equality
Our Inspirations
March 8, 2020
Happy International Women’s Day!
Women in Work is all about empowerment!
What a perfect day to talk about our personal inspirations and the women who continue
to encourage us to be the best we can. There
are so many individuals who deserve recognition today, but these are some of the main ones that inspire us!
Elena Cossar (President); Emma Watson
‘If you want to run
for prime minister, you can. If you don’t, that’s wonderful, too. Shave your
armpits, don’t shave them, wear flats done day, heels the next. These things
are so irrelevant and surface to what it is all really about, and I wish people
wouldn’t get caught up in that. We want to empower women to do exactly what
they want, to be true to themselves, to have the opportunities to develop.
Women should feel free. ‘’- Emma Watson
I find Emma Watson incredibly
inspiring, she was appointed as a UN Women Goodwill ambassador
in 2014, working hard for a campaign initiated by the UN called HeForShe
calling for the advancement of gender equality, encouraging both genders to
partake as agents of change and take action against negative stereotypes and
behaviors. What I love about Emma Watson is that she actively stands up for
her beliefs and is pushing for a change that is so important for feminism and
men and women as a whole! She highlights that it is not about superficial issues
and about empowerment and equality.
Lucie Davies (vice president); Princess Diana is my inspiration purely down to
her charity work- she helped so many- I saw a website that said that she did charity
work for sick children, the banning of landmines and for raising awareness
about those affected by cancer, HIV/AIDS and mental illness, and I really want
a career in the future that will enable me to help people grow and develop and I
think her work breaking barriers by shaking hands with people with aids without
gloves just broke down so many barriers and worried around the idea of
spreading aids at the time and I think that was amazing!
A good quote of hers is ‘’Everyone
needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back.’’ Which I
really value because I think society would be much better if we all looked out
for each other and did more acts of kindness!
Kerry Wilson (Events Manager); Katherine Johnson
“We needed to be assertive as
women in those days - assertive and aggressive - and the degree to which we had
to be that way depended on where you were. I had to be.” -Katherine Johnson
Katherine
Johnson is an inspirational woman. In 1953, Katherine joined NASA as what was
then called a human computer. She was part of the National Advisory Committee
for Aeronautics.
Katherine’s
career had such in impact in history. In 1961 Kathrine’s calculations mapped
the trajectory of the first American in space. Also in 1970, the Apollo 13 era,
Katherine worked on emergency procedures that were vital when part of the main
spacecraft exploded. The astronauts had to use the lunar module as a lifeboat to
return to Earth. Katherine’s Math skills also came into action on the space
shuttle plans for Mars missions.
Katherine
Johnson accomplished so much in her career in-spite of discrimination her and
her colleges faced. The release of the movie “Hidden Figures” educated many on
the important action she implicated to sexism and racism in science and
engineering at NASA.
Katherine recently passed but will always stay a celebration
in the hearts of millions.
Lily Mckenna (Treasurer); Grace Beverly-
A woman who started her career
through Youtube whilst undertaking a degree at Oxford, to achieving a first-class degree whilst simultaneously being the CEO and founder of Two multimillion-pound businesses; Tala, which is thought to be worth £6.7billion within the
next 5 years; and B_nd. Grace has a passion for making her products ethically
sources, with everything being made vegan, cruelty-free and sustainable. Her
hard work and commitment inspires me to believe if you put your mind to it,
you can achieve anything.
We hope you all feel empowered today and continue working towards your goals and dreams!
The Women in Work Committee. x
Women in Finance- The Charter and a Step in the Right Direction
November 1, 2019
Jobs in the financial sector,
specifically high-up executive roles, have historically been dominated by men
and… still are today. BUT, steps are being made to break down this ‘norm’! The
Women in Finance Charter (see here), launched by the Government back
in 2016, is domestically leading the way on such change.
The initiative kicked off after an
eye-opening collaborative investigation between the Government and former
Virgin Money CEO, Jayne-Anne Gadhia on the representation of women in senior
managerial roles within the financial sector. The review revealed that only a
poor 14% of Executive Committees comprised of women –VERY disappointing! However,
action was taken and Her Majesty’s Treasury (where I spent the academic year
2018/19 undertaking a work placement) launched the Women in Finance
Charter.
For my placement year I was based in
the Financial Stability Department, working with the Macroprudential and
International Standards Branch. My role involved me liaising with externals
from the likes of the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority. Even
though I started work a few years into the Charter being launched, I was
sceptical about how many women I would come across in the workplace – yes there
may be more at high-level but what about working level?
Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Of
course, if Government are to start such a campaign then they need to be a good
role model, and they sure are. In regard to working level staff (so those at my
level eg the Economists, Analysts and Policy Leads) I experienced a close to
fair gender balance at HMT, the Bank, and the FCA. And for high-level, so
Branch, Team and Department Managers, I did not call out any wild ratios. Yes,
things could still be improved but it was a very promising picture to look
at!
There are now over 330 firms across
financial services signed up to the commitments of the charter. When an
organisation signs up then they are pledging to promote gender diversity by:
- Having one member of the senior executive team
who is responsible and accountable for gender diversity and inclusion;
- Setting internal targets for gender diversity
in senior management;
- Publishing progress annually against these
targets in reports on their website;
- Having an intention to ensure the pay of the
senior executive team is linked to delivery against these internal targets
on gender diversity.
If you would like to find out more
about The Charter, such as who has signed up, HMT’s commitment and more
information on The Charter guidance, then please click here and check out the GOV.UK website.
Similarly, if you are passionate about anything discussed in this post and want to participate in more conversations surrounding women in finance come along to our next event!
Women in Work and the Economics Society are holding a joint discussion on the Women in Finance Charter on Wednesday the 13th of November 5pm in MB1019. More information can be found via the event page on facebook.
Women in Work and the Economics Society are holding a joint discussion on the Women in Finance Charter on Wednesday the 13th of November 5pm in MB1019. More information can be found via the event page on facebook.
Lydia Gallyer-Barnett 3rd year Business Economics.
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