Notes from a Year of Becoming

As the year quietens around us, we pause to let the dust of many months settle, to breathe, and to listen more closely to what this time has asked of us. At GenderSphere, 2025 has been a year of crossing thresholds: of unbecoming and becoming, and slowly shaping ourselves into an identity that feels true to our values and to what our hearts are asking of us.

This work has unfolded on difficult ground. We are living through a moment where the earth itself is severely strained, civic spaces continue to shrink, polarisation sharpens, and feminist work is asked to do more with less- less safety, less certainty, and less resourcing. These pressures have touched us deeply, making this first year of transition both demanding and humbling.

We have built and grown amidst a world that feels heavy. And yet, we have also witnessed something enduring: the quiet persistence of feminist solidarity. It’s the courage with which so many of you continue to hold space, imagine alternatives, care for one another, and stay rooted in dignity and justice. This shared steadfastness, even when it has been hard, has made this year feel survivable. We stand beside you with gratitude, respect, and a grounded commitment to keep going together.

Across regions and movements, we have seen courage, imagination, and care held together, even in difficult times. Our work this year has been nourished by widening circles, particularly across the Global South. From South and Southeast Asia to Africa, the Arab States, and Latin America, our partners whose wisdom has reminded us that feminist imagination travels across borders, languages, and histories, that learning is always reciprocal, and hope travels through connection.

Closer home in India, reflection spaces and learning journeys with women’s rights formations have held mirrors up to us, showing how vulnerability, political clarity, and resistance are woven together in everyday feminist practice. Such learning moments have shaped GenderSphere as much as any formal plan or strategy.

At GenderSphere, this year has been held by a shared belief among us that transitions, when held with care, can be grounding. We have leaned into the quiet joy of creating something new from shared values. We are deeply held by those who have journeyed with us in this year of becoming. Arundhati, Apoorva, Zarka, Malathi, Sudarsana, Asmita, Shraddha and Vandana each have shaped this work through presence, labour, insight, and steadiness. Some have offered thought-partnership, some have held the centre of daily rhythms, some have anchored us through care and systems, but none of this work stands alone. And to those whose contributions are quieter, less visible, yet essential, we offer our heartfelt gratitude. Their presence has been the gentle current beneath everything we have built this year.

As we move into a new year, we carry a hope that feels both tender and firm, that we continue to build with intention, question power with honesty, care deeply for ourselves and one another in these uncertain times, and keep faith with feminist futures. We look forward to staying rooted in the ecosystems of movements held by relationships maturing slowly, intentionally, and in conversation.

Like the earth moving through seasons, we are learning to trust the rhythm of pause and possibility; to return to breath, to listening, to beginnings that do not rush themselves.

As Audre Lorde reminds us, “Without community, there is no liberation.”