Blog
Our View: International Women’s Day 2022
Tuesday March 8th is International Women’s Day, 2022 (#IWD2022). On their website they ask us to imagine a gender equal world, with no bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated.
Now, imagine this within business and leadership.
If you were to look at business success, making sure women are in leadership roles is a no-brainer. Companies with greater gender diversity in their senior leadership teams are significantly more profitable than those without.
That’s a fact!
We’ve asked key female leaders within CI Group to tell us a personal career achievement and their example of an inspirational female leader for this year’s International Women’s Day.
Shawnee North – Digital Transformation Lead
“For me, just generally day to day working in a technical role as a woman I’m proud of. Throughout my career in digital so far, I’ve often sat in meetings and on projects which can be male dominated when working with developers and IT teams, so I’m proud to bring a female perspective to that.”
“Personally, I’m inspired by Nicki Lewis at Royal Caribbean. She’s a very strong woman in a senior role at an enterprise company, and she inspires plenty of other women both in her team and further afield.
Also, Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama and Jacinda Ardern – we NEED to see more women in politics to have positive and inclusive change across the world.”
Minnie Jackson – Account Executive
“I’m proud and excited to start my new role of Account Executive, getting involved with more projects across CI Group.”
Minnie put forward Whitney Wolfe Herd; after climbing to the top of Tinder she sued her former employer for sexual harassment and discrimination, claiming she was stripped of her co-founder title, and sent threats and derogatory text messages by her ex-boss. Going on to become the world’s youngest self-made woman billionaire, as well as the youngest female CEO to take a company public. A female-focused app dedicated to women making the first move, Bumble had more than 15million conversations and 8million matches under its belt within the first year. As of 2020, it has over 100million subscribers worldwide.
“I am proud of many campaigns I have worked on during my 12 years in PR, however one of the most memorable is heading up the PR campaign for the launch of JLO’s makeup line with Polish Cosmetic brand, INGLOT. As you can imagine the campaign was a huge success with press and consumers alike.”
“Noa Tishby is an author, producer and Israeli activist who has spoken at the United Nations General. Her book ‘Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country in the World’ has been critically acclaimed and offers an insight into a very complex subject matter that is close to my heart. I admire Noa because she takes a stand to speak out about a controversial topic that many people have an opinion on, but often based on very little fact or knowledge. She speaks with truth, dignity and pride, all of which I find admirable.”
Tanya Hudson – Finance and HR Manager
“I have been with CI for 15 years, I started at the bottom as a finance assistant and have achieved many different career goals, however the one I am most proud of is the here and now! The transitioning from finance to HR and especially at the end of what was a very challenging time for me personally last year, although I’m not quite fully HR yet I am well on my way. I feel a sense of achievement and very proud it has also given me new focus and motivation.”
Pip Kenny, Creative Director at CI Group. “What a lady her energy and enthusiasm to succeed and achieve, inspires me on a work and personal level.
Kelly Holmes DBE OLY is a retired English middle distance athlete. “Her strength and determination to succeed. Her set back of her injuring her leg, which lead her to believe she would not achieve her goals, to getting through depression and overachieving her goals of 2 Olympic gold medals.”
Simi Sanusi – Marketing and Media Project Manager
“First time taking the lead on a marketing campaign from presenting the proposal to client to running it day to day. Nice to know your colleagues have that amount of faith in you and even better when the client is happy with everything you’re doing/have done.”
“Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician. Despite being subject to racism and rampant sexism within NASA at the time her mathematical abilities sent the first men to the moon, she basically wrote the first successful guidelines on rocket science. Watch Hidden Figures if you haven’t already.
My favourite quote: “I don’t have a feeling of inferiority. Never had. I’m as good as anybody, but no better.”
Pip Kenny – Group Creative Director
“I am privileged to work with an amazing team of people, and my proudest career moment came on being made Group Creative Director in 2019. Currently, as the only female member of CI Group’s Management team, I can provide a unique perspective to business conversations. I have never felt ‘held back’ because of my gender and meet every new challenge with enthusiastic optimism. I think if you have a positive and authentic voice, people will hear you.”
“I have been reminded this week of one of the most inspirational women in British History, and of a story about her that my daughter shared at school.
Florence Nightingale is talked about in the school curriculum for her pioneering work in Crimea, which is poignant currently due to the Ukrainian Crisis.
She is shown almost entirely for her and supportive nature as a nurse, looking after wounded soldiers, a role taken on by so many women, particularly in the previous 50 years.
However, the story my daughter told at school was the fact that Florence Nightingale was an amazing statistician.
She was the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society, and she used her knowledge of maths to show how infection was the main cause of death amongst soldiers.
She used data and diagrams to prove her points and her Rose Diagram was ground-breaking.
She led the way for using data and visual infographics, to show the mortality by infection which revolutionised nursing practises in infection control and hygiene.
She was so much more that the ‘lady with the lamp’.
When My daughter did her assembly at school and said that Florence Nightingale invented the pie chart, she was told she was wrong.
She wasn’t. My daughter had more information about Florence Nightingale than the teachers at school had within the National curriculum.
So, on Women’s Day this year I will be thinking about Florence Nightingale and remembering her true story.
Data is a powerful and beautiful weapon.”
Are you with us? Will you #BreakTheBias this International Women’s Day?