Alison Johns, Advance HE Chief Executive, says, “We are proud to join the worldwide support for International Women’s Day (IWD) and its theme for 2021 #ChooseToChallenge.
"It is both inspiring and humbling to look back over the timeline of 110 years of IWD and to read the extraordinary stories of women who have campaigned for what should be a given right for women everywhere – equal status and fair representation.
"We all know that in varying degrees around the world women are very far from enjoying equality. We owe it to the legacy of the campaigners before us, to ourselves and to the generations who will follow us, to sustain the campaign, to never give up or lose impetus.
"In our area, higher education, we have a perfect platform for advancing progress in challenging inequality; for it is through education that real and lasting change can be achieved. For Advance HE this means using our global networks to champion one of our three strategic goals, which is to ‘address systemic inequalities for staff and students’ and our specific commitment to ‘drive progress in equality, diversity and inclusion’.
"Our promise on International Women’s Day is that we will deliver on this strategy and commitment. We will #ChooseToChallenge."
Find out more about Advance HE’s work including the Athena Swan Charter, encouraging and recognising commitment to advancing gender equality; our other work to promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; and specific development programmes designed to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing gender equality in higher education.