International Women’s Day celebrates women's achievements and increases visibility, while calling out inequality. We’re proud to have 3,451 incredible women that make up Team BSMHFT.
We asked colleagues to tell us what International Women's Day means to them, here’s what they said…
Dr Fabida Aria, our Medical Director and Executive Sponsor for the Women's Staff Network, shares her thoughts on this special day.
Fabida said: "I wish you all a wonderful International Women's Day! Today we remember and celebrate women everywhere and give our thoughts and respect to the sacrifices they made for others to have a better life. The theme for 2023 is embracing equity, and this is about recognising that women have been disadvantaged for so long that there is a huge gap to even be at an equal starting place to men.
"Every time I attend the Women's Network meetings I am inspired by the women who share their incredible stories so freely, of pains and triumphs and determination that comes from within. And from this group they get validation, love, support , hope and encouragement.
"I know together we will do all we can to continue the journey towards equity and equality; the journey started by our mothers and grandmothers and those before them; and our work to help women progress everyday will enable our daughters to have a better life than us.
"I would ask all our staff to be allies to women; in doing so we shall all flourish and benefit and are going to make a better future for everyone - our service users, families and ourselves.
"We all know the challenges faced by women, and these are even more for women of colour, with a disability and other aspects that increase the inequalities they face."
Dr Fabida Aria, our Medical Director and Executive Sponsor for the Women's Staff Network, shares her thoughts on this special day.
Fabida said: "I wish you all a wonderful International Women's Day! Today we remember and celebrate women everywhere and give our thoughts and respect to the sacrifices they made for others to have a better life. The theme for 2023 is embracing equity, and this is about recognising that women have been disadvantaged for so long that there is a huge gap to even be at an equal starting place to men.
"Every time I attend the Women's Network meetings I am inspired by the women who share their incredible stories so freely, of pains and triumphs and determination that comes from within. And from this group they get validation, love, support , hope and encouragement.
"I know together we will do all we can to continue the journey towards equity and equality; the journey started by our mothers and grandmothers and those before them; and our work to help women progress everyday will enable our daughters to have a better life than us.
"I would ask all our staff to be allies to women; in doing so we shall all flourish and benefit and are going to make a better future for everyone - our service users, families and ourselves.
"We all know the challenges faced by women, and these are even more for women of colour, with a disability and other aspects that increase the inequalities they face."
Mandy Fletcher, Head of Programmes, Strategy, People and Partnerships and Chair of our Women’s Staff Network said:
"International Women’s Day is a day that gives all women the opportunity to celebrate their achievements, to challenge stereotypes, bias and discrimination. However, this should not just happen on International Women’s Day, this should happen every day.
"As Chair of the Women’s Network, I want to support the women within team BSMHFT to empower ourselves to make a movement so that women are on an equal footing in terms of status and opportunity, together lets #EmbraceEquity to create a fair and equal workplace."
Tabassum Mirza, Improvement Advisor and member of the Women’s Staff Network says: "International Women’s Day is a day of celebration, to embrace equity. It is important to understand what this means. I would like to share a quote from Kimberle Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate:
“Intersectionality is an analytic sensibility, a way of thinking about identity and it’s relationship to power. Originally articulated on behalf of black women, the term brought to light the invisibility of many constituents within groups that claim them as members but often fail to represent them.
"Let’s understand the impact of intersectionality in order to #embraceequity."
