As part of International Women's Day 2019 celebrations, we attended 3 events last week and here are the keynotes from them.
1- #WomenForward Women in Leadership event organised by Diversein & Leane Leaders took place at Chartered Accountants House on 8th March Friday. Dawn Leane, Principle Consultant in Leane Leaders and Furkan Karayel, Founder and CEO in Diversein shared insights and personal experiences about women in leadership.
Leane spoke about how women's journey into leadership can differ from men's.
She also challenged about commonly heard phrases about women at workplace including 'can’t see it can’t be it', lack of confidence and family obligations. During her consulting over 25 years, Leane claimed that she didn't see a lack of confidence in women, the rate of job leaving for women was the same as men and there are leaders who didn't have role models, like Deborah Somorin, founder of Empower the Family a non-profit organisation aims to build student accommodation for single parent in Ireland.
Culture eats strategy for breakfast - Peter Drucker
In her speech, Karayel shared the fact that according to a research, the number of underrepresented women in tech leadership is less than two per cent today. While she listed a number of barriers in front of these women, for example, language barriers, social challenges and limited networks, she then advised solutions to those issues from her own experiences including investing in the professional profile.
2- #RTEHourGlass International Women's Day Program with Tara Loughrey Grant. Speakers including Dee Forbes, general director of RTE, Deborah Somorin, founder of Empower the Family, Brendan Courtney, fashion designer of Lennon Courtney and singer Sorcha Richardson.
Forbes mentioned that her first mentors were her mother and grandmother when she was a child. Additionally, Forbes first came across the term 'mentoring' in her earlier career when she was sent to attend a women empowerment course to Boston. The general director of RTE highlighted the importance of diversity plan in RTE where gender balance is currently 48-52 in C level.
Somorin shared her incredible personal story; from homelessness at age 14, single parenting at 15 to being a successful accountant at age 23.
Courtney was the first person who spoke about his sexual orientation to the public at Irish media. He also shared how he opened up to his family and friends; while they were very positive and accepting to him.
3- #BalanceforBetter International Women's Day organised by Dublin Chamber took place in Morrisons Hotel, Dublin 1.
In her keynote speech, Adrienne Gormley, the vice president of customer experience in Dropbox emphasized the importance of creating safe spaces for employees where they can be themselves and prioritising their wellbeing is the key to her engagement with them successfully.
See the gallery from international women's day events.
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