Full wrap-around LIVE and on-demand content from policy to implementation, action & impact.

There are no barriers to the insights and wisdom that can be shared on advancing women at all critical life-stages.  From policy to implementation, from talk to walk, and from idea to impact, our digital series will host brilliant individuals who are doing things differently when it comes to achieving equity;  both personally and professionally. 

We know that your time is precious so we won’t waste it.  Solutions, real-life stories and advice are what you’re after, and these sessions will provide it - candid case studies from businesses who have “Been there, done it”

Available live or on-demand on our superior easy-to-access web platform for those with a digital or full pass. Plus, all talks from the London Summit will be available on-demand to digital or full pass-holders.

Women in Work 

Women's Health in the Workplace

With over over 3.5 million people in the UK going through some form of fertility challenge, 40% of employers still do not have a formal policy in place to help their employees with this incredibly difficult life experience.

In this session, journalist, fertility patient and working mother Sophie Sulehria talks to Centrica - an international energy company, who have made infertility a priority in the workplace, to discuss their gold standard fertility in the workplace policies.


Infertility in the Workplace 

Alice Smellie chats to Sarah Tan, General Manager, Europe, at Lingo, a company representing the future of consumer biowearables, or wearable tech. Many of you will probably already be aware of your daily heart rate, your breathing, exercise levels and sleep quality. Well, Lingo represents the next step in taking responsibility for your health, and that's what Sarah is here to explain to us.


How to Stay Steady, Stay Focused with Lingo 

Join us for a chat with Elaine Banton Barrister at 7BR Chambers, Elaine will be joining us hot from Maria Rooney’s action against Leicester City Council is first tribunal case to consider the symptoms as a disability. This will be an interesting conversation about how to Navigate Menopause in the workplace both as an employer and employee.


Navigating Menopause in the Workplace 

How to Embed Women’s Health and Mental Health into an Organisational Health and Wellbeing Strategy

In her rousing introduction to the inaugural Women In Work Summit, journalist, broadcaster and co-founder of [Menopause Mandate](https://www.menopausemandate.com/), Mariella Frostrup underlined the economic benefits of female workers to businesses. 

She explained that corporates with more than a quarter of women on their executive committee saw a profit margin of 16% - more than 10 times higher than those with no female board members, according to [PwC’s 2023 Women in Work Index](https://www.pwc.co.uk/services/economics/insights/women-in-work-index.html). 

What’s more, she said, there would be a £4.6 trillion gain from increasing the female employment rate across the OECD to match that of Sweden’s. 

But at it stands, Mariella said: “By the time a woman's first child is 12 years old, her hourly pay is on average 33% behind a man's. The 'motherhood penalty' makes up 80% of the pay gap. That's direct penalisation - or should that be penis-alisation - for not having the 'right' body parts!”


Opening session and wake-up call - what does a “successful” career path look like for a woman throughout her life trajectory? 

This session brought together three senior female politicians: The Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP, Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, Carolyn Harris MP, Deputy Leader of Welsh Labour and Anneliese Dodds MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, who discussed how government policy needs to progress, with Dodds declaring: “185,000 women between the ages of 50-64 have left the workplace since the pandemic, so we are clearly not getting this right.” 

There was resounding applause for our three female representatives of the house, with a rallying cry from Carolyn Harris MP, who said: “Women have been around for a long time, we are 51% of the population – why should we have to sit back? It’s our responsibility to every generation ahead of us to make sure that we have our voice and we are heard.”


Ministerial Interview - Labour and Conservative Perspectives on Women in the Workplace: Policies, Pitfalls and Hopes for the Future.

[Ian Elliott](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ACoAACAsRv8B4ey10sg92yeMtA5naMENJkZtCAw), UK chief people officer at [PwC](https://www.linkedin.com/company/pwc/), delivered an inspiring talk, calling for employers, as critical stakeholders and drivers of change, to take responsibility to reduce the organisational inequalities that exist, and which are further delaying progress. 

