Ali Calder’s Post

This year for International Women’s Day, whilst I applaud all of the examples of men in the business world waxing lyrical about their support for women because of their fears for their daughters or the lessons their mothers taught them, I’d like to suggest everyone can go further. There remains a huge gulf in the way we treat young girls and encourage them to aim for the moon in whatever industry lights them up. There remains an enormous gulf in gender pay equality. There is NO excuse for this. There remains an expectation that women take a back seat when they choose, with their partners, to start a family. Men can’t reproduce; does that mean the disadvantage, both financial and physical must be borne by women? There remains a huge gap in the number of female CEO’s in the U.K. (a reasonably progressive country). It can’t all be about having a family. I could carry on. The statistics are so depressing. I’m asking, as countless women have asked for decades before me for this: every day support. Challenge micro aggression; champion talented colleagues, regardless of their sex, regardless of how much you have in common with them, and regardless of how much they might remind you of your old mum. Equality is for everyone. #IWD2025 #InternationalWomansDay #AllTheGoodMen