International Women's Day - Forming Diverse and Inclusive Habits

This year Clifford Chance is celebrating International Women's Day across the whole of March. One of the initiatives has been getting to know our global change-makers in gender equality through a series of interviews. As co-founder of Accelerate>>> (our global gender parity group) I was privileged to be nominated.

You might think answering questions about gender parity would be easy for me but considering big questions like "Why is equality important to you?" made me reflect on my core values, family, society and much more. Who would have guessed that such reflections would be of even greater relevance now due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

I re-read my responses from only a month ago and considered "What would I change?". The below Q&A particularly stuck out to me.

"The theme for IWD this year is #EachForEqual – what do you think we can each do with regards to gender equality?

#Eachforequal is another side of 'Action by All' (the sixth pillar of the Accelerate>>> strategy). I am a firm believer that every one of us can effect change and, if we all do it, the impact multiplies. There are approximately 6,000 people at Clifford Chance. If each person spent 15 minutes a week focusing on improving gender parity that would be a huge 78,000 hours. They say it takes two months to form a habit – so start the above today, reassess when you attend the IWD celebrations in your office and by the end of our financial year in April, it's done; you will have formed a habit that will help accelerate the pace of change towards gender parity."

I went on to list things that I myself and others could do within Clifford Chance that would make a tangible difference. So what is different now? It still takes a couple of months to form a habit and 15 minutes a day by every person would still have a huge impact. So here is my revised list of things to consider during these unprecedented times.

1. Consider your informal networks. This was one of my original suggestions but is even more important now we have moved to full remote working and there is less opportunity for informal sharing of knowledge. Consider, who do you call on a daily basis, who do you have on a WhatsApp group, who are you doing those virtual gym classes with or plan to do if not quite a reality yet! Are they diverse? If not, what are you missing out on? These behaviours are not, for most of us, already habits – they are things we have started doing only in the last few weeks, so please, consciously think about what you want the new 'norm' to look like.
2. Look to share the new challenges that come with remote working, school closures and caring for vulnerable dependents fairly in your household.
3. Consider volunteering for, or donating to, a pro bono or community outreach project relating to women rights which are expected to disproportionately be effected due to the current self-isolation requirements.
4. Follow the newly started hashtag #CCAccelerate. Given the increased need for "virtual" contact, this is one way we want to ensure people will not miss out discussions.

With the seismic shift we have seen in our professional and personal lives over the last few weeks (or longer for our colleagues around the global), now is the perfect time to create new and lasting habits that will make for a fairer and happier society for ALL. Maybe i'm being too optimistic, time will tell but it is up to each of us to make it happen. #Eachforequal.

If you would like to find out more about the Clifford Chance #EachForEqual campaign or #CCAccelerate, head to the gender pages of our D&I website.