The 8th March is International Women’s Day, a day recognised across the world to help forge a gender equal world. Its purpose is to celebrate women's achievement; raise awareness against bias; and take action for equality. This year Carat, celebrated IWD with appreciation; celebrating each other and celebrating other successful women who have strived to improve gender inequality.
Here’s a little recap of what we got up to.
Celebrating each other
We created an email chain to tell our colleagues why we think they are a super women and then asked them to spread the message and send on to other women across the network. Within an hour we had reached people across every floor and department in the building which showed how easy it is to be each other champions and to celebrate our unique qualities. The small gesture went a long way in lifting spirits and showing our appreciation for each other.
Celebrating Successful Women
Our weekly Take Ten session - a time to tale 10 mins away from your desk each week on a Friday afternoon to do something fun – was also dedicated it to IWD. We had a quiz on women that have broken boundaries and helped improved gender imbalance.
Education and Live streams
At Dentsu Aegis Network we believe that diverse perspectives fuel creativity and drive innovation. They enable organisations to better understand the needs of their clients and customers - and the society they serve. #EachforEqual is about celebrating and fostering diverse perspectives and individuality across our business, which is key to our success and it continues to be important for us to bring it to the forefront of the conversion.
To help promote and share these perspectives, we held informative and educational sessions across the business. This year we had live streams ranging from “How to Win Diverse Talent”, “Shifting stereotypes” to “Building a Business Case for Diversity.”
What does IWD mean to our people?
We asked people from across Carat, why IWD is important and what it means to them. Here’s what they had to say:
“IWD is important to me as it’s a day to celebrate all of the incredible things women have achieved so far, but also to recognise there is still a great deal of work to be done. As women we don’t tend to shout about our achievements, International Women’s Day is a day to raise our voices and celebrate all the amazing work we have done so far in the fight for equality. However, it also serves as a reminder that there is still a lot of work to do, particularly in far corners of the globe where women have far less opportunities than we do in the UK. IWD for me is about standing in solidarity with all women across the world to build a better, more equal future for females."
Vida West, Media Assistant, Carat
“IWD for me is a day to commemorate how far we’ve come and to inspire us to keep working to achieve even more TOGETHER!”
Beatriz Pardo , Media Manager, Carat
“IWD always marks an important milestone in our calendar. It is great to see all the local initiatives and wider events organised across our offices. The scale of events we see every year only underlines the importance of having a moment to celebrate all the Women in our organisation, but also reflect and refocus our efforts in actually creating change. This year’s theme of #EachforEqual is a poignant call to arms for a global focus on gender equality, in all walks of life, to create a more enabled world. We must continue to be relentless in making sure this is a constant discussion that leads to action in developing culture and behaviour across all organisations,in order to tackle disparities in pay, perspectives and opportunities which are still prevalent.”
Pete Metcalfe, Managing Director, Carat
“IWD for me is a day to push equality for all to the top of the global agenda. But like Valentine’s Day, we shouldn’t just celebrate love once a year; we need to live and breathe women’s rights in everything we do, personally and professionally.”
Elle Mitchell, Client Director, Carat
“In the media industry, we are privileged to have power to influence audiences to think a certain way, so it’s vital that we take stock on International Women’s Day, and cast our lens on what we are doing now and what we could be doing better. Recently published global statistics state that almost 90% of people are biased against women, so it’s clear that we still have so far to go, both as an industry and as individuals.
“Internally, we must champion our great female leaders so that the younger generation have role models to inspire their own career progression, and also ensure we are creating opportunities for more women to take up the mantle.
“Externally, we can work alongside our clients and partners to ensure that the conversation with female audiences is as positive as possible; steering away from outdated stereotypes that drive prejudice against women and building on existing grassroots campaigning that drives the pace of progress.