The impact of the pandemic on working women
It is a happy coincidence that Monday 8 March marks two important dates: first; the easing of lockdown with the re-opening of schools; and second, International Women's Day (#IWD), a day celebrating the achievements of women...we can certainly add home-schooling to that list!
To mark #IWD, you are welcome to join me as I chair a panel event on 'The Impact of the Pandemic on Working Women' with South Westminster BIDs on Tuesday 9 March. We'll be discussing the positive and negative impacts of the crisis on working women. It is free to attend, but we ask for a small donation to the charity Rosa to help raise funds for the amazing work they do supporting women. Book your #IWD event place here.
Here are my other 3 things to know this month:
If you're feeling overwhelmed, you're not alone. Overwhelm hit the top spot of topics that came up in coaching conversations with our clients this month. Others included burnout and energy levels, concern about wellbeing, stress and resilience. To create a culture of wellbeing, we recommend managers are given a mandate to role model actions so the culture is led from the top - e.g. taking breaks, switching off and asking for help. If you want to support your people, get in touch to find out about our new coaching bundles and if you'd like tips on how to improve your resilience, read my Forbes article with Sara Price on how we can bounce back from crisis.
Join the petition to reinstate Gender Pay Gap Reporting as ministers urged to investigate 'equality failures' in Covid response. We know the pandemic has disproportionately affected women in the workplace and we urge you to join this petition to reinstate mandatory Gender Pay Gap Reporting. You can also read more about how ministers have sidelined key gender laws in their response to the pandemic in this article from the Guardian.
Celebrating inspirational female leaders in science. Earlier this month, to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, I interviewed Dawn Childs, UK Change Director at National Grid plc and President of the Women's Engineering Society, and Cristina Ortega Duran, Chief Digital Health Officer, R&D, and Ann E. Taylor, Chief Medical Officer at AstraZeneca. You can read both articles and follow me on Forbes here.
Finally, the theme for this year's International Women's Day is #ChooseToChallenge. As part of this, we're encouraging our community and the organisations we work with to commit to take action towards a more gender balanced culture. Our research report is a great place to start, listing five must-do actions, as well as more in-depth check-lists for change.
It would be great to hear from you if you've taken any of our suggested actions - please do get in touch and let me know what impact they had.
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