Mar 08 2017

Today, people in dozens of countries around the world will mark International Women’s Day – a day that has been set aside for more than a century to celebrate the achievements of women and to campaign for gender equality.

At Hammerson, our culture and values have always been grounded in the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion. Over the past year we have made continued progress, extending our unconscious bias training to all staff and becoming founding members of the Future Board Scheme, an initiative launched by the 30% Club, the Government and Board Apprentice to give senior women a unique opportunity to get board experience and progress their careers. Furthermore, during 2016, 40% of our professional and management appointments were female.

Yesterday, we invited 15 students from year 11 at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, a local girl’s school close to our London offices, to join us for brunch to talk about the careers open to them in an industry that was once seen as male-focused and give them an insight into the career paths they might like to consider.

Welcomed by our Chief Executive, David Atkins, who quickly identified himself as the token male in the room, the girls were given an introduction to the retail real estate sector and the varied skills and disciplines that are required to ensure Hammerson maintains its leading edge. David explained that many of our teams, including Product Innovation, Sustainability, Retail Leasing and Marketing to name but a few, benefit from the insight and leadership of our senior female management team .

I was joined by a number of my female colleagues at Hammerson – all leaders and experts in their respective areas – and we spoke at length with the girls about the world of property, busting the commonly-held myth that real estate is male-dominated. In fact, the students were somewhat surprised to learn that around 50% of Hammerson employees are female, as are one third of our shopping centre General Managers and that women make up a quarter of our Board.

However these young women decide to enter the world of work, and whatever path they decide to take, it is clear that they are keen to challenge the assumption that girls can’t, or shouldn’t, or won’t. The heroines they listed during the day – Emmeline Pankhurst, Serena Williams and Michelle Obama are all strong women who have faced and overcome odds to achieve their dreams.

We discussed the issues that they felt would face them in the workplace as they started work, and how they could use their own personal qualities to develop successful careers. My colleagues and I spoke with the girls to help them identify skills, strengths and interests that would help them achieve their goals – whatever they might be – and the overwhelming feeling was not only, to coin a phrase, that “this girl can”, but that “this girl will.”

I hope they can #BeBoldForChange.