International Women's Day Recap: Empowerment
On Thursday 4th March 2021, LoopMe held an internal discussion to celebrate International Women’s Day. We explored some of the key issues faced by women, and identified ways in which both employees and businesses can drive systemic change.
LoopMe invited a variety of external talent to join us, our three panelists consisted of:
- Elizabeth Anyaegbuna, Co-founder, sixteenbyninemedia
- Katie Grosvenor, Head of Sales, IAS
- Lukeisha Paul, Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, GroupM
Our panel was moderated by LoopMe’s Sarah Rew, Senior Director, Global Marketing.
Panelists shared their perspectives on what International Women’s Day means to them, and provided examples of the women who inspire them. Lukeisha Paul highlighted the importance of women being unapologetically themselves. Katie Grosvenor echoed Lukeisha’s thoughts, and spoke about the importance of authenticity.
Elizabeth Anyaegbuna shared a reminder that there is still a lot of work to be done in the push for equality, and that International Women’s Day isn’t just one day. Elizabeth also shared how her mother had been a profound inspiration to her.
Furthermore, we explored what steps can be taken to help create better workplaces that encourage gender and thought diversification. Katie Grosvenor spoke about starting from the moment you meet someone with a view to employing them. The importance of making recruitment processes more inclusive, offer flexible working and be understanding of an individuals specific needs. Create a culture that embraces diversity, mentoring, but also develop sponsorship programmes and ensure there are role models.
Our conversation then turned to what resources, groups or opportunities are available to those in our industry who want to get involved in Women’s Empowerment projects.
Lukeisha provided an overview of the American not-for-profit group ‘She Runs It’, of which LoopMe are corporate Members. Whilst Katie and Elizabeth drew attention to Bloom UK.
To conclude our panel, we asked our panelists how men can become better allies to women. Katie spoke about The Exchange, a Bloom led event, the objective of which is to engage more men in the gender debate. The cross-mentoring programme matches industry-leading men with Bloom members to break down the barriers contributing to the gender divide in our industry.