How did you get to where you are today?
Now that’s a long story but briefly, I have reached my position through having clarity from a young age on what I wanted to achieve. This was always to make a positive difference to the lives of the East End neighbours that I grew up with and still live and work alongside. This so they have equal access to opportunities to advance and to systematically address inequality and promote social justice, in ways that are relevant and meaningful to them. Within this, I have always retained a focus on gender and race equality. The ‘how’ of achieving this has changed but the underlying purpose and desire to find a way to have maximum impact hasn’t changed. This how has included a London wide role on women’s equality within the public sector.

I secured relevant qualifications quite early on, so for example I completed my first post graduate management course in my mid 20s and ensured that I keep up to date with current policy and best practice. In addition, I’ve been willing to take on new roles and responsibilities at work, outside of my JD so that I not only continuously develop my skills and knowledge but also my reputation for delivery.

I’ve undertaken voluntary work, which reflects my commitment to my ultimate goal whilst expanding my network and building my skills.  I’ve been a trustee of women focused charities and even now I’m on a trustee for 3 charities and one grant making body, all aimed at social regeneration in the East End.

Finally, I am being my authentic self. No matter what you need to hold true to your values and integrity, even when it becomes difficult.

What barriers do women face in particular along the career path you’ve chosen?
As with most other careers, there is a lack of women occupying Board Level roles within the NHS and where they are in a majority it’s for particular roles.

• Across a total of 452 NHS organisations representation of women on boards varied widely from 8.3% to 80%, with an average of 41%.
• From the 245 NHS trusts and arms-length bodies that supplied data, the percentage of female chief executives is encouraging, at 42.6%. However, women are still lagging behind in key roles within these organisations: just 26.3% of finance directors, and 24.6 per cent of medical directors are women. Meanwhile, chief nurses, chief operating officers and human resources directors are mainly female within these organisations, at 85.4%, 53.3% and 63% respectively.

In my particular role as Chair of the Board of Directors, approximately a third are women. The barriers are the same as with any career and include: discrimination, which is usually unconscious or unintentional, family responsibility delaying access to opportunities, lack of gender pay equality reducing likelihood of promotion etc. In the NHS there is a commitment to redress the imbalance at Boards, so that by 2020, 50% are women. We’ve got 2 years to recruit 500 more women onto Boards!

How/have you been able to challenge these barriers?
This links, in part, to what I’ve said in answer to one above, that you illustrate through your own ability and success that women can achieve, but it’s more than that.

During my career I have sought to ensure that the organisations that I lead can identify where they are not doing well in terms of the progression of underrepresented groups, and sought to implement strategies to address the imbalance and remove unfair obstacles.

I have also secured national roles to address evidenced imbalance at NHS Board Level, and I have a reputation for expertise and commitment in this area,  for example, I am a member of the NHS Equality and Diversity Council.

Again, it’s about your personal commitment and I currently mentor 4 black women, with 2 securing much more senior roles in the last few months.

What does Women’s Day mean to you and why is it important?
International Women’s Day has been around since the 1900s and the beauty of it is that it brings together a diversity of organisations to highlight the inequalities that women face and to celebrate the achievements of women. It is important to retain this day because we have not achieved the goal of full gender equality for women across the world.

In 2018 there are specific highlights that shouldn’t go unnoticed. The gender pay gap figures show that women are paid less than half of men’s in some of Britain’s major companies. Women’s rights not to be sexually harassed at work have dominated headlines since last year, and it’s the centenary of women securing the right to vote, well, some women. You had to be thirty and own a house!