Breaking The Bias – How the Cairney & Company Community are creating a more equitable world
International Women’s Day is an annual celebration of the social, economic, and cultural achievements of women around the world. We are delighted to support the official UN theme for this year with a focus on “Breaking the Bias” and creating a world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive, where difference is valued and celebrated.
As an organisation founded and led by a woman, Cairney & Company passionately believes in the power of female leadership and talent. Cairney & Company have worked alongside numerous inspirational individuals across the Education and Non-Profit sectors who are transforming their workplaces and trailblazing a path for the next generation of women in leadership.
We are delighted to share the thoughts of those inspirational women and men we have worked closely with who agreed to share their experiences and thoughts on how they and their organisations are #breakingthebias:
Baroness Delyth Morgan of Drefelin, CEO, Breast Cancer Now
“At Breast Cancer Now, we are ‘breaking the bias’ through our commitment to our Equality Diversity and Inclusion strategy – integrated across all of our internal and external work. As you might expect owing to our cause, we have a strong female workforce at the charity, including representation at leadership, senior leadership, and trustee level. With over 55,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer every year, it is vital that we can speak with a clear and strong voice on the impact breast cancer is having on their ability to live – and live well.”
Jimmy Buck, Chief Advancement Officer, Deakin University
“At Deakin, we aspire to be Australia's premier university in achieving equal representation, recognition, reward and value of staff irrespective of gender. As an organisation, we are committed to ensuring gender equity becomes a business and cultural norm. As a leader myself, I am inspired by this commitment and motivated to make it our reality.”
Rachel Sandison, Deputy Vice-Principal (Advancement), University of Glasgow
“We all have the ability to influence and instigate change, and for me this means using my voice to challenge gender stereotypes and bias where I see and hear them; to champion equality and diversity; to use inclusive language and to help educate others (whilst continuing to educate myself); to acknowledge the importance of intersectionality and amplify minority voices; and to support female talent through mentorship and allyship.
I am fortunate to be part of a leadership team, and an organisation, that has made a clear commitment to gender equality and the building of an inclusive culture within the workplace, but we know we must go further and faster.
Together, we can all break the bias.”
Michael Lavery, CEO of Brand & Reputation, Interim Vice-President (Membership, Marketing & Comms) of CASE, and a strategic partner of Cairney & Company
“Inspirational female leaders have been at the heart of all of the best moments of my career – from the partner in my first marketing agency role over 20 years ago who taught me the art of client relations and project management, to the Advancement leader who took the risk to advocate for me to make the switch from the private sector to Higher Education in 2005.
Today, as a consultant I work with some incredible female leaders, partners, and clients, and in my role with CASE our all-female President, Board Chair, and COO set the standards – alongside many other female senior leaders and volunteers.”
Professor Elena Rodriguez-Falcon, CEO, NMITE
“To help #BreakTheBias and encourage more women to study engineering, NMITE has looked at the gaps in the sector and we have tried to address them, for example:
We have role models, female engineers who are actively involved in our outreach, marketing, and recruitment activities.
Our entry requirements, which doesn’t include a maths A level, prevents the funnelling that otherwise exists, but it also attracts a much more varied type of student.
The pedagogical model, which is hands on learning and challenge-based, includes a wide range of industries and sectors, as well as customers, which caters to all type of students, and women in particular.
We have dedicated female recruitment campaigns, and female only bursaries.
We are trying everything we can think of and are ready to try new ideas!
I personally, am a member of the Advance HE, Strategic Advisory Board, for EDI, and I’m Chair of the Board of Trustees at EDT. I also give talks to young people, to teachers, to peers, and work very hard to ensure that innovative models such as NMITE is visible.
But we need much more than one single individual, or single institution can achieve -we all have a role to play. Be the change you want to see.”
Gillian Docherty OBE, Chief Commercial Officer, University of Strathclyde
“As a socially progressive institution, International Women’s Day is a chance to reflect on the progress we have made in gender equality, but also reflect on how much there is still to do.
This year’s theme of #breakthebias fits in with the University’s commitment to promoting equality across our learning, teaching, research and working environments and is also an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the inspiring women working in the Higher Education sector.”
Karen Cairney, CEO, and Founder, Cairney & Company
“At the heart of Cairney & Company is a philosophy of supporting our communities by helping to make change happen, and breaking biases. Whether being the champion of the female voice in philanthropy, helping to shape inclusive giving policies and challenging the sectoral norms, or promoting the success of those women we work with and for Cairney & Company, breaking stereotypes is at the forefront of our ethos.
I try to embody this philosophy in all walks of life, trying to use my voice to influence others in my roles as a trustee, as well as mentoring young women who are just starting their career in advancement, in the hope that together we may #BreakTheBias.”
Over the past decade, glass ceilings have been shattered, gender roles and stereotypes that were once commonplace have been disrupted, and we are seeing in the fundraising sphere that slowly the distribution of wealth is changing hands – with one estimate suggesting that $81 trillion will be in female hands globally by 2023[1]. We must take courage and strength from these successes and be inspired to all play our part in the journey to a more equitable world. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.
[1] https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/managing-next-decade-women-wealth