International Womens Day
Published: 8 March 2021
March 8th is International Women’s Day, and this year’s theme is “Choose to Challenge”
A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we're all responsible for our own thoughts and actions - all day, every day.
We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality.
We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women's achievements.
Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let's all choose to challenge.
Gender equality is essential for economies and communities to thrive.
A gender equal world can be healthier, wealthier and more harmonious - so what's not great about that? The race is on for the gender equal boardroom, a gender equal government, gender equal media coverage, gender equal workplaces, gender equal sports coverage, more gender equality in health and wealth ... so let's make it happen.
In a joint statement Jo Hopkins and Karen Fitzgibbon, Co-Chairs of the Women’s network said:
“We have a great story to tell in Public Health Wales about female representation, but stats are only part of the picture. We need to understand how representative we really are as a workforce of women of colour, LGBTQ and disabled women, or those from lower socio economic backgrounds for example, and whether the representation is also reflected in equal pay. But it is also about the people that we work with and provide a service to.
“It is plain to see how the COVID-19 experience shines a light on the existing inequalities in our society in Wales, including women within our communities. If we choose to challenge, as a woman or an ally, we can seize the opportunity to make real change as we emerge from COVID 19, to a better, more equal future for all women in Wales.”
In celebration of International Women’s Day, the Women’s Network in PHW will be hosting a talk from an inspirational woman who is driving change across the world.
Claire McFarlane is a survivor of rape who, after sharing her experience of seeking justice, is using sport to unite people across the world. She established ‘footsteps to Inspire’ and is running 16 kilometres of beach in every country of the world with the vision to peacefully end sexual violence. Claire will share her story with us, how she has healed her trauma through sport, holistic techniques and wellness, and how her movement is driving global social change.
The talk will be taking place over Teams on Friday 12 March at 1pm. You can join the event here
To find out more about public Health Wales’ Women’s Network, please contact, Karen Fitzgibbon - Karen.fitzgibbon@wales.nhs.uk or Jo Hopkins – Joanne.hopkins2@wales.nhs.uk. The Women’s network welcomes any member of staff to join either as a member or as an ally to the network.