As Elliott pointed out: “Young women entering the workplace today will wait 50 to 70 years before the gender pay gap is eroded if change is not accelerated. Research from PwC's Women In Work Index showed there would be a $4.6trillion gain from increasing the female employment rate across the OECD to match that of Sweden’s, and to close the gender pay gap, that would increase female earnings at the same time by $2tn across the OECD, which would of course pour back into the economy. Apart from the fact it would be fairer, the impact gender parity would have on all our businesses would be huge.”


KEYNOTE The Economic Argument: Why supporting women in the workplace is not just morally good, but economically essential 

The 300-strong auditorium was treated to candid storytelling by Dame Sharon White, outgoing chairman of John Lewis Partnership, who regaled the audience with tales of growing up with a seamstress mother, about her career journey and advice on how we keep women in work. 

During the session, steered by Dr Nighat Arif, White shared her top tips, which included finding mentors to sponsor, champion and lift you, and staying focused and determined. 

She said: “If flexibility didn’t exist, I’d have given up work 15 years ago,” before going on to outline the progress women have made over the years. White said: “I had my first child at 37 and my second at 40. The change in navigating the world of work as a woman who was a mother was fundamentally different in a way, even as somebody who for years had promoted and worked with lots of women, that I had completely underestimated. It was the first time that my anatomy was starting to define - not necessarily my career choices, but those that others saw for me.”


Visible Women - Creating High-Profile Female Role Models to Inspire a New Generation of Female Leaders.

In this session, Kate Ryder, founder and chief executive of Maven Clinic, which works with employers to deliver personalised and comprehensive support for women and families throughout the journeys of fertility and family-building, pregnancy, parenting, paediatrics and menopause, shared how employee engagement is an essential component of better workplace outcomes. 

Ryder encouraged employers to “really listen – whether through the conduit of ERGs, or via employee surveys, to what their employees are saying.” 

Questioned by Dr Nighat Arif, Ryder said: “Recent research (That Works for Me, 2023) shows that less than a quarter (24%) of women go back to full-time after having children, and of that 24%, 79% ended up leaving anyway due to not being able to maintain a full-time role, 90% of Maven members return to work following parental leave.”

And as Dr Nighat Arif added: “These are societal issues, not women's issues. It's everybody's issue. As circles, women tend to be constantly put into a square. The time has come to say no. And that's why having conversations like this are vital, so women are never seen as weak or 'a problem' because they’re having a menstrual cycle or menopausal symptoms.”


  Interview: How to Improve Health Outcomes for Women and Families in Work AND Reap the Benefits

This was a very lively debate around the pitfalls and upsides of women WFH vs returning to the office, led by Liz Moseley managing director of Good Housekeeping. 

It left the audience wanting more, with controversial statements like: “Working from home is a disaster waiting to happen for feminism,” from multi-exit entrepreneur Debbie Wosskow, OBE. 

But Christine Armstrong, author of *The Mother of All Jobs*, argued from the opposite corner: “Covid has given us the most incredible opportunity to reset work, which was designed for the world of the breadwinner model, where Daddy was at work and Mummy was at home. Now we can save ourselves two hours a day travelling, do a really good job, come into the office maybe two or three days a week and do some networking. And actually, this could really work, so what we can’t allow is for the men to do it the way they always did it, and slide back to the 1960s.” 

Meanwhile, Michelle Sequeira, senior principal and Mercer’s UK and Europe diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consulting leader, said research shows 40% of men feel connected when they are working remotely with co-workers, compared to only 30% of females. She urged businesses to build the right networks and put in place sponsorship and mentorship to encourage a sense of community for those working from home. 


Debate: Is the Post-Pandemic Shift of Working from Home Full-Time Good for Women?

As chief executive of Channel 4, Alex Mahon is committed to making work better for women. In this session, she shared how she believes change can be delivered to stop women involuntarily leaving the workforce and to ensure they have the same career progression opportunities as men. 

Mahon went from education to implementation to engagement and built a culture of inclusivity. Here’s how she started: “We set really specific targets for diversity, and I set hard targets for the top 100 most highly paid people within the organisation, with the belief that if we could change the people who were the biggest decision makers, that would help change the culture. We went from 34% women in the top 100 to now 53%... So we started off with diversity representation, then we moved to inclusion, making sure people got included in things in the workplace. Now we're trying to move to equity, which is ensuring that everybody has the same opportunity.”
