Stockport marks International Women’s Day 2022

Stockport is supporting this year’s International Women’s Day, which takes place on Tuesday 8^th March. This year’s theme is ‘Breaking the Bias’.

Recognised globally, the day is a chance to celebrate the contribution of women across the world in their achievements both personally, politically and socially. This year’s event theme aims to raise awareness of how unconscious biases can hold back women in the workplace, and in wider society, and challenges everyone to call out and act on gender bias, discrimination and stereotyping.

To mark the achievement of women in Stockport, this year One Stockport will showcase female leaders from across the borough through social media, while Sector3 will promote a number of events taking place this week, including an afternoon of women empowerment at Stockport Central Library, the launch of Starting Point’s menopause strategy and 8 events by 8 women hosted by The Goodness Collective.

A full programme of International Women’s Day events taking place in the borough can be found on the One Stockport website.

Cllr Elise Wilson, Leader of Stockport Council, commented:

“As a woman leader in Stockport and Greater Manchester, this is a day close to my heart. I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by fantastic and inspirational women every day, from councillors to officers within the council to Greater Manchester colleagues and those in the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector. But there’s still more that needs to be done. For me, breaking the bias is all about levelling the playing field so all women in Stockport are able to reach their full potential and allow them to thrive: whatever their sector.”

Sam Vesey, Chief Sustainability Officer at Stockport-based MusicMagpie, added:

“Although I feel on a personal level that I have never been treated differently at work because of my gender, I do believe there are still barriers to progression as a woman. Breaking the bias means raising awareness of biases that continue to exist, in our workplaces, our communities and in our own minds. We all have a responsibility to challenge these, and International Women’s Day is about recognising this as well as celebrating women around the world.”

Beyond the borough, the UK government has chosen to mark International Women’s Day with the launch of two new schemes to support women in the workplace and end pay inequality.

A new programme will pilot full transparency over salary offers on job advertisements, and end questions over current and previous earnings at interview stage, to ensure offers made to women do not perpetuate pay inequality or low pay from previous employers.

Women in STEM careers will also benefit from new support to help with returning to the workplace after a career break, such as due to maternity or caring.

Minister for Women, Baroness Stedman-Scott, said:

“We believe that increased pay transparency will build on positive evidence of the role information can play when it comes to empowering women in the workplace. It is essential that we keep women at the forefront of the levelling up agenda as we recover from the pandemic and rebuild together.

“Our second announcement, supporting skilled women to return to STEM careers after care leave, will keep talented minds in STEM and improve the representation of women and marginalised communities in those incredibly important roles.”

Analysis from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) underlines the need for action to tackle gender-based inequality in the workplace. Research published this week to mark International Women’s Day 2022 found that only a third of respondents had programmes in place to close gender gaps at their firms, with fewer than 41% of management roles in the UK being held by women, despite representing 48% of the workforce.

Ann Francke, Chief Executive of CMI, commented:

“As we mark International Women’s Day this year these findings make for uncomfortable reading.  We hear a lot from employers about the important, valuable role of women in the workplace. And though there is a lot of great work and progress, overall  the figures don’t support the rhetoric.  

“Our research shows a very real gap between perception and reality.  There is no reason why, in this day and age, women should be any differently represented in management and senior workplace positions compared to their male colleagues.  Organisations need to take a real hard look at how they support their female employees and what they actually have in place to help them with career development and success.”