Celebrating the #BeBoldForChange campaign with Northamptonshire Community Foundation and Cranfield University
This International Women’s Day, 8th March 2017, Debra Charles, our CEO and Founder, has spent the morning speaking at Winwick Hall for the Northamptonshire Community Foundation, telling the story of her career and sharing her thoughts on why women and men alike need to be bold for change. Debra continued the #BeBoldForChange theme during the evening at Cranfield University’s Women in Leadership event.
Debra says:
Being bold for change is about recognising that standing out from the crowd (being different) is a good thing, and helping others recognise that they can make a difference too
Speaking about the role of women in the workplace, Debra believes it’s critical to recognise and promote the equal contribution of women and girls, in particular in the sciences. In addition to encouraging greater participation of women and girls across these sectors, it is equally important to aid their career development. Business leaders across the country should feel a responsibility to be involved.
One of my core passions is to help more girls recognise the great career opportunities that science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) careers offer. There are so many different roles available yet tech companies still struggle to recruit the female talent they need.
Women make up just 12.8 per cent of the UK STEM workforce. I believe there’s something stopping this figures translating into more women in technology jobs – the gender gap has widened in the past two years.
If we don’t encourage girls to get involved in the industry we won’t have the skills and infrastructure we need for the future. It is my responsibility as a business owner to help schools do more to set out the variety of careers on offer and to attract more women.
Share your own #BeBoldForChange stories and ambitions on social media now, be part of #IWD2017
