International Women’s Day is an excellent time to for us to reflect and celebrate upon our progress as a collective, however It’s essential that we constantly strive to improve our diversity and inclusion efforts throughout the year. At Watkin Jones & Fresh we pride ourselves on embracing diversity throughout our company and we believe that by broadening our horizons we bring in varying perspectives, challenge our norms and diversify our approach to challenges. Throughout this blog, we reflect upon our International Women’s Day team talk dedicated towards championing inclusivity for women in our workplace and we share our findings that can help to minimise inequalities even further as a collective.
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Progress
Throughout the last decade, it’s clear that significant improvements have been made surrounding the stigma towards females in the property industry. We are extremely proud that this is represented in our staff’s personal experiences and the rising number of females at all levels of positions within our business. Although we, as a society have come a long way in removing barriers for females, our team talk revealed that it's essential we continue to acknowledge the ongoing expectations and assumptions that women can face both in the workplace and in their personal lives. By improving our ability to detect and address social stigmas, no matter how minor, we can help to eliminate imposter syndrome and allow women to thrive in their careers at the highest level.
Improving Understanding
First and foremost, it's essential that we acknowledge that women can face different stigmas, assumptions and social pressures – some of which are harder to detect than others. Our team talk reinforced that the first step we can take is improving our understanding of one another. By putting ourselves in each other’s shoes, we can raise our awareness of more nuanced social pressures.
Unfortunately, many women still feel conflicted about finding the right balance between their personal and professional responsibilities, often more so than what's typically expected of men. The balance between societal pressures to excel as a parent, handling school drop-offs, meal preparations, and even household tasks and thriving in professional environments, without letting one affect the other can be a challenge women face regularly. This external pressure can come from small comments that anyone can subconsciously make throughout daily life, but they can add up to have a significant impact on women’s careers.
Steps We Can Take
So, what steps can we take to minimise the social pressures that we accidentally enforce on one another and free women to take control of their careers without the fear of judgement? It’s essential that we share our experiences, whether it’s with our colleagues or our family, so we can bring awareness to any inequalities we’re facing. By taking this step, we can work with each other to evenly share responsibilities and prevent anyone from feeling pressured by society’s expectations of women. It’s also important that we acknowledge that it’s challenging to perfectly balance all aspects of daily life, especially for those juggling work, kids, social life and hobbies. Therefore, it's essential that we have the flexibility with our partners, friends and family to relieve pressure wherever we can and allow everyone to have an equal chance in the workplace.
It’s also important that men champion inclusivity for women by involving others, speaking up when they spot inequalities and raising our awareness to challenges that women currently face.
As we commemorate International Women’s Day, let us reaffirm our commitment to fostering communication, understanding, and flexibility within our workplace. Together, let's champion equality and empower each other to reach our fullest potential, celebrating the achievements of women today and every day.
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