Date: 6th February
Time: 11.00 - 12.00
Venue: Teams
Women in Estates webinar: Help the individual, help the university
A personal story about menstruation, menopause and hidden disability to help you connect with your role in creating meaningful change, with Emma Brookes.
Everyone with a professional interest in equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace – and as our new report ‘Well the assumption is…: Conversations with women leaders in estates and facilities’ states, that really should be all of us – can point to amazingly impactful personal stories that we have been told that have really helped to shape our understanding. It can be easy to imagine that everyone has a life experience similar to our own. In practice, when a colleague is prepared to share something of their personal experience, it can be a powerful way to unpick our expectations and help us to commit to being on the side of progress and change.
This session will be led by Emma Brookes, Strategic Projects and Research Manager for our sister organisation Universities Human Resources (UHR). Emma will draw on her own lived experience and in doing so perhaps open eyes to ways we can help many members of our university communities. She will consider issues arising from her own menstrual health and menopause, and hidden disability, and in doing so touch on one of the key themes in the report, where participants were clear in stating that their experience of women’s health, including maternity and menopause, acted as a barrier to career progress; and that they’d really like male colleagues to improve their understanding of women’s health as it relates to the workplace.
When we in estates and facilities make one change, to help one individual, we often find that we have helped hundreds, and in doing so helped the university and succeeded in our roles. As practical people we know we cannot create a campus that is perfect in every way for every single one of the thousands of people that use them. But think of a change that would have seemed huge a generation ago – the installation of accessible ramps to all buildings. The first person that asked for that change may have been in a wheelchair. It may have seemed like a frustrating or expensive amount of work to benefit few. But ever since, so many people have gained – those managing deliveries, or carrying luggage, those with toddlers or buggies to keep track of, those carrying shopping, or uncertain about climbing icy steps. Helping all of those people is something to be immensely proud of. Help the individual, and help the university.
Tagged : EDI, Professional Development, Events
Type : Meeting
This event will be CPD accredited:
