International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on 8th March to recognise women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements, raise awareness of discrimination and bias, and inspire and empower us to take action for equality.
This year, the theme of International Women’s Day is Inspire Inclusion #InspireInclusion. The aim of this theme is to encourage us all to imagine a gender equal world: a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. The hope is that together, we can forge women’s equality, and collectively we can all #InspireInclusion.
This International Women’s Day, the focus is on celebrating women’s achievements, raising awareness about discrimination, and taking action to drive gender parity.
How can we inspire inclusion?
On IWD, and every day, we believe we should always work to Inspire Inclusion. IWD suggests guidelines to help us do this:
– When women aren’t present, we must ask: “If not, why not?”
– When women are discriminated against, we must call out poor practice.
– When the treatment of women is not equitable, we must take action.
– And we must do this each time, every time.
So how can we incorporate this into everyday situations? What practical measures can we take?
On an individual basis, it’s important to understand, value and seek out the inclusion of women and girls. Additionally, sharing this knowledge, support and encouragement with others is key.
For businesses working to become more inclusive, on an organisational level there are many ways to ensure the needs, interests and aspirations of women and girls are valued and included. Organisations and groups can #InspireInclusion through action in areas such as:
- forging women’s economic empowerment
- recruiting, retaining and developing female talent
- supporting women and girls into leadership, decision-making, business and STEM
- designing and building infrastructure meeting the needs of women and girls
- helping women and girls make informed decisions about their health
- involving women and girls in sustainable agriculture and food security
- providing women and girls with access to quality education and training
- elevating women and girl’s participation and achievement in sport
- promoting creative and artistic talent of women and girls
- addressing further areas supporting the advancement of women and girls
Accelerate Procurement: a majority female owned business
As a majority female owned business, forging women’s economic empowerment and recruiting, retaining and developing female talent is very close to all our hearts.
And we don’t just talk the talk- we practise what we preach. We are proud to be authentic advocates for women in business and supporting other women in business. Here’s how we do it:
– We support mentoring programmes for Women in Procurement and Women in Leadership, including 30% Club, a formal mentoring program that we are involved in as mentors.
– We are one of the founding brands for GenM, the menopause partner for brands who’s mission is to improve the menopause experience for all.
– We believe that women often face this challenge at the peak of their careers, frequently without support and awareness. We are passionate about inspiring good business practice to help keep women in the workplace: we believe that the menopause should be given the same level of importance as parenting and other D&I issues. We believe this deserves to be more than just policy: we work to help brands to recognise there is currently a very large group within the workplace with unmet needs.
– We head up a small support group outside of GenM, which takes a “bookclub approach” with a focus on policy and experience in the workplace.
– We are a member of the WeConnect network which allows big corporations to do business with Women-owned businesses.
Championing diversity in the procurement sector
We believe that by being a majority female owned organisation this gives us a unique view in the consulting world and creates conversations that go beyond facts and data with a more human touch.
#IWD #InspireInclusion #equality #equity #Womeninprocurement #Womeninleadership #Lovewhatwedo #Dowhatwelove #GenM #WeConnect