International Women’s Day for everyone

This International Women’s Day, like every year, we are celebrating incredible women all over the planet. 

This year, however, we are also thinking about women and girls who have been forced from their homeland in search of safety and refuge. In less than two weeks, more than two million Ukrainians have fled the Russian invasion, the majority are women and children. Their courage knows no bounds, but they will need support for many years to come to cope with the aftermath of becoming refugees overnight.

More immediately, we ask that anyone that can please donate to the Disaster Emergency Committee relief fund. They are coordinating the work of 14 charities who are already working on the ground in Ukraine and you can donate here: www.dec.org.uk  

Closer to home, as we cautiously emerge from the pandemic, we must put women at the heart of our recovery. Women were more adversely affected during the pandemic, whether that was through loss of employment, or working from home while carrying the greater burden of childcare and home-schooling. It feels as though decades of work towards equality was undone through the various lockdowns.

Recognising the value of women in the workplace, and at the heart of our society, is a small step towards true equality, it’s something I feel has been lost in the tumult of the past couple of years. I’m proud to be part of a successful woman-owned, woman-led business, I’m prouder still to employ women of all ages and to see them flourish. I will fight to restore our place at the table and perhaps in this way we can work towards a more collaborative and stable future.