There is a video online of a lady who asked a heavily armed Russian soldier to put a packet of sunflower seeds in his pocket so there would be sunflowers in Ukraine if he died. It shows just how strong Ukrainians are. He told her not to escalate the situation – her response was how could she escalate it? They were here uninvited. You cannot really argue with that.
Challenge creates balance in an approach. It is why our parliament is so important, and why it is not acceptable for the prime minister – no matter who it is – to make laws and then pass them by parliament for rubber stamping. Democracy does not work like that, and it is high time we all made it clear we are not prepared to allow it to happen. But I digress.
Of course, while women must and will stand up for themselves and push for things to improve, it helps if men will call out bad behaviour by other men. A perfect example in the workplace would be where a woman is ignored when she makes a good suggestion in a meeting, only for a man to be lauded when he says the same thing.
There have been many female advisers who have worked hard to establish themselves as key players in what is very much still a male-dominated world – Anna Sofat, Philippa Gee, and Kim North come immediately to mind. And it is time for new women coming into the industry to come to the fore and help move female financial advice forwards once again.
IWD is a key date in the calendar when we should think about what we can do – no matter what our identified gender is – to help improve the lot for women. And before you all start rushing to judgement, there is also an International Men’s Day on November 19.
However, for now, let’s celebrate women past and present, and do everything we can to help them achieve their full potential in the financial services industry.
Alison Steed is a freelance journalist
