President`s Message – March 2019

WIBF President, Vivienne Artz on International Women`s Day

March is one of my favourite months – Spring is in the air as the Daffodils come up, and it is International Women’s Day (“IWD”) on 8 March.  March is a month of optimism and new opportunities.   IWD is fast becoming a celebration of women’s achievements as well as an opportunity to drive awareness and change, from a single day, to a week long phenomenon, and increasingly, the start of an annual theme of gender focussed actions.

It is fantastic to see how IWD awareness and events have shifted from a few firms and bodies embracing IWD, to most firms and bodies embracing IWD – with pride and passion and determination!  The theme this year #BalanceforBetter creates a terrific platform for firms to engage, not just with the women in their firms, but also men, as “balance” is clearly an inclusive approach.

“Better the Balance, Better the World” is a hugely empowering theme for IWD, and creates a perfect opportunity to discuss what this should look like and how we can achieve this, not in the distant future, but how we can drive change in our organisations today.

I hope that you will join us for our IWD events in Birmingham, Bristol and London.  I will be participating in the event on the 6 March in collaboration with State Street, IoD City and ING, hosted in State Street’s offices in Canary Wharf.  Visit this link for more information and to sign up.

Wishing you a fantastic IWD!

Vivienne Artz
WIBF President