Today (8 March) sees the world celebrate International Women’s Day. We are launching a women & legal IT group so get in touch if you want to be part of the dialogue on how to address and improve the very obvious diversity issues in the sector. Men too please. Today we will be promoting the efforts of organisations who are celebrating their female employees and addressing those issues head on. Send us your news and we will add you to what will hopefully end up being a long list.
The International Women’s Day 2018 campaign theme is #PressforProgress. With the World Economic Forum’s 2017 Global Gender Gap Report findings telling us that gender parity is over 200 years away – there has never been a more important time to keep motivated and #PressforProgress. And with global activism for women’s equality fuelled by movements like #MeToo, #TimesUp and more – there is a strong global momentum striving for gender parity.
And while we know that gender parity won’t happen overnight, the good news is that across the world women are making positive gains day by day. Plus, there’s indeed a very strong and growing global movement of advocacy, activism and support. Go to the International Women’s Day website, which reminds us that it is not country, group or organisation specific. The day belongs to all groups collectively everywhere. “So together, let’s all be tenacious in accelerating gender parity. Collectively, let’s all Press for Progress.”
Also pushing for change on International Women’s Day is former BBC producer Esther Stanhope (pictured below left), who through The Impact Guru is dedicated to helping women become more confident in business.
Resonating with experiences played out time and again in the legal tech sector, Stanhope says: “A male junior in a bank will look at a job description and if they believe they can execute around 50% of the criteria on the job spec, they will take a punt and work on the 50% believing, I can do. But it’s a different story altogether for women.”
According to experienced head hunter Maria Aldous, who works closely with Esther, “More senior women, with materially more experience, will look at that same job spec and think that if they don’t fit more than 70% of the criteria, there’s no way they will putting themselves forward for it.”
On International Women’s Day, Stanhope and Aldous challenge business women in the City to step outside their comfort zones and back their judgment. ‘Experience tells us that women respond well to mentoring and coaching programmes in building their work based confidence,’ reports Maria Aldous. Targeting a 25% increase in the number of prospective female leaders, to recognise International Women’s Day, the impact Guru is offering a 25% discount to all women enrolling on to the ‘How to get your dream Promotion’ programme with the code dreampromo25
Legal Tech Initiatives: send us your news
First up ClearPeople, which is a strong advocate of diversity and equal opportunities. Headed up by female MD Katya Linossi (pictured right), the London-based digital transformation agency recently asked some of its inspirational female employees to talk about themselves We asked some of the inspirational women working at ClearPeople to tell us a bit more about themselves and discuss why they believe that being a woman in a notoriously male-dominated industry is important. Find out what they think here.
Meanwhile the BigHanders in BigHand Towers are celebrating International Women’s Day and the #PressForProgress campaign. Group marketing director Brianna McCrory shared this fab pic (below right) of the women working at BigHand on LinkedIn, commenting: “I feel very fortunate to work for a company that has supported and encouraged me to progress and develop on both a personal and professional level, regardless of gender or age. I know there are lots of other companies that are similar to BigHand but there is still too many that aren’t. To steal a quote that my colleague Mamatha shared today ‘Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.’”
In honour of International Women’s Day Osborne Clarke says it wanted to shine a light on its female lawyers, so this year it is quite literally putting its women first.
On Thursday 8 March 2018, visitors to the OC website who search for a lawyer will see female lawyers first in the results – across any location, sector, service or position. A promotional filter has also been added to the website, where visitors can view all female Partners and lawyers who work at Osborne Clarke.
“Our female lawyers are a big part of who we are and the service we provide to our clients,” says Osborne Clarke’s International CEO Simon Beswick. “Celebrating them on International Women’s Day felt right, but in reality it’s a small component of our commitment to diversity.” The firm is also hosting a number of events across its 25 international offices to honour International Women’s Day.
Some of our recent editorial involving female leaders
http://legaltechnology.com//latest-news/alta-demo-day-go-aussie/
http://legaltechnology.com//latest-news/highlights-from-the-legal-it-insiders-legal-leaders-it-forum-glenlegal/
http://legaltechnology.com//latest-news/shires-cso-leads-tech-transformation-programme/
http://legaltechnology.com//latest-news/lucy-bassli-former-assistant-gc-at-microsoft-on-why-she-has-left-the-best-company-in-the-world-to-join-lawgeex/
Events:
JOIN over 1500+ women in tech and women-led startups on Friday 9 March from 9am to 5pm for a special event to celebrate International Women’s Day! Find out more at EventBrite
Relevant articles in other publications on Women’s Day (you may have to be a subscriber or register):
Legal Week: ‘All men have a role to play’ – how firms are engaging male lawyers to drive real change for women in law
The Law Society Gazette: Women’s Day: Only 16% see visible steps towards closing gender pay gap
And The Lawyer: Women in law: three ways to build resilience
Download as PDF | Report this press release
