International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women; recognising the value that women bring to individual communities, professional spheres and collectively to the world. The day also serves as a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.
To mark this important day here in Research, Business and Innovation at UWE Bristol, we invited Professor Sue Durbin to join us, to share more about her areas of research expertise and portfolio of positive action interventions she has both designed and led in order to promote and advance gender parity in employment recognising that on average women still earn and are promoted less in the workplace.
Sue is a Professor in Human Resources and leads the UWE Bristol Human Resources Work and Employment Research Group. Her research expertise centres around non-traditional employment for women, specifically women’s employment in male dominated industries and has founded, chaired and mentored through mentorship initiatives and platforms for women; most notably the Alta mentoring scheme which has a specific focus on career progression in the aerospace and aviation industry as well as her work leading UWE Bristol’s own Women in Research mentoring scheme and her work to promote Black female academic career progression through the Elevate scheme.
The focus of Sue’s talk to Research, Business and Innovation teams was empowerment and the impact that industry mentoring can have on the advancement of women’s career progression and the addressing of underrepresentation in the workplace. Mentoring schemes offer a reciprocal learning process for both mentors and mentees and bridge networks for progression pathway opportunities.
Sue will be leading a number of International Womens Day themed events and discussions; both industry focussed and here at UWE Bristol.
As we mark this day, we call on our Research, Business and Innovation communities to collectively celebrate and amplify the voices, work and experiences of women and importantly to consider our positions of influence in the advancement of gender equality.