Today (8 March) is International Women’s Day and to mark it, we spoke to five women working at Aon about how they’ve been finding life during the pandemic and what their pledges for the #ChooseToChallenge initiative are.
#ChooseToChallenge is the theme of this year’s International Women’s day. The campaign’s site says: “A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day.
“We can all choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can all choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world.”
Working from home has been challenging for many, but employers who offer more flexible working options can help their staff make the most of it.
Helen Attenborough, for example, has been balancing her role as executive managing director of analytics software and product development at Aon with getting to spend more time with her two-year-old daughter.
Sandy Dang, who is based in Singapore along with Attenborough, is a project manager who has been raising her new-born son over the past six months.
Senior business technology analyst Donatella Briguglio has enjoyed the support and trust of her colleagues throughout the pandemic. She’s managed to keep on top of her work while getting married and moving into a new apartment.
‘I pledge… ’
While each of these women have enjoyed the benefits of working from home over the past year, the pandemic has hit women around the world harder than it has men.
It’s important that we consider the responsibilities that often unfairly fall to women outside of their day jobs, such as childcare, during these challenging times. And we must pledge to support one another as much as we can.
To that end, the five women we spoke to shared their own pledges. For example, data scientist Aebhín O’Hara Kiernan said: “I pledge to put people first by working collaboratively to create meaningful solutions together.”
For Margarita Farfan, a business intelligence visualisation developer at the company, her pledge was to “maintain a gender-equal mindset”.
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