarity in strength: not uniformity, but unity. My poster celebrates the idea that when women lift one another, amplify one another, and honour one another’s stories, the result is a force that can’t be ignored.’

Runner up - Ailbhe Mallon

“United Within: Strength in Solidarity”

My poster explores solidarity as collective strength built through diversity. The overall silhouette forms the shape of a fist — representing resistance, unity, and shared power. For me, real change begins in how we think, how we support one another, and how we actively choose to stand together.

Inside the silhouette are women from different cultures, professions, generations, and identities — connected rather than separate. Each faceless figure represents not one individual, but every woman. By removing defining facial features, I wanted the focus to be on collective identity rather than individuality alone.

The flowing purple lines symbolise the invisible bonds between us — shared struggles, shared victories, and intergenerational strength. Purple, long associated with women’s rights movements, reinforces the themes of justice, dignity, and unity.

This year’s theme, “Strength in Solidarity,” reminds us that unity doesn’t mean sameness — it means recognising that our differences strengthen us when we stand together.