It was the BEC’s 8th Anniversary in February and that means that we have been celebrating International Women’s Day the same number of years. Of course, we go big in Barking and Dagenham with a whole month of events and celebrations. From the BEC perspective, for obvious reasons some years have been bigger than others due to lock downs and home working and of course any event is reliant on how much you want to spend. Our ethos at the BEC is that any money left after running the business should go on delivering more programmes to support businesses locally. However, this year’s theme ‘Inspire Inclusion’ resonates well, with the work that is being done across the borough in supporting women and girls to have the same opportunities as others.
As a senior leader in an anchor institution, I certainly see that it is my role to do my bit in championing this cause. I am blessed with a network of strong female leaders, in both my own organisation. I have a strong work wife in our Operations Director Donna Finley, and the wider social sector. I haven’t looked at the statistics, but women leaders outweigh men in this borough in the social sector. Of course, our partners in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham have a female Chief Executive and there are more women than men in the cabinet of elected members.
Why is this important you ask, well there are several reasons, providing visual representation as role models to women and girls, comes to mind first. Secondly, the evidence suggests that women often make better leaders for a variety of reasons, from their ability to add fresh perspectives and diversity of opinion, to their willingness to compromise and respect work-life balance. I think women are more comfortable in asking for help, certainly. in our industry of business support there are far more women who reach out for support than men, the men tend to leave it until there is a problem and are not always comfortable in seeking assistance.
Most importantly Barking and Dagenham has the youngest population in the country, and so it is our duty to inspire all young people to be the best they can be, make use of the opportunities and strive for fulfilment and of course to be happy which is so important in these challenging times with mental health deteriorating at an alarming rate.
If you would like to find out how you can help inspire inclusion in Barking and Dagenham, then please join us for a speed networking event on Wednesday March 20th from 5pm – 7pm, where you can get to network w with other likeminded people. Where we will all be publicly pledging to do one thing to inspire inclusion for women and girls in Barking and Dagenham in 2024. You can sign up for the event here.
Ps men also invited before you feel the need to comment! 😊