Throughout March, our Executive Committee will be answering questions on what International Women’s Day (IWD) means to them, what makes a brilliant leader, and what we can do as an industry to support the next generation of women.
To kick this off, our group head of communications, Yvonne Harley, shares her advice for women who might find working in typically male-dominated industries challenging:
"The advice I would give to women who might find working in a male-dominated industry challenging is:
"Don’t look for differences – look for similarities and work on those. I’ve worked predominantly in male-orientated industries, but I have had more issues being vegan in a meat-eating world than a woman in a man’s world.
"I’ve come up against lots of different barriers throughout my career but not specifically related to gender. When I realised that I couldn’t control how people treated me, but I could control how they made me feel then I felt less concerned about the barriers.
"The key is to focus, be authentic to who you are, embrace your weaknesses, learn from smart people around you and be brilliant. Some people are born leaders – I was one of them, as my Dad told me from a young age, and still does today."
Keep your eyes peeled for the next one in the series, which will be coming from our managing director of assurance in the UK and ROW, Ian Thomas.