An Evening Standard panel joined a global conversation across eight cities to mark International Women’s Day 2022.
Worldwide panels with 50 guest speakers, as part of Athena40’s 4th Global Conversation event, aimed to redress the balance of workplace biases and shine a light on the reforms needed in different societies and cultures.
Discussions took place simultaneously in London, Zagreb, Karachi, Beirut, Nairobi, Amman and Dubai as part of work being work being done to #BreakTheBias.
The London conversation included a panel made up of journalists from the Evening Standard and representing the London Press Club.
The London panel, themed “Women as Catalysts for Resilience, Diversity & Change”, discussed gender diversity, inclusion and open communication in the workplace.
Carole Stone CBE, former BBC Radio 4 producer and event organiser, chaired the panel focusing on the barriers women face in media and politics.
Anna van Praagh, panellist and Chief Content Officer at the Evening Standard, said an issue she has observed is of older women “disappearing” in the workplace. She hopes to fill that gap over time by encouraging “as many women as possible” to enter and return to the industry.
She said: “I think we should be understanding of maternity leave, of women coming back and expecting them to come back in a good position - not taking a step down, which I think a lot of women think they have to do. And actually they don’t.”
Expectations to balance motherhood and domestic responsibilities were discussed as an obstacle to women rising through the ranks.
Dawn Alford, Society of Editors Executive Director, suggested “flexible working” as the way forward.
She said: “I think the pandemic has helped women in a way. People are braver in terms of asking for time off and hopefully organisations are listening too.”
Abbianca Makoni, an award-winning former Standard journalist and founder of investigative media publication Awallprintss, said her solution would be to offer a “safe space” to ask for advice from other women, to “support each other in the best way that we can”.
Nimco Ali, columnist, co-founder and CEO of The Five Foundation, spoke on her experience as a woman of colour receiving online hate and how there is still lots to do to reach global gender equity.
She said: “Complacency is the main issue. I think a lot of us think we have already made it to the mountain top.
“But we should also kind of congratulate ourselves for the long way that we have come.”
