Yesterday at Skyscanner we marked International Women’s Day with a day of talks from brilliant women, both within our business and externally.
We heard from our Senior Engineering Director Jo, who spoke on the importance of diverse backgrounds and personality types in the workplace. Next up, Rebecca Moore, who was recently made Director of Growth at Skyscanner, having applied for the role while on maternity leave: she talked about her experience on returning to a very senior position. Lastly, Kathleen Urquhart, a Senior Director in our Talent function, discussed the power of having a personal brand to boost your presence in the workplace. From an external perspective we were delighted to welcome Jayne Ruff, of organisational development consultancy Changing Point, to speak on a topic that’s had lively discussion in many of our Lean In groups here at Skyscanner and beyond: imposter syndrome.
We’ll feature a round-up blog from these talks next week. In the meantime, we thought one aspect of the importance of International Women’s Day is expressed wonderfully in a blog published internally by our Chief Legal Officer Carolyn Jameson: ‘International Women’s Day: from my husband’s perspective’. International Women’s Day is about parity between genders. Pushing for progress doesn’t just benefit those who identify as women: it benefits men and it benefits society. We’ve replicated the blog here, with Carolyn’s permission. We hope it proves food for thought.
International Women’s Day: from my husband’s perspective
Carolyn Jameson, Skyscanner’s Chief Legal Officer
International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global event which takes place each year on 8th March. It has been celebrated since the early 1900s, bringing together governments, charities and organisations across the world with the common goal of achieving full gender equality in all spheres of life. This year, the theme is #pressforprogress, which encourages people to be brave and vocal where they see inequality.
Through my career I have experienced some challenging situations, working in far less forward-thinking environments than Skyscanner, or working with far more prejudiced people than the colleagues I am lucky enough to have now. However, one of the things that has surprised me in the last few years is the experience of my husband, Jimmie.
A few years ago we had a discussion about the best way to manage the demands upon us as parents, given we both had busy roles and felt our three children (now aged 16, 10 and 7) needed more support. We decided together that the best thing for our family would be for him to take a break from his job to focus on our children, and I would focus on my role at Skyscanner. Jimmie is far better than I at anything involving organisation, as those who have passed my desk will not be surprised to hear! I think his exact words were “If it’s left to you, I’ll come home to find you all still sat in pyjamas”.
It seems to work well for us, but one thing both Jimmie and I have found hard is experiencing the prejudices and expectations of gender specific roles. We couldn’t believe the amount of discussion our decision generated amongst other people, facing a mixture of gossip to outright interrogation.
Every time Jimmie is asked what he does by someone we don’t know, and he replies that he looks after the children, he is met with some reaction of surprise or curiosity – ‘oh, how unusual!’ ‘oh, how do you find that?’ ‘do you not miss working?’ etc. etc. Socially, some people seemed confused about who they should speak to when arranging any activity (why did that change?!), and I am regularly asked how Jimmie is coping being at home (in a concerned voice), or how I can bear to be away from the children so much (the answer is that it’s hard, but it would be for Jimmie too).
What I am trying to say is that when we made our decision, I hadn’t appreciated how brave Jimmie would need to be in dealing with stereotyping on a daily basis. I’m highlighting this fact to illustrate that traditional gender stereotypes are outdated, and it is incumbent upon all of us – men and women – to counter outdated attitudes and casual sexism when we see it. This can feel uncomfortable, but if you’re looking for a great example then I don’t think I’ve seen anyone do this better than Andy Murray, who tackled a comment that would have been much easier to ignore, here.
I encourage you all not only on IWD but as we continue on our journey towards achieving full gender equality in all spheres of life, to be brave and speak up. What will you do? #pressforprogress.
