Brightstar Financial is marking International Women’s Day with a Women in Finance Workshop to discuss developments for the Women in Finance Charter and identify ways in which women can increase their profile and advance their careers to create a more representative sector

This year’s Women’s Day theme is #BalanceforBetter and the team at Brightstar has affirmed its commitment to continuing to focus on achieving gender balance and ensuring that everyone in the organisation can progress and thrive.

The Women in Finance Workshop will bring together women from across the Brightstar Group and special guests to discuss the Women in Finance Charter and the work that Brightstar is doing to advance the Women in Finance agenda, talk about the experiences of being a woman working in financial services and to identify ways in which women can increase their profile and advance their careers in financial services, ultimately creating a more representative sector.

The workshop will be held in Brightstar’s Billericay headquarters, will be led by director of people development, Clare Jupp and learning champion for women in finance/STL specialist Jo Logan, and is expected to be attended by 25 team members.

Jupp (pictured) said: “With the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report telling us that gender parity is more than 200 years away, there has never been a more important time to keep motivated and to keep pushing for progress, balance and change. While this prediction might seem rather devastating, it sends a strong reminder that there is still a huge way to go with securing gender parity in society.

“In the context of the financial services sector, this means committing to, and ensuring that, women are represented positively at all levels, including in the very highest positions. International Women’s Day seeks to celebrate women’s achievements, as well as acting as a catalyst for change when it comes to gender equality. It has been observed for over 100 years and is now celebrated around the world. At Brightstar, we are committed to marking this day on an annual basis and we feel passionate about making change.”

“Brightstar has worked hard to remove the label of flexible or ‘dynamic’ working as being exclusively a women’s ‘issue’ and ‘right’ and is certainly seeing the positive effects of this. Firstly, everybody has access to better work life balance and secondly, gender parity is massively enhanced.”