Round-up: International Women’s Day
March was the month of International Women’s Day which we celebrated with a number of events and campaigns here at ELBA. We kicked off the week with our Inspirational Women’s Series which was created to shed light on the barriers and successes of women of various backgrounds in the private, public and third sectors. Through our interviews with the women, we learned that the experience of women in the workplace is layered with multiple challenges that extend beyond their role and responsibilities at work. Tough conditions in some women’s private lives can have a profound impact on their success at work. In spite of this, women manage to reach their full potential by overcoming barriers including discrimination, unequal pay, maternity, violence, public or family discouragement and the challenge of operating within male dominated sectors. Read our inspirational women’s series here.
ELBA assisted with Standard Chartered’s GOALS programme for girls. At this session the girls worked on their career aspirations by writing a letter to their ‘future selves‘ and planned to re-visit them in one year’s time to see if they have managed to achieve their goals.
As an extension of this, ELBA arranged a Women in the Workplace workshop. Attending this, 50 girls from four East London schools came along to celebrate and learn about female leadership.
ELBA held its third BoardMatch evening at Credit Suisse where we welcomed prospective trustees and a range of community organisations. Amongst the organisations were, The Magpie Project, Women’s Health and Family Support, Shpresa and Rooms of Our Own that all work to promote women’s rights and protection in various capacities including, domestic violence, housing, immigration, FGM, maternity and child support. In addition, we found that nine out of the twelve organisations at the BoardMatch3 event were headed by female Chief Executives who we were happy joined us for the evening.
ELBA was also invited to a range of events celebrating women, amongst others at the Excel Women’s Centre launching its Women2Women project, and the launch of Women’s Empowerment Month at Barking and Dagenham council.
We at ELBA are big supporters of International Women’s Day and its ability to raise awareness around an issue, and we hope it has gathered momentum and inspiration to support the women’s organisations in East London that we work with. Feel free to get in touch to find out more.
