– By Flo Marks
This year to celebrate International Women’s Day 2021, MEA Consulting hosted a panel event on zoom via LinkedIn Live. The industry pioneers who sat on our panel this year included:
- Tamara Box – Managing Partner at Reed Smith LLP, Founding member of the 33% Steering Committee
- Sanjay Bhandari – Chair of Kick it Out
- Sian Hawkins – Director of External Affairs at the Cherie Blair Foundation
- Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye – Project Manager of the Faculty of Medicine and Co-Chair of Imperial One at the Imperial College London
*See end of blog-post for full biographies.
This year we celebrated the societal, economic, cultural and political achievements women have and continue to make across different industries on their journey to equality. With almost 100 years of industry experience between them, MEA’s inspiring panellists discussed these equality successes. And, following this years’ IWD #choosetochallenge theme, they shared experiences of how they have chosen to challenge stereotypes to become leading role models in their industry and greater society.
In Feb 2021, the Hampton-Alexander Review exploring Improving Gender Balance for FTSE Women Leaders stated:
“It is time to reflect on progress and learning, to celebrate the achievements of many, and shine a spotlight on areas where there is still more to do.” – H-A Review, 2021
It is with this tone we began our discussion. All our panellists have been driving forces behind cultural change within their respective sectors, the first question was ‘where did their passion for championing equality come from?’
For Sian and Tamara, the importance of the need for greater equality became apparent in their time at university. As part of Sian’s degree, she took up a voluntary role for Women’s Aid where she worked on the helpline. It was there she quickly learnt that domestic abuse knows no boundaries when it comes to race, class, status and privilege. Yet, despite one’s background or resources, it will continue to fall unequally on women. It was the injustice of this fact, which continues to be true today, that explains why in her career Sian has strived to help and empower vulnerable women.
“That’s what really motivates me now, it’s women’s capacity to reach out, to support other women, to be their guides, mentors, their lights in the darkness…” – Sian Hawkins, Cherie Blair foundation
Tamara also realised the worth and need for greater equality as a young adult. When leaving Texas to study at the London School of Economics she wanted to broaden her mind and social network. Studying at a University where the student body was comprised of over 160 nationalities meant she was immersed in diversity, but full equality was the prerequisite needed to reap all the rewards of this diverse environment.
“To see that much difference in one place and to see it celebrated, to feel different myself and to feel celebrated for it, was life-changing. At its heart you, can’t really appreciate the value and celebrate difference without equality and equity.” – Tamara Box, Reed Smith
Sanjay and Sarah’s belief in equality’s value for society came from a fundamental feeling of what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, ‘just’ and ‘unjust’. It also came from experiencing the fallacy of meritocracy and its consequences first-hand within their sectors.
Nevertheless, despite holding these values dear, Sanjay’s ambition to create positive change came later in his career. Suddenly realising he was in a position of authority and was deemed a role model by others, he felt a societal responsibility. He utilised his privilege to push for greater equality on behalf of all those from marginalised groups and minorities who continue to feel inequality’s evil.
Moving on, we began to look more closely at the successes of women on their journeys to equality.
Sanjay spoke of the gains and potential of women’s football. With the accomplishments of UK’s team in the Women’s World Cup and Super League, it is more than likely the women’s game has the greatest headroom for potential growth over the next 10 years.
“It is time for young girls to think big in terms of football aspirations. Still, the drivers of change in the game and sports industry must be careful not to repeat the mistakes of the men’s game.” – Sanjay Bhandari, Kick it Out
He also stands steadfast in his missions to: embed good behaviours on and off the women’s pitch, to promote more ethnic and socio-economic diversity in the women’s game and mitigate the systemic issues causing imbalances and to ensure it becomes common practice for greater cross-over between the men’s and women’s game (including more female referees and commentators for men’s game)…
Additionally, Tamara spoke of the improvements of women gaining top C-Suite jobs including the number of women on FTSE 350 boards has risen to 35%!
