Celebrating International Women’s Day

International Women's Day (IWD), March 8, is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality. ?

IWD has occurred for well over a century, with the first IWD gathering in 1911 supported by over a million people. Today, IWD belongs to all groups collectively everywhere, it is not country, group or organisation specific.?

This year we held an informal panel discussion with UK Finance colleagues to explore a range of topics related to how we can support women in the workplace and women’s health and wellbeing. Our approach is always about story telling as this is a powerful way to discuss Diversity and Inclusion of which I, as executive sponsor, care deeply about, and we didn’t shy away from issues that happen to?women but have an impact on all.

It was great to bring people from across the organisation who may not interact day to day, but who were able to sit down and discuss their shared experiences and give valuable insight into ways they found support, courage and helped others. ?

We covered topics such as caregiving, and the challenges that it brings for people, be it juggling work and caregiving, distanced caregiving or the reprioritisation it brings to your life. ?

We also discussed the power of sharing experiences and building a community around them. Last year one colleague created a new network based on their experience of perimenopause. Now it has grown into a safe space for both male and female colleagues to join and learn how to help and support someone who is going through perimenopause/menopause. ?

Throughout the event we had input from male colleague allies. They shared?personal experiences of?supporting women at work (or returning to work) as well as understanding wellbeing.??

Being in the financial services sector, we work in a majority male industry, therefore it’s important to have these discussions with all colleagues and explore ways in which we can all contribute to the theme of this year’s IWD, accelerating gender equality. ?

A big thank you to our panellists on the day Beth Foster , Darren J , Georgia Blood , Hannah Armstrong , Julie S. , and Matthew Hall .

Author: Julie Carruthers is our Managing Director, Memberships and Strategic Partnerships. Julie is also our Diversity and Inclusion Champion at UK Finance. ?