8 March is International Women’s Day, an annual day to celebrate women’s achievement, raise awareness about discrimination, and take action to drive gender parity.
The theme of the event for this year is Embrace Equity.
In honour of International Women’s Day, we’re highlighting some recent stories featuring women from our own community.
Record 45% of funding raises led by women
at SetSquared Bristol
People who identify as women raised £15 million of the total £33 million raised by the 85 companies at the University of Bristol-led incubator. Kimberley Brook, director at SETsquared Bristol said: “It’s a testament to the entrepreneurialism and resilience of our women-led companies that they are raising more funding than ever before.”
Olympic-level student fundraiser receives MBE at Windsor Castle
A student who raised £185,000 doing all 102 Olympic sports over the 17 days of the Tokyo Games, received her MBE from Princess Anne.
From eating disorder to Ironwoman: The amazing student who loves helping others
Megan Hamill, a final year student overcame an eating disorder to complete a half Ironman. Now she’s aiming for the podium at Ironman Austria, which would give her spot at the world champs. This will require her to swim 2.4 miles, cycle 112 miles and run 26.2miles.
Philosopher Queens: New course is diversifying the philosophy canon
Dr Alix Dietzel, the leader of the new Philosopher Queens unit, discusses her inspirations, and the new course which is diversifying the male-heavy, western-centric philosophy curriculum.
Dr Dietzel said “Traditionally most philosophy courses include a slew of white men, sometimes with one token woman.
“The way the ‘canon’ of important philosophers is presented is that there is a particular type of person who is a philosopher. Students would say to me ‘I can’t do philosophy, I don’t have that sort of brain’ – which simply isn’t true.
“This course has raised the confidence of my students, who felt at home in a philosophy course for the first time.”
If you have more inspiring stories to highlight for International Women’s Day, let us know in the comments.
#EmbraceEquity