March 8, 2022
Imagine a gender equal world.
Today, International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrating women’s achievements, raising awareness against bias and taking action for equality. Every year on the 8th of March we celebrate International Women’s Day to commemorate the cultural, political and socioeconomic achievements of women across the world. Each year the campaign comes with a new theme, this year the celebrations focus on the theme #BreakTheBias.
This year there is a particular focus placed on building workplaces where women can thrive, elevating the visibility of female creatives and forging empowering change. Celebrating the successes and achievements of women is a fundamental element of the campaign’s purpose. The website uses three central beliefs to underpin the purpose:
- Identifying, celebrating and increasing visibility of women’s achievements to help create equality
- Collaborations based on a foundation of shared purpose that can create positive change for women
- Worldwide awareness raising meaningful narratives and resources to combat gender bias and discrimination, accelerating gender parity.
The IWD shared why raising awareness of equality continues to be as vital as it’s ever been, stating that ‘there is no place for complacency’.
“According to the World Economic Forum, sadly none of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes, and nor likely will many of our children. Gender parity will not be attained for almost a century.”
It’s important to continue to raise awareness of the issues in our societies so that we can all help drive change. To do so, we’re committing to help #BreakTheBias and to showcase and celebrate women’s successes everywhere.
We asked members of our team and compliance group to share their #BreakTheBias commitments and/or to share the achievements their most proud of…
Helen Waddington, HKW Risk Management
“ This years theme is #breakthebias and I’ve been thinking about how I have been contributing to breaking everyday biases. The biggest conscious change I’ve made is to my language and the words I use, especially when talking to my two boys. It is engrained in me to use he / him in everyday language when I mean ‘everybody’ so I’m making a conscious effort to change the way I talk, which does feel very awkward but is getting better.”
“I think I’m most proud of where I am personally right now. I’m really aware of how lucky I am with the background of ongoing Covid pandemic, climate change and now with the horrendous situation in Ukraine but I have reached a point (possibly age related!) where I have realised that I can care deeply about some things while not caring about other things and being happy with the realisation that I don’t need to form a well educated opinion on everything which is quite refreshing. I’ve also realised it is possible to care deeply about what people important to me think, while not caring about what other people think - I spent so many of my years as a young adult worrying about what ‘everybody’ thought of me and have since realised that they probably aren’t thinking about me at all and it was a complete waste of energy! “
Cathy Brode, Conformitas Consulting
“I am proud to have forged a career in a male dominated industry, and to be setting an example for girls and women of all ages to know they can become empowered to follow their own path.”
Emily Kenna, Sense Risk Solutions
“We all have bias. It’s happened since we were born. Please challenge it! For the next generation, let’s see a world of more balance, diversity and inclusion.”
Samantha Miles, Office Wrangler at HKW
“We all have subconscious bias, and I am striving to change, to identify bias when it’s happening and amend it. The common bias I hear myself is referring to things as ‘he’; I’m always referring to things like the vacuum as less than inanimate, but I’ve noticed I refer to it as ‘he did a good job’ and ‘he got stuck’. I didn’t realise I was doing it for many years but as I’ve become aware I’m working to change this bias.”
“I am proud to be following my passion and taking the harder route knowing I’m staying true to myself. It’s not always easy finding ways to be creative and working consistently so hard to gain visibility for my creativity and skills but I am proud of the work I have done towards what I believe in and of how far I have come.”
Lillian Antonio, The Modern Ergonomist
"#breakthebias of gender stereotypes in the workplace. There is still so much to how to do when it comes to the gender pay gap, flexible working and affordable childcare."
Join us in raising awareness, share your photos with us and tell us what successes you’re proud of achieving.