This article is written by Ioana in our Sixth Form.

On Friday 3^rd March, I attended an International Women’s Day event hosted by HSBC  held in the Guildhall building, City of London. The morning began with a buffet breakfast followed by a discussion of various topics from women working in different industry sectors. The speakers were Gail Bojarski, General Manager of Benefit Cosmetics, which is now the UK’s number one premium cosmetics brand; Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, who was, until recently, the Chief Executive of Mitie Group plc; Anne Dickins, a gold medallist at the Rio Paralympics and Kaushalya Somasundaran, the Head of Fintech Partnerships & Strategy at HSBC.

All of the women gave inspiring talks about their backgrounds and careers, but there were three important messages that they all shared. The first, was that women should surround themselves with people who will encourage them to reach their dreams and goals and not with people who will bring them down. The second point made was that if women do not stick together and support each other, no one else will. The final message was that women should be confident in themselves and not allow themselves to be put down because of their physical appearance.

It was a truly inspiring and interesting event that I felt privileged to have been invited to.

Ioana, Year 13