International Women’s Day is here and I’m taking a moment to celebrate the women from my working life who make the day real for me.
I have always worked in a female dominated world. The charity sector, in particular the care sector, is all about women. At Arthur Rank Hospice Charity (ARHC) I worked with Dr Lynn Morgan and Donna Talbot, and a whole team of dedicated, passionate and driven women. The management at ARHC held the values of belief in their staff. They gave me such confidence to get on with my ideas and see what happens. I really do credit them with my confidence to go big with BeeBee.
A year and a half on and I write this blog with a team of really special people, both women and men, working at BeeBee Wraps. I want to give a shout out to the ladies at BBHQ who make it happen!
Production is run by Teo, who is completely unflappable and calm (she needs to be!). Fulfilment and Customer Service is covered by Luana who is capable of turning her hand to anything I throw at her. The Rachels - there are two: one looks after our wholesale customers, has a real sense of adventure and an endless stream of ideas and the other is one of the most articulate people I know, which is great as she covers our marketing. Holly and Kate work in Production and I can hear their laughter and occasional outbursts of song from the workshop; Holly is my ‘go-to’ person when I need some sense on a confusing problem, and Kate, who has an unfathomable capacity to love anything, not least two peacocks, a giant tortoise and a whole menagerie of other creatures! Finally, Bebe, (not pictured ☹) who works with us at events, is simply the happiest person I’ve ever worked with, that lady will run (or sometimes cycle very fast) to the other end of the world if I need her to.
These are the BeeBee women who make us what we are. With the men added in, I am extremely lucky.
Over the course of human history, women have not fared well. There are snippets of time where we were mighty in the eyes of society however, it is not a consistent trend. With this in mind, given the freedoms we enjoy today, celebrating all we are as women is simultaneously a duty and a luxury.
My motivation is more personal considering the two young girls I am raising to be mighty women. How I conduct my life and business will mean more to them than what I say. That’s enough of an incentive to push harder through the barriers and give them the licence to do the same.
When I decided to move on from ARHC I wrote a parting word on LinkedIn about empowerment. You can read it here
Nicely put Kath.
You keep going from strength to strength and it’s good to see you sharing that with others.
You should feel very proud of yourself.