INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
NICOLE MARTIN PARTNER
I know this pandemic is impacting everybody in all walks of life, however there is a risk that gender inequality could go into reverse, which is something I feel passionately we all need to #ChoosetoChallenge. It is why I continue to remain proud to be a partner at BDO with our response to the pandemic; promoting agile working for everybody who needs to work in different ways, for a whole host of reasons, childcare, caring responsibilities, looking after relatives with the virus, alongside a critical focus on wellbeing and staying connected, and an un-wavering focus on removing barriers to equality. As Melinda Gates stated “Covid has magnified every existing inequality”, therefore as we come out of this pandemic I am going to personally #ChoosetoChallenge myself as to how I will continue to support gender inequality through my role as a parent, my role at BDO and in my role on the Board of Governor’s at a local large technical college. I know there is more I can do!
In reflecting on International Women’s Day, the theme #ChoosetoChallenge and on my thoughts from last year when I wrote on my career in the auditing world; I think about the way each and every one of our lives has been impacted and the challenges we have all faced, which we were not prepared or ready for, given the speed of the spread of the virus and the essential action that needed to be taken. I have read a large number of articles on the impact that Covid-19 has had and will ‘affect’ women and how it will affect women disproportionately to the impact on men, as it is women who are typically on the front line in a number of professions, including in healthcare and it is women who are more likely to bear the brunt of the social economic consequences of the pandemic. I have seen this first hand in my female friends who are home schooling primary school children; I personally have an 11 year old who has transitioned from primary to secondary school over the last year, a large amount of which has been via home learning /schooling and the impact that has had on both of us; I have friends who work in typically female dominated professions who have had limited or no income over a large proportion of the last year, and I have friends who work in healthcare with the resultant mental strain.
It would be great to have a coffee with anybody who would also like to #ChoosetoChallenge themselves, to share thoughts and ideas …
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