International Women's Day

As a woman, a mother, a mother to a future man and a mother to a future woman, a survivor of domestic abuse, a working mother, a single mother and a female founder, I thought I would share my thoughts:

I’ve had to work very hard to be taken seriously in what is a male dominated industry.

From my CEO telling me he's disappointed with my straight up leadership style, as he had hired me because I was a woman and he had assumed I would have a softer approach to my male colleagues...

To saying they would "allow me" to take a more direct approach with the men on my team but not the women, for fear they would be less able to "handle it"...

To being the only woman on a high achievers work trip and feeling like I had to accept my colleagues misogynistic “banter" and join them in a strip club in order to fit in...

To having to fight feelings of embarrassment to negotiate on salary, knowing full well that my male colleagues wouldn't have batted an eyelid... and only securing the salary I wanted after writing a long email with a list of points explaining what I had achieved and WHY I deserved it (!)

To being belittled and laughed at for returning to work as a “part timer”, despite still being given the same targets as my full time colleagues...

To my boss getting handsy at a work party...

To being told by a client that because I was direct / dominant, I must be great in bed...

To feeling I had to be LESS feminine, less emotional - less all the things that make us so powerful as women - to be successful...

I speak to women every day, women who struggle with imposter syndrome, women who hide the fact they’ve just had a baby for fear they won't be taken seriously at a leadership level, women who are paid less than their male colleagues..

We still have a long way to go in my opinion, and we have to work so much harder as women.

Sometimes I haven't been brave enough to speak up, but we have to continue to challenge this behaviour. And men - please call it out too.

Women - you are all amazing. And I'm always here for a pep talk!

- Penny Daniels, Founder