Photo taken high up on the Brecon Beacons in Wales last summer.
The United Nations theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Invest in women: Accelerate progress’ and the organization asks that we take a stand with them by using the hashtag #InvestInWomen. Happy to!
This time last year I acknowledged women I either know, or know of, and posted it to my LinkedIn. The image I used was downloaded from a website that has self-appointed itself as the official International Women’s Day website, filled with pictures of women in cutesie poses.
Thank you to Clare Josa for bringing the factually correct information to our attention on LinkedIn, here is her post.
Is a hands-heart selfie really going to get women promoted? Or create a genuine level playing field?
Can you imagine a male CEO doing that kind of pose in public and still being taken seriously?
Clare Josa
See the Background to Women’s Day here
Katey Hearn | 8 March 2024:
The UN began commemorating International Women’s Day the year I was born; in that same year a 10-year World Plan of Action for the Advancement of Women was agreed. 4 decades on and we have seen some great women in power and in everyday walks of life; making a difference.
It is no longer just about advancing women and equality. Investing in Women and ensuring everyone can have a seat at the table. I want to be seen as a leader who has earned my seat, who is passionate, empathetic, and strong – not emotional. I have been influenced and led by strong men and women who recognise the power in their investment and mine not just in me as a woman but as an asset to their business. This is what I get working at Bell – Happy IWD #InvestInWomen
Katey Hearn – Director of Service Delivery and Transition, Bell Integration
International Women’s Day was set up and is led by the United Nations.
In March 2023, I listed some of the women I appreciate and admire in business, women who have made an impression and who I see as role models.
Anne-Marie Imafidon created Stemettes to encourage and inspire girls to study STEM subjects. She passed her A-level computing at 11 and was one of the youngest people to receive a Computer Science Masters from University of Oxford (Keble) where she was just one of three girls in a class of 70 studying Maths and Computer Science. You can catch Anne-Marie on Twitter at @aimafidon, including news about her book, ‘She’s in Ctrl – How Women can take back Tech.”
Manpreet Gill became CEO of Bell Integration – Driving Digital Transformation in 2020 and was interviewed by CRN for their Top 100 UK Resellers and MSPs for 2023, which placed the company 7th, an incredibly impressive achievement. The company came 7th again in 2024.
Lorraine Howell, Vice President of Innovation and Continuous Improvement at ILLUMITI, a Syntax company. Lorraine is responsible for evaluating any new technologies and solutions released by SAP, and is involved in determining how clients can effectively and affordably benefit from innovations using SAP and emerging technologies. She was awarded a Doctorate in Nuclear Physics and lectured Physics at the University of South Africa for seven years. Lorraine is fun and popular and people enjoy being in her company.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is someone you can’t forget once you’ve heard her speak. Her Ted Talk, ‘The danger of a single story’ is one of my favourites.
Kerry Sheehan champions innovation leadership in AI policies, frameworks and standards. I have watched her manage panels with business, academia and government, whose purpose was\is to keep the UK relevant and competitive in the field of artificial intelligence. “While many are building, developing, tinkering with AI programmes and tools, and chatting about accelerated mainstream advancements such as Chat-GPT3 and the new AI-powered Bing search engine, it’s vital to understand what is happening with the journey towards AI regulation and AI standards in the UK, across Europe and the world.”
Ina Selivanova has been instrumental in the rebranding of her company, ACBaltica in Lithuania, having relocated from Belarus. Imagine moving all your operations to a new country after 20+ years in another! ACBaltica is a member of the United VARs CLG alliance, giving it the confidence and support to become stronger and more visible in Lithuania and Europe.
Brené Brown who has shown us it’s OK to be vulnerable.
International Women’s Day | United Nations
Did you know?
… that for the 10th year, over 100 stock exchanges around the world are hosting bell ringing ceremonies around International Women’s Day (March 8), to raise awareness of the pivotal role the private sector can play in advancing gender equality. The initiative is convened by UN Women in collaboration
- the International Finance Corporation,
- United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative,
- UN Global Compact
- and the World Federation of Exchanges.
In these 10 years of collaboration, participating stock exchanges have also taken the opportunity to make public commitments to gender equality through
- signing the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs),
- encouraging listed companies to advance women’s representation on boards;
- or developing sustainability-linked bonds with gender criteria or gender-focused bonds.
UN Women Deputy Executive Director, Kirsi Madi, will participate in person at the closing bell at Nasdaq, New York, on 8 March.
#InvestInWomen