International Women's Day Events 8 March 2017

This year, Thales is celebrating International Women’s day by highlighting its commitment to the engagement, employment and professional development of women. Thales is proud to employ many inspiring women who are dedicated and passionate about driving gender parity.

To support International Women’s Day this year, Thales is running a series of internal networking events, as well as working with ‘Girls on the Move’ to promote a series of events aimed at female students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths). Thales will be shining a light on the fantastic individuals across the global business by releasing a series of profiles to showcase the diverse female talent that exists in the company and celebrate their successes.

Thales will also be running various events globally. In the UK, they will be delivering the WISE ‘People Like Me’ training session at local schools. High-Tea sharing sessions will take place in Singapore, in Saudi Arabia they will be hosting ladies lunches and in Canada, coding and networking events will take place to encourage women into tech, among other things.

Thales has also asked some of its female employees to think about the importance of diversity, and what bold action they’ll be taking in 2017 to drive gender parity.

Find out more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7v8jr2eaak&feature=youtu.be

Women in STEM Conference at the University of Plymouth

On 23^rd March 2017 the University of Plymouth hosted the 3^rd Women in STEM conference with the title ‘Inspiring the next generations’. Men and Women came from across the South West and beyond to discuss, debate and challenge gender balance in STEM. Our conference featured Rubi Kaur as the keynote speaker where she addressed the current situation and gave invaluable advice to employers, teachers and students. The ICE South West participated with Teresa Frost where she challenged diversity and inclusion and shared some valuable actions that they are putting forward as an organization to address equality and equity for all. The conference also offered three workshops on the People Like Me, the SPRINT development programme and an outreach activity by Smallpeice Trust.

The conference chair moderated the panel where all speakers participated and sharing their thoughts on challenging questions. Speakers and participants challenged the stereotypes and inspired the generations on how to attract more women in STEM. The topics discussed varied from the employer perspective to the family perspective. It was recognised that the lack of women in STEM still remains an issue, but it is also a challenge and we can create more career development opportunities in STEM for all girls and women.

Female potential and talent in STEM often are not supported or recognised. Culturally and politically there is still a lot we can do. Speakers concluded that we can and should re-imagine the future. We need to be curious.

There are many good reasons why such events should happen often enough. Such events have definitely impact and raise awareness especially on practice and policy making. Such events bring people together from different backgrounds and together that can find answers and get inspired on important questions that have been discussed over the years. Such events and conferences are a perfect setting to advance women. Although our world has advanced significantly over the past 100 years, we still need to empower women, encourage them to pursue careers in STEM and that we can all make greater strides towards gender equality across all professions.

Dare to imagine. Imagine the impossible. Be the change.

Dr Ismini Vasileiou is a Lecturer in Information Systems and Chair of the Faculty Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee at the University of Plymouth. She is passionate about equality across all genders and her work has been recognised by the WISE Awards and TEDx where she recently delivered a personal and provocative talk. Ismini.vasileiou@plymouth.ac.uk