Not only is today important as it’s the first step on the Government Roadmap out of lockdown, with schools opening, us being allowed to leave the home for recreation and exercise outdoors with one person outside of our household and care home residents being allowed one regular visitor, it is also International Women’s Day (IWD).
This year’s IWD theme is #ChoosetoChallenge with the pose of raising your hand – hand up high to show you're in…
Throughout this week we will be sharing resources, information and stories to celebrate IWD, available on the staff hub, but what underpins all this is our commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) as an organisation. We want to take action for equality, challenge bias and celebrate women’s achievements. We will be sharing more about the Women’s Network and their plans later in the week but today we’d like you to hear from Vanda Murray OBE, our EDI Board Sponsor on the importance of celebrating IWD and her top tips for women in the workplace.
If you would like to show your support for International Women’s Day, you can insert this banner into your email signature for the rest of the week. And remember you don’t need to be a woman to support and choose to challenge.
You can also send through your image of doing the #ChoosetoChallenge pose for us to add to the hub. Here is a video of colleagues across the Group, choosing to challenge, this International Women’s Day. We will be sharing this on our GC social channels (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) and it would be great if you can show your support by sharing on your own accounts.
Here is the plan for the rest of the week:
Tuesday 9 March – a list of interesting and useful resources will be shared for you to learn more about bias, how to challenge for equality and celebrate women’s achievements.
Wednesday 10 March – celebrating our recent Made in Manchester Award winners, who were all women.
Thursday 11 March – more images sent in of your #choosetochallenge poses and some of our client stories.
Friday 12 March – more on our commitment to equality and our Women Network.
I would also like to take this moment to welcome Sheona Southern, Managing Director of Marketing Manchester, as the new EDI SMT Sponsor. I know that Sheona is really excited to support the work of the networks and help drive forward our actions and ensure that we achieve progress especially in terms of our pledge.
On a final note, today is hopefully the first step towards a much better ‘living with Covid’ world for us all.
Happy International Women’s Day,
Mark