The call to action for International Women’s Day 2022 is #BreakTheBias.
At Positive About Inclusion we have celebrated this year’s event with a commentary article published in Inside Housing alongside a spotlight piece from Gateshead Council, shining a light on female owned businesses in the region. We were absolutely delighted to have been involved in both!
The Inside Housing commentary piece, written by our Director, Lucy Malarkey, focused on the value of women’s networks for females working in the social housing sector. Lucy reflected on how women’s networks are empowering and inspiring by enabling women to come together, to share and to connect re-energising them to go back into the workplace with renewed enthusiasm and vigour. They support women to bring our whole self to work and in that sense, women’s networks are crucial for equality and inclusion!
“Whilst women have made important gains in representation throughout the sector in the last few years, we’re still a long way from equality, particularly at a senior leadership level. The housing sector needs to act now to support, retain and advance women; providing the opportunity to network alongside an active commitment to interrupt the gender bias women face at work is crucial to getting this right. Organisations that provide networking opportunities for women to connect, share and flourish are actively breaking gender bias. We all rise when women rise!”
Lucy Malarkey, Director and Co-Founder, Positive About Inclusion, Managing Director of WISH (Women in Social Housing)
Gateshead Council celebrated International Women’s Day by highlighting the ongoing effort of businesses led by women and businesses supporting women across the borough. We were supported by Business Gateshead when we established Positive About Inclusion and as such we were very happy to provide our support.
“As a business owned and run by women, we are delighted to be supporting International Women’s Day. It’s a sad fact that the majority of women experience bias and microaggressions at work. Whether deliberate or unconscious, bias makes it harder for women to get hired and promoted, and negatively impacts their day-to-day work experiences. But, knowing that bias exists isn’t enough. The ‘call to action’ for this year’s International Women’s Day is to #BreakTheBias and we would call on everyone to take this opportunity to reflect on any bias they might have and to actively take steps to ‘interrupt’ it by being self-aware, and supporting their peers to ‘call them out’ if necessary.”
Karen Faulkner, Director and Co-Founder, Positive About Inclusion
Photos: Lucy Malarkey (left) and Karen Faulkner (right), Co-Founders and Directors
