The Chamber is proud to celebrate International Women’s Day 2021

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

The campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is ‘Choose To Challenge’. A challenged world is an alert world. And from challenge comes change. So let’s all #ChooseToChallenge.

Sarah Howard MBE believes women in business have a lot to be proud of but more needs to be done to make sure their voices are heard, especially in company boardrooms.

The business owner and company director said: “The world has moved on since I started my career and while challenges remain, most women starting out today will not have to fight as many of the battles that I did.

“But there is still much to be done to champion the role of women in the workplace and to make sure that all businesses have better female representation across the board to improve diversity, and ultimately to improve business outcomes.  I think it is the responsibility of every woman in a high-profile role to talk about their work and to encourage others to take on the challenge.

“This is something that businesses should be considering every single day of the year but it’s great that we have this day to fully focus upon it.

“Our chamber network, in the UK and around the world, is full of women who have been there and done that and continue to be pioneers in visibly championing the leadership roles of women in business. On International Women’s Day we’re here to give the advice and encouragement that others need.”

As part of its commitment to International Women’s Day the BCC has also surveyed women across its UK Chamber and International Chamber Networks about their current experiences in the workplace.

Its findings revealed that across the 123 chamber and business group network:

• Almost half (48 per cent) of its organisations were composed of more than 70 per cent women
• Only five per cent had less than 30 per cent women on their teams
• Just under 40 per cent had a female Chief Executive Officer or Director General