Bank of Ireland celebrates International Women’s Day with Catalyst and UN Women UK to promote gender equality
5 March 2020
Today Bank of Ireland UK joined Catalyst for a ‘Breaking Barriers Together’ event, an opportunity to bring together a community of more than 120 local people from business, technology, science and sport with Bank of Ireland at Catalyst, The Innovation Centre, in Belfast to discuss the importance of gender equality in honour of International Women’s Day on Sunday 8th March.
Inspired by this year’s International Women’s Day theme, ‘An equal world is an enabled world’, the event keynote Claire Barnett from UN Women UK informed discussions and ideas at the workshop and town hall sessions to explore the barriers women and girls face in society and the workplace. These focused on how digital technology can help communities and how to bring women and organisations together to empower future generations to bring about positive change.
Kerry Hinks, Senior HR Business Partner, Bank of Ireland said: “Today was an example of how organisations like ours need to work together to meet goals like gender equality and share notes and ideas to promote positive change and break down barriers for women in Northern Ireland and beyond. We welcomed this fantastic opportunity to throw a spotlight on the issue of gender equality and the challenges women still face as well as applaud the progress that’s being made by businesses and organisations to date.”
Speaking from the event, Claire Barnett Executive Director, UN Women UK, the United Nations global entity working to ensure women worldwide have the right to Safety, Choice and a Voice, said: “It was a pleasure to speak at this International Women’s Day event today. As a female founder and leader, I am deeply committed to breaking down the institutional barriers holding women back so that the next generation faces a brighter future.”
“I am pleased to see Catalyst and Bank of Ireland reaching out to their networks and encouraging conversations about how we can practically change the world for women and girls together. This is just the beginning, and we hope all the stakeholders in the room will step up this year to take concerted action towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals over the next 10 years. It is great to see businesses in Northern Ireland committing to positive change that will benefit our wider community.”
Elaine Smyth, Director of Innovation Community at Catalyst added: “Catalyst are delighted to host today’s event, we know how underrepresented women are in STEM and whilst we have seen the number of female entrepreneurs increasing, there is still much more that needs to be done to increase the participation of women in all areas of our community. That’s why events like today are important in building networks and supporting each other in breaking barriers together”.
Kerry added: “Gender Equality is part of a wider commitment by Bank of Ireland to highlighting and promoting diversity and inclusion across the business.
“In 2019 we announced our commitment to achieving a 50:50 gender balance for management and leadership appointments by the end of 2021 and backed this up through signing up to the Women in Finance Charter and more recently, the Investing in Women Code
“We have several initiatives in place including the roll out of ‘modern ways of working’, targeted development programmes, enhanced recruitment supports, unconscious bias training, and a partnership agreed with Family Carers Ireland and Carers UK to help support colleagues with caring responsibilities.
“This commitment is something we’re proud to have made and it was recognised through the Northern Ireland Inclusion and Diversity Charter Mark we were awarded in February.”
Notes to editors:
For more information about International Women’s Day, visit https://www.internationalwomensday.com.