Why attending the inaugural event in the ACT Diversity and Inclusion Calendar: ‘Bridging the gender gap’ is essential – a guest blog by Agnes Favillier, Chair of the ACT Future Leaders in Treasury (FLiT) group
Rarely does a week pass without diversity being discussed in the public space. In recent weeks, we've debated the gender pay gap when the BBC published the salaries of its 96 highest paid employees, President Trump announced he wanted to ban transgender people from the US military, Google fired one of its employees over a memo discussing reasons for gender imbalance in the Silicon Valley workforce, and just a few days ago gender bias in Clarks’ boys and girls shoe range was highlighted.
And all this is in addition to the ongoing debate about diversity in the workplace, in education and in the public sphere.
A lot has been done, but there’s an opportunity to go further: clearly, the fact that diversity is such a widely discussed topic is evidence that progress has been made, but also proof that there is still a lot to do (if there was no issue, there would be no discussion).
To me, it seems only natural that the ACT engages its members and the wider community on diversity, and demonstrates that being a treasury professional isn’t just about technical knowledge. It is also about personal skills and the recognition of what makes a high performing team. In my opinion - and from experience - diversity is core to a strong and effective team: diversity in backgrounds and experiences ensures that more scenarios and dimensions within a piece of work or project are considered and dealt with, and prevents a single-sided approach and “groupthink”.
As Chair of the ACT Future Leaders in Treasury (FLiT) group, which aims at building a community of younger treasury professionals, diversity has been an important topic since Day One. We are delighted to have contributed to the first event in the Diversity and Inclusion Calendar “Bridging the gender gap”, and to have Diana Brightmore-Armour as a keynote speaker.
By coincidence, I am currently reading a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, who has been one of the most fervent campaigners for women’s rights and gender equality (amongst many other things), and I can’t help but be surprised that over 80 years later, the current debate on gender equality hasn't progressed much despite the dramatic changes the world has seen in that same period of time. To me, it is obvious that more needs to be done, and having open discussions on gender balance, such as the ACT’s “Bridging the gender gap” event, is absolutely necessary to continue to shift minds and behaviours.
I encourage all ACT members to attend as gender balance is not just a women’s issue, it concerns all of us: as professionals - by being part of a team, managing a team, hiring people, being hired - and as individuals - through our friends, sisters, daughters, colleagues in the workplace. I am sure that the “Bridging the gender gap” event will help form better opinions about the current and future diversity controversies that we deal with on a daily basis.
Find out more about the up coming event, please click here.
