International Womens Day

08/03/2021

The theme of International Women’s Day 2021 is ‘Choose To Challenge’. A challenged world is an alert world. Individually, we are all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day. We can choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. Collectively, we can all help create an inclusive world. From challenge comes change, so let’s all #ChooseToChallenge.

Here are Louise, Jo and Anne raising their hands and striking the #ChooseToChallenge pose.

   

Over the past few years, Cornerstone has made a concerted effort to increase gender equality, appointing the first woman to the DLF team and increasing the number of women at the top of the organisation. Since the appointment of Jo to the Executive Team in 2019, the gender balance has shifted to three out of five women. In 2020, Cornerstone appointed Jayne, Janet and Louise to the board. They joined Jo and Stephanie, bringing the number of women on the board to five out of eleven members and moving things closer towards a position of gender equality on the board.

During the recruitment to our board in 2020, we actively encouraged applications from women and people from diverse backgrounds. We had a variety of applicants who were all highly skilled.

This year Cornerstone #ChooseToChallenge #IWD2021

Janet – Head of Performance Panel and member of our Board

The biggest achievement in my career was breaking the ‘glass ceiling’ by becoming the first woman under 21 years of age to be accepted for fast-track training and studies to become an Assistant Traffic Manager.  

I was really pleased to join the board alongside my role as chair of the performance panel. I am able to listen to people’s issues and problems regarding their homes, and I enjoy meeting people and trying to help them.

Louise – Member of our board

There are some things we should take for granted, like growing up in a loving and caring family, having a fulfilling and equal relationship and a safe and warm home. This sense of being cherished as an individual which many take for granted, wasn’t always the case for me. I had a rocky start to life and as a girl growing up to be a young woman, I felt the power of inequality first-hand. I had no parents from the age of 11, was homeless and then fell into a violent relationship.

The story of inequality of power is felt acutely by many women, even in today’s world. We have to work twice as hard to be seen and even harder to be heard. How many times have we been ignored or been paid lip service to because we are women? History bears witness to it. Women’s voices in public life are whispers. We are more likely to be famous as troublemakers or rebels if we shout loud enough to be heard.

Many years later after a career in housing vulnerable people, I can look back and congratulate myself for making a difference. I made a choice to live and to fight my way out of oppression. I left that violent relationship, went to university, became educated in Women’s Studies and then opened up Women’s Aid Refuge Centres where there had been none before. Now 35 years later, I am pleased to say violence against women and girls is recognised as a crime – our culture has finally woken up and said “no”. Yet, even so, especially now in these Lockdown days, women are being beaten in their homes and we, as the leaders in Housing have a duty to provide safe and affordable homes. This is why I am on the Board of Cornerstone. We continue to make a difference, not just on International Women’s Day, but every day.

 

Jo – Deputy Chief Executive 

The biggest achievement in my career is fulfilling my dream by becoming a Finance Director/Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Board Member at a relatively young age, at the age of thirty-five.

I chose not to choose between excelling in motherhood and fulfilling my career aspirations. I wanted to be able to do both. Pursuing a career in finance is competitive and often male-dominated but I knew I had something to offer. It wasn’t an either/or for me. It was about how I could make it work, it meant working differently, thinking differently and being the best I could be. At times I was tired from being up half the night being a Mummy to my twins. I was worried about whether I was doing the right thing for my family. I had constant questions in my mind: Was I seeing my children enough? Was I making enough memories? Was I hugging them enough? Was I taking enough photos?

However, I soon realised that by challenging the ‘norm,’ I could excel at both. In 2017, I was commended Finance Director of the year at the NHF HANA awards and led a team to win the Best Financial Turnaround/Change programme in 2018.

The skills I bring are resilience and a can-do attitude. I pride myself on challenging the ‘norm’ and genuinely believe ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way!’

Time is always my biggest barrier, but I always try to make every second count and every conversation have a purpose. I cherish every memory and I laugh a lot.

My challenge is: “Dare to be you!”

 

Anne – Head of Development

My proudest achievement has been to inspire and motivate young people just starting their careers in the affordable housing sector. I have been fortunate in my own career to have worked with some fantastic women in a range of organisations and in different countries.  

My chosen profession is male dominated but I am used this having been sent at the age of 7 to a boys  school!  Times are changing fortunately and I now meet many more female Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Planners and Engineers at scheme design stage. However, once housing developments get to site, the trades are still almost exclusively performed by males. As we modernise our methods of construction and move away from heavy construction, my hope and ambition is that more women will be motivated to join the construction industry. I hope International Women’s Day will inspire many more women to join the sector and help create sustainable homes for the future.