International Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day, a day that has marked the achievements of women and highlighted injustices they face for over 100 years.

Jane Cozens, Director at Keeble Brown, reflects on what International Women’s Day and this year’s theme of #embracingequity means to her.

‘I’ve been very lucky to have a long and varied career and have seen conditions for women in the workplace change significantly in the UK over the last 30 years. I have benefited from the wise counsel and support of a number of awesome women – I’m thinking about colleagues who worked alongside me through all the ups and downs in my personal and professional life and the managers and leaders who have understood how to get the best out of me, mentored me and led with insight, grace and gratitude. The one thing they all have in common is compassion, empathy and a clear sense of shared purpose born from a shared experience. I am delighted to help celebrate the many roles that women occupy and our strengths – which are significantly increased when we act together. I’ve worked in communications for the majority of my career – and my experience is that all too often women’s voices are not heard or dismissed. The fact remains that women continue to experience discrimination, harm, marginalisation and disadvantage.

At Keeble Brown we acknowledge the importance of women in society every day and ask why their role rarely features in the narrative of professional life. One example of how women are written out of our public affairs is in the way that a woman’s surname, and therefore her story, is often forgotten.

The people at Keeble Brown are dedicated to helping our clients, communities and stakeholders create their own narrative and giving them the voice to articulate it.

This mission is written into our company identity, which is taken from the maiden names of the founders’ mothers.  

Across the world, the importance of International Women’s Day is brought into sharp relief as we read the news that women and girls are being physically attacked, murdered and imprisoned, stigmatised and penalised in multiple ways simply for trying to access basic human rights like education, healthcare and reproductive services. 

All too often we know that women bear a disproportionate burden of economic hardship and caring responsibilities.

This year’s IWD theme is #embracingequity. Equity means creating an inclusive world.

 I believe that a huge part of that means actively challenging the main areas where women have a demonstrable lack of equity: education, healthcare, economic opportunity, bodily autonomy and reproductive rights – wherever this is happening.

To be clear – that’s not just political regimes which are, for example, overtly attacking girls in schools or shutting out women from universities right now, but anywhere where women have restricted access to reproductive healthcare – there can be no equity if women and girls cannot get an education or suffer enforced motherhood.

IWD celebrates all women and the call to #embracingequity is as important today as it was when it first began.’

For more information about International Women’s Day, and this year’s theme, click: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/

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