Camilla Ray is the Planning Director at loyalty insights and media services firm, Nectar360.
International Women’s Day 2023 is celebrated this week and we’ve been asking women from across the media and marketing world for their comments on what it means to them.
Here, Camilla shares why continues to challenge the ‘blockers’ that get in women’s way, what she wants all men to do to support IWD, and why she looks up to Dame Kelly Holmes.
What does IWD mean to you?
For me it’s a global day (which is important) to reflect and celebrate the social, economic, cultural, political and sporting achievements of women.
As a mum to two young girls, it’s also important to recognise all the work that still needs to be done, so they can grow up without the gender disparity that still exists.
This year’s theme is #EmbraceEquity – how are you planning to address this year’s theme?
As we all know, just talking about equal opportunities isn’t enough – so it’s great that this year’s theme is instead about embracing equity.
I will continue to challenge blockers that get in women’s way, meaning they can’t thrive or reach their true potential.
We are committed to being a truly inclusive business where every single one of our colleagues is treated fairly and with respect.
This means that we value and celebrate everyone’s differences, and want them to show up as their authentic selves at all times.
So, the idea of having a different personality at work compared to your personal life is thankfully a thing of the past.
How will this be reflected in your work?
I hold myself and Nectar360 to account to ensure we have an inclusive culture and I will also call out deliberate or unconscious bias that hinders women at work.
What should be done to help ensure gender equity is achieved more quickly?
There are a number of areas that can be addressed to ensure this.
A few that spring to mind include maternity leave reforms and ensuring women (of all backgrounds) have a seat at the table when decisions are made.
Here are specific actions that I truly believe will help shift the needle more quickly:
- Improve maternity leave policies to ensure parents are able to take important time away from work needed to have a family
- Ensure greater women’s participation in decision-making roles. Diverse leadership teams in businesses build deeper trust, have more open and direct discussions, ultimately achieving more impactful and successful business outcomes
- We have ambitious targets against gender and our leaders have an inclusion goal within their business objectives which they are ‘bonused’ against. We consider this best practice and would encourage businesses to do the same
Where are you seeing the most progress in gender equity?
Flexible working becoming normalised to enable women to work as well as look after their children is where I see the greatest progress in gender equity.
What can men do to support IWD this year?
Men can be allies on IWD, and every other day of the year.
The authentic ways this can show up are acknowledging male privilege, sharing parental duties/traditionally female tasks, and in the workplace, being advocates for women.
They can also become better listeners to what women want and how they would like to be supported.
If men are unsure on how to support women, they can appreciate the women they have in their lives and tell them why they value them.
Who’s your most inspirational female role model?
So difficult to pick just one. Sport is a huge passion of mine, and the Lionesses winning the Euros was the start of getting women’s football the recognition and support it deserves – something that in my opinion is well overdue.
Growing up I really only had male icons to look up to (Ian Wright was mine), but now there are UK female footballers who are true role models.
So going back to the question and picking one. It would be Dame Kelly Holmes: she never gave up on her dream of winning medals (despite injuries, setbacks and huge amounts of prejudice), and she became the first British female athlete to win both the 800m and 1500m in the Athens Olympics.
She has now set up her own organisation The Dame Kelly Holmes Trust: a youth development charity founded on the belief that every young person needs a champion.