International Women’s Day ’24
International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day (first held in March 1911), celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and calling for action for accelerating gender parity. Across the world, groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality. You can find out more about it by clicking here.
According to the United Nations, legal restrictions have globally kept 2.7 billion women from accessing the same choice of jobs as men and less than 25% of parliamentarians were women, as of 2019. One in three women still experience gender-based violence.
Ascent senior leaders
But what are Ascent’s senior leaders’ thoughts on IWD?
MD, Tim James, told Women Empowering Defence: “A day of global activism focussed on gender equality is fast approaching. At Ascent we rely on the creativity of our colleagues, and to succeed we need diversity of thought and an inclusive environment to unlock the potential of our teams. We live and work in a highly developed economy, however, we see and experience the impact of the lack of inclusion all too frequently. We will be joining the IWD community to inspire greater inclusion #InternationalWomensDay.”
HR Director, Hayley Vince, added: “A day to recognise and celebrate the amazing women that I have and continue to work with within Ascent and throughout my career. To reflect on the challenges of being a working Mum, the strength to put in boundaries to balance career and home life and the joy to see the changes in the workplace that really celebrate diversity and empowerment of women.”
What is Ascent doing?
- Ascent has signed the Women In Defence Charter, pledging our commitment to improving gender diversity in the defence industry. Signatories commit to be the very best at driving inclusion and diversity within their organisations and providing opportunities for women to succeed at all levels.
- We have launched an alta mentoring scheme, which is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and provides a practical solution to the lack of gender diversity, and female role models in the Aviation and Aerospace space.
- We are a supporter of the Women Empowering Defence group.
Collectively, we aim to help forge a more inclusive world for women. #InspireInclusion #IWD2024