According to Wikipedia, International Women’s Day is a global holiday celebrated annually on March 8 to commemorate the cultural, political, and socioeconomic achievements of women. To celebrate International Women’s Day, we put a question to the PMHR team:
“There are more women in senior roles than ever before, but is there still more to be done”? We debated the question at length in the office, and here is what the team had to say:
I think over the past 5 years we’ve come on leaps and bounds in terms of the support available for support for working mothers. We are seeing far more women are in senior positions which is having a knock on effect – many of them have seen first-hand the struggles women can face, and are able to use their influence to create solutions that actually work in real life.
Sam Croston
It is great to see the progress made with regards to equality towards women and agreed that seeing an increase in women in senior roles is a huge breakthrough and something to be immensely proud of. However, there is still a clear distinction of equality improvements needed within the different industries.
Taking ourselves, People Matters HR for example, we are mainly a female lead business and that is due to the industry we work in, where equality is in favour of females, but in comparison to the construction industry which is largely lead by males, it just highlights how there is still that stigma around what industries men and women should work in, when in reality any gender can work in any industry if that is what individuals desire.
I believe this should be a focus point for everyone, to encourage and advocate for gender equality amongst all industries regardless of the level of seniority within a business.
Stephanie Kirkham
I’m proud that our clients seek out our professional advice and support and treat our team as equals and experts in our field. However, we can’t rest on our laurels. We have a duty to the women who came from Manchester, the home of the Suffragettes, who fought so hard for equal rights to continue to push the boundaries. We challenge long-held views, which still exist in the minority of people, to see past gender, race, sexuality etc.
Gemma Hatton, HR Administrator
#internationalwomensday – is there still more to be done?
