International Women’s Day Celebrations: A Look at our Patrons’ Activities

International Women’s Day on March 8th is a global day to mark the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

The day gives a call to action for accelerating gender parity and celebrates women’s achievements, but also raises awareness about disadvantages inequality and inequity faced by women, and fundraises for female-focused charities.

The campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2021 was ‘Choose To Challenge’ – a challenged world is an alert world, and from challenge comes change.

This article looks at the activities run by the Patrons of the Automotive 30% Club.

Volvo Car UK

Volvo Car UK celebrated International Women’s Day by reflecting on all the outstanding achievements and contributions that their female colleagues make in shaping the success of the business each and every single day.

Internally Volvo Car UK ran two activities, the first being a radio show/webcast.  Cultural and leadership ambassadors along with special guests spoke about achievements being made in the gender diversity field.

In addition, female colleagues were thanked and celebrated throughout the day in the form of an internal communications campaign.  These women were celebrated for their dedication and contribution to the business and to each other and were nominated by colleagues.  One such comment was “Her passion and enthusiasm is infectious, her drive and determination are inspiring and very motivational. Her communication skills also inspire me, always articulate and strong, the message never gets lost. She is great to work with.”

Marshall Motor Group

Marshall Motor Group implemented a social media campaign focused on inclusivity and access.  Throughout the day they published a series of branded photo pledges reinforcing the Choose to Challenge theme, which was kicked off by Daksh Gupta – as always leading the way!

A huge number of colleagues got involved and supported this campaign which, as well as doing their bit to help forge a gender-equal world, created great camaraderie within their teams. At a time when people are finding things so tough, this was a perfect opportunity to do something positive and remind everyone that regardless of the pandemic the priority to create a gender-balanced business remains firmly on the agenda.

Jardine Motors Group

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Jardine Motors Group held two virtual events. Over 100 colleagues from across the business, both women and allies, came together to celebrate women’s achievements and raise awareness against bias, taking time to consider ways that they can continue to act for equality and how they #choosetochallenge.

CEO Neil Williamson spoke of the importance of challenging the culture. Group HR Director, Clare Wright focused on what needs to be done to move forward, encouraging individuals to be brave enough to challenge business leaders, managers, and to take action and challenge for change.

During the event, there was a panel of inspiring women, some of whom were Inspiring Automotive Women award winners, who shared their stories and spoke more about how they choose to challenge.

Facilitated by Amanda Mogan-Wilson, Head of Communications and Engagement, colleagues also participated in an “I Am Remarkable” workshop to recognise the importance of self-promotion. In breakout rooms, colleagues were encouraged to share their “I am remarkable” statements and to celebrate their unique talents and achievement.

The events were a huge success, and each attendee committed to submitting their #choosetochallenge pledge, giving everyone a voice and a chance to share in the conversation.

So this was just a few of the International Women’s Day undertaken by some of our Patrons. Tomorrow we will share the details of the wonderful activities other members implemented.

The Automotive 30% Club Inspiring e-zine team would love to hear from you with your suggestions for hot topics to discuss in future articles, or tell us about activities taking place within your organisation which help to drive change throughout the industry. If you’d like to get involved please do get in touch: nicola@automotive30club.co.uk