In conversation with Akanksha Deo Sharma

That the biggest barriers for women are still structural, not personal.

As an Indian creative living in Scandinavia, I move between two very different realities. In one, systems actively support women’s autonomy through childcare, parental leave, legal protections, and public safety. In the other, millions of women are still negotiating permission to study, to work outside the home, to travel alone, to choose a partner, or to delay marriage. In parts of India and other parts of the world, a girl’s future can still hinge on family honor, economic pressure, or safety concerns.

Where these supports are weak or absent, enormous energy goes into adapting, negotiating, and staying safe before ambition even enters the picture.
The truth in 2026 is that women are still held back by the weight of structural friction around their lives and the question is whether societies are willing to redesign systems so women can actually exercise their capabilities and have equal opportunities to act on them.

I would redesign the systems around health, work, and care so that women are not treated as an afterthought.

Reading Invisible Women really stayed with me. Women’s bodies are still under researched, from pain and disease to sports science and fertility. Even today, much of medicine is built on data from men, which means women are often misdiagnosed, dismissed, or simply not studied enough.

Then there is the career penalty. Women earn less largely because they take time off for childbirth and caregiving. In Scandinavia, social policies like parental leave and childcare show that when society shares this responsibility, the gap narrows. I often think about how versions of this could work in countries like India, where women are entering the workforce in large numbers but support systems lag behind.

So the system I would redesign and address is both structural and cultural.