“We’ve [women] been overlooked for far too long, and it is high time that women take their equal place in an equal society, academia and organisations…” – Tamara, Reed Smith
Although humble, MEA recognises the pivotal role Tamara’s 35% club has played alongside the other, as she put it, ‘carrots’ and ‘sticks’ which have been used to push for greater equality. The ‘sticks’ including vital government pressures on organisations to demonstrate the positive D&I changes they are making. Other rewards or ‘carrots’ have included the business case for greater equality and equity in diverse organisations. However, she welcomes the dialogue shift as the most welcome change. The myth of meritocracy has been demonstrated time and time again. Bias exists and to continue to see improvements towards greater equality organisations and leaders of change must continue to work hard. The shift in dialogue has allowed her to call for greater Environmental Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) because
“…it is not only good for the business but for my children, for the world, for my values and all I hold dear.” – Tamara, Reed Smith
Sian celebrated the work Cherie Blair Foundation has been doing – where they aim to close the gender gap for female entrepreneurs in developing countries. Keeping in mind the fact global GDP could rise by US$5 trillion in the absence of this gap, it cannot be understated how important their work is. Sian has helped to oversee and manage Cherie Blair world-leading mentoring programme which has supported over 175,000 female entrepreneurs in lower and middle-income countries since 2008.
Keeping to the focus of celebrating impactful initiatives driving equality, Sarah has been a crucial enactor of change in academia. Yet, there are some challenges. Although Imperial as One was founded in 2005, Sarah only heard about it 3 years ago. Therefore, she argued it is vital these initiatives and schemes are promoted and made visible so they can bring with them greater equality and opportunities for all. This is why with the pandemic, and having become a Chair of Imperial as One, Sarah took it all online so members could continue to meet and attend events. A particularly successful conference was organised by Sarah in September 2020. This was for Black and Minority Ethnic Early Career Researchers. Noting the importance of protecting against leaky pipelines (where the STEM field is losing talented women and other minorities leading them to become underrepresented in the field), attendees left the conference with new knowledge on how they can navigate the academic space and boost their networks to help them decide whether to stay in academia.
Another achievement Sarah contributed to was the removal of the Imperial’s oppressive and colonial-linked motto – ‘scientific knowledge, the crown and glory and the safeguard of the empire’ – her voice and call for a rethink was bolstered by other academics and students in the summer of BLM 2020.
Additionally, not only have our panellists’ work bolstered and empowered women on their journey to equality, but throughout their careers, they have continuously broken and shed light on damaging gendered and racialised stereotypes.
For instance, Sarah explained how she “lives visible intersectionality”. She cannot think about equality for women, without also emphasising she searches for this as a black woman. With only 30 black female professors across the UK today, Sarah was met by huge barriers when deciding to launch a career in academia. Yet, despite not going too far down the research path, there were not insurmountable. She decided to stay in academia and is now the Project Manager in the Research Strategy Team for the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London.
Tamara explained the stereotypes and prejudiced views she has experienced throughout her career. When working in Singapore she notes the comments made about her being a Texan ‘blonde’ and being asked ‘what does your husband do?’ As a working young single woman, she didn’t fit the mould of being the ‘trailing spouse’ who stayed at home. After speaking about these limiting views others had of her, she emphasised that it is because stereotypes are so endemic that we must all challenge our perceptions – everyone has biases and women can be ‘just as likely to make those same [biased] judgements as men’.
So…
“the only thing we can do is become more self-aware and challenge ourselves, and others. When we hear women being evaluated on their performance and track record, and men on their potential, we must speak up. Be an ally for someone else, and hope they will do the same for you.’” – Tamara, Reed Smith
Sian also spoke of the gender stereotypes, still so pervasive in society, that at the age of 6 children are believing certain jobs are meant for boys and others for girls. The knock-on effect of this is that young adults are disregarding whole sectors believing they aren’t the right fit. This is not only damaging to those sectors missing out, but also to entrepreneurialism and societal innovation in general. The male stereotype as competitive, risk-taking, confident and assertive is more closely linked to entrepreneurial values. These ingrained stereotypes have been gatekeepers to women with entrepreneurial ideas realising their potential and entering the entrepreneurial arena [See Cherie Blair report]. Women must continue to be empowered and these stereotypes challenged for positive societal and economic changes for all.
To finish we asked our panellists for some advice for our audience members.
Speaking to the academic sector, Sarah called on educators, staff and outreach to always ask the question
“Are they [whether that be educators, students, staff, outreach programmes] as diverse as possible? Make sure you can always answer with a categoric YES.”
Sanjay called on the audience to
“Be brave, have difficult conversations.”
Being polite in your challenges will get you further. It doesn’t mean being a pushover, or doormat he joked, but it means making your case with honesty and integrity.
Tamara spoke of using a position of privilege to challenge every unjust case and the importance of taking every opportunity to advance equality. She called on the audience to:
“Start with remembering that talent is absolutely distributed equally in our world and society, but opportunity is not… it is our responsibility to level that playing field.”
Finally, Sian finished calling on the audience to…
“take practical actions to foster equality.”
For instance, if you want to mentor reach out to Cherie Blair or get involved in the 100,000 women campaign.
It was an inspirational, thought-provoking event that considered personal and societal responsibilities, as well as the business case, as motivations to call for greater equality. We looked to the achievements of women and their allies thus far without ignoring the challenges they continue to face. And noted the importance of using any privilege to energise our own and others journeys to equality. Everyone can make a difference.
Thank you to our panellists, and we can’t wait to celebrate more successes next year.
Biographies
Tamara Box
Tamara is the Managing Partner, Europe & Middle East at international law firm Reed Smith LLP.
She is a member of the senior executive team and the global board of the firm, one of the largest law firms in the world with over $1.3 billion in revenues and more than 30 offices in the US, Middle East, Europe and Asia.
Tamara is a founding member of the Steering Committee of the 30% Club. She is a member of the Chartered Management Institute’s Board of Companions, and member of the CMI Race Committee as well as a Chartered Manager of the CMI.
Finally, Tamara is Trustee of the UK’s leading gynaecological cancer charity, the Eve Appeal, a member of the Board of Advisors of international children’s charity Theirworld, Chair of the Women of Influence campaign for Cancer Research UK and a member of the Court of Governors of the London School of Economics.
Sanjay Bhandari
Chair of Kick it Out
Kick it Out is the organisation leading the campaign for equality, tackling racism and all forms of discrimination in football. An active and recognised leader of equality, diversity and inclusion practice Sanjay was a member of the Premier League’s
Equality Standard Independent Panel for four years and is part of the Government-sponsored Parker review into the ethnic diversity of UK boards.
Sanjay has enjoyed a 29-year career in professional services, spending 15 years as a lawyer. He has held a number of leadership roles at KPMG and EY, where he was a Partner for 12 years, before taking up a portfolio career as an independent board member, adviser and charity trustee.
For three consecutive years from 2017, he was named as one of Financial Times’ Empower 100 ethnic minority leaders and in 2016, as one of the top 100 most influential BAME people in business in the inaugural Upstanding Executive Power List.
Sian Hawkins
Director of External Affairs, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women.
Sian Hawkins joined the Cherie Blair Foundation in April 2019 and had led on the development and delivery of the inaugural advocacy strategy for the Foundation and oversees the organisation’s communications work. She has 15 years of experience working on women’s rights, from frontline support roles with survivors of domestic abuse and sex workers to high level policy and influencing roles. She joined the Foundation from Women’s Aid in England as Head of Public Affairs and Campaigns. Sian has a BSc in Psychology and a Masters in Human Rights.
Dr Sarah Essilfie-Quaye
Project Director for the Faculty of Medicine Culture Initiatives Management Group, Imperial College London.
The aim of this group is to create an inclusive culture and environment across the Faculty.
Sarah is Co-Chair of Imperial As One – Imperial’s BAME employee network. She has become highly skilled at building and developing online community engagement and has delivered a constant stream of innovative and collaborative events for Imperial As One members. This includes organising and hosting at the 4th Annual Black and Minority Ethnic Early Career Researcher conference that took place in September 2020. She has recently won funding to organise a Let’s Talk About Race @ Imperial programme series directed at Senior Leadership.
Sarah has nearly 20 years’ experience in the Higher Education sector, is an active member of several committees across the College which are focused on removing barriers and improving culture and diversity such as the Race Equality Charter Self-Assessment Team and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Forum.
Since the events of Summer 2020, Sarah has been advising and working with College Senior Leadership on actions against racism.