AVON PROTECTION PLC
March 8 marks International Women's Day, a day where we celebrate the amazing social, cultural, economic and political achievements of women, while also campaigning for greater progress towards gender equality.
We realise this is also an opportunity for us to discuss this year's theme of Break The Bias. Whether deliberate or unconscious, workplace and many other types of bias make it difficult for women to move ahead. Knowing that bias exists isn't enough, action is needed to level the playing field in order for women to excel and continue to break glass ceilings.
Our colleagues across the globe have been celebrating International Women's Day this week. Many have supported this by sending in their photos of themselves striking the #breakthebias pose and pledging an action to help forge workplace that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive. We've had International Women's Day themed cupcakes, brownies and cookies across our sites and many of our employees got into the spirit by wearing the official colour of IWD, purple!
Every day this week, we spotlighted a few of our female employees who are breaking the bias in male-dominated roles, they wrote about their experiences regarding bias throughout their career, how important it is to see more women in roles similar to theirs and how they are breaking biases.
We also held a live panel event hosted by three of our female employees in our Balance@Avon steering group. They talked about the importance of International Women's Day and why we're celebrating it, as well as their personal stories on how they overcame and challenged any bias in the workplace. This was a huge success with a turnout of 110 employees across the globe joining.
We are focussed on addressing the gender balance at our Company leadership team levels through initiatives like International Women's Day and our internal Balance@Avon group.
Here's a first-look into our case studies:
Michelle Ojiri, Scientist
"I want to be able to encourage those who may be intimidated by STEM or avoid it because it is a male-dominated area to be curious and seek out experiences in STEM. I hope that seeing other women in STEM positions within Avon Protection will encourage others to pursue roles in STEM as well."
Mary McLaughlin, Director of Enterprise Systems
"One thing that motivates me is seeing the number of women in leadership positions at Avon Protection. I am surrounded by strong women who inspire me to work harder. Building a gender inclusive team empowered to make decisions and contributions is the foundation for success."
Kera Parker, Project Engineer
"It's been wonderful to see more women coming into Team Wendy as engineers and managers. There were no other female engineers on the team during my first co-op rotation or when I started working full-time.But I have occasionally taken a step back and thought, "Wow, I am the only woman in this room."I'm glad that observation is now becoming a relic of the "good old days"."
Karen Espina, Senior Quality Engineer
"I love working here for the culture of inclusivity. Being a woman in a male-dominated field, it's hard to shake the feeling that you must constantly do more just to be considered equal. I love that there are so many female leaders and engineers at this site who break the bias every day by showing up and by being both confident and effective in their roles."
Hannah Berrelly, Electronics Value Stream Leader
"I am very passionate about motivating and being part of growth here at Avon Protection, especially with other women in roles that are part of production. There are a lot of women in the business who already show strong leadership skills and this shows in the growth of women cell leaders to date."
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Avon Rubber plc published this content on 11 March 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 11 March 2022 14:19:12 UTC.
