International Women's Day

Today is International Women’s Day, and we want to take this opportunity to hear from women we know who are challenging stereotypes.

A challenged world is an alert world and from challenge comes change.

So let's all choose to challenge. Celebrate women's achievement. Raise awareness against bias. Take action for equality.

March has been hailed as ‘Women’s Month’ since 1987. The 8th of March has also been more widely recognised as International Women’s Day since day 1975. While this is a good start, women and their work are still continuously overshadowed in society.

Today, and for the whole of March, we want to champion women we know who are challenging stereotypes and helping to forge a more equal world.

It shouldn’t be just one day, or even one month of the year that women’s role in society is appreciated and celebrated, but if you need a place to start, it should be now!

We will be posting about and celebrating the accomplishments of the women we know who are challenging the status quo, raising awareness against bias and taking action for equality. We asked a wide range of women about how they challenge stereotypes and fight gender bias in their every day lives.

Amarachi Clarke - Founder

Amarachi is Lucocoa’s founder and head chocolate maker. Ama fights for gender equality because gender is a social construct which comes with a manual of things that you are expected to do as a result of your gender, and she wants to challenge that way of thinking in society. Ama grew up playing football, and later went on to do a degree in computer science - both of which went against typical gender stereotypes. She has never let societies expectations of gender to influence what she spends her time doing. Even now, as a business owner, Ama finds herself in a world dominated by men but is determined to challenge gender stereotypes and likens the challenging of these stereotypes to adding flavour to an incredibly bland meal.

Ana Pryor - Creative Director for Lucocoa

Ana is a packaging and branding designer based in London. Ana chooses to challenge gender stereotypes by fighting against the idea that success for women is measured by how many boxes she has ticked for her gender stereotype by a certain age. She believes that success should be celebrated for every type of success, be that as a mother, a wife, a career - or however you want to interpret ‘success’. She strives to remain authentically herself across everything that she does, especially design. Not just doing good design, but by doing good. She measures her own success by her own standards and not what society expects of her and she encourages others to do the same.

Christa Harris - Theatre Director

Christa is a Theatre director and co-founder who currently resides in London after originally training in Birmingham. Christa is currently an associate of Olivier nominated Les Enfants Terribles and is also the Co-founder of new charity WildChild, which aims to create social mobility through the arts. One of the ways Christa challenges gender bias is by making sure that she always has a representative rehersal room and creative team as well as ensuring that the creative teams and HODs are fulfilled by a variety of genders. Christa believes that challenging gender biases comes from truly caring about why you’re doing it, and by actively listening to people. Regardless of gender, Christa wants to represent and actively listen to everyone, and she expects that same ethos from everyone involved in her projects.

Katie Wright - Student

To Katie, gender bias is most damaging to a woman’s self concept and the way she views herself. There is so much shame and stigma that is bound up in being a woman. We are held up to impossible ideals'; from our physicality, to what we pursue, which limits our potential and damages our self esteem. For Katie, a lot of work she has had to do involves confronting her own internal views that are holding her back and are the product of the society around her. She feels that the supportive network of women around her is essential for her to do this work. Challenging gender bias is a lifetime project and can be exhausting, but it is the only way we will create a fair society for future generations.

Sammy Willbourne - Horror Director and Producer

Sammy is a Horror Director, Producer and Curator based in Birmingham. In Sammy’s genre, being a woman and being behind the camera is still quite rare; there’s not that many female producers or directors in the Horror genre. Sammy’s very existence in her genre is challenging all sorts of gender stereotypes. Sammy also believes that how we present women in the horror genre is incredibly important; its about putting women front and centre and giving the audience a chance to get to know the woman as people, not just plot devices. This is particularly important for trans women, as they’re having such difficulty already with being accepted for who they are, when you add lack of representation or misrepresentation to this it can quite literally be life or death in some instances and this needs to change.

Michelle Lau - Project Manager

Michelle is a project manager in an investment bank. Michelle sees just how negative the impact of gender bias is to women in society - women are often sidelined for assignments or high pressured roles because of pre conceptions about their abilities/focus in life. Michelle is adamant that we need to continue to challenge this bias so that we can eventually eliminate the preconceptions in the world, open up opportunities equally to women and foster a level playing field for success. Michelle believes that the only way we can successfully work towards diversity and inclusivity is by truly moving away from bias. In turn, we will be empowered and able to smash that glass ceiling!

Stephanie - GM

Stephanie is the founder of Ouli’s ointment. Stephanie chooses to challenge the gender bias on a daily basis by being an entrepreneur, as well as a business owner and a mother - She says that this in itself can be challenging to say the least! To be raising a business alongside conscious human beings is no easy feat, but Stephanie feels like the challenge is just continuing on a daily business. She runs her business with her children at the forefront of everything; knowing that her decisions with the business will impact how her daughter sees herself and what she believes is possible