I am Woman Hear Me Roar

For International Women’s Day we asked our CEO, Kate Lewis about what today means to her:

“For those of you who know me, you'll know I've never been a big fan of international women's day or terms like 'women in business'.  I've always been of the opinion that women are successful for who they are and that their gender doesn’t need calling out.

I was with an old school friend recently and I finally realised where this notion came from.

I was lucky enough, no privileged enough, to go to an all girls senior school (Birkenhead High School) from the age of 10 to when I left for university. The reason I feel privileged and lucky is that (and I hadn't really realised it before) my school had unbelievably strong feminist foundations. There was an absolute expectation that we would all grow into strong, successful women. Comparisons to men or any thought that we were somehow less never even occurred to us. 

As we finished our GCSEs, there was no question we wouldn't go on to study A levels and we spent A levels pondering university and our future success, no doubt. 

They invited successful alumni in to give us role models to aspire to. I clearly remember being in awe of the 30 something European Marketing Director of Coca-Cola who came in to share her journey and experiences during our morning Assembly. 

Our 6th form play was "The 7 Ages of Woman" where we used female protagonists from the likes of Shakespeare and Gilbert & Sullivan to explore women's strengths throughout the different stages of life. One of my most powerful memories is the play culminating in us all slowly joining the stage singing "I am woman hear me roar in numbers too big to ignore" long before Katy Perry sang of roaring.

So it's no surprise that my fellow alumni are now Doctors, CFOs, CEOs, Lawyers and successful in whatever field they chose. 

When I entered the world of business, again I had the opportunity to work with and for some amazing women.

So I realise now that my thinking around international women's day is flawed. I was lucky enough to have the experience, exposure and opportunity I've spoken about above. But I know I'm in the minority.

So I will be more present and I will continue to roar for those who don't yet know how.

As in all things, actions speak louder than words and I’m proud that my amazing team at e4enable is 75% women and our investment team is 1/3 women. To be clear, this is not through purposeful positive discrimination, this is through a desire to work with the best people for the job… think on that.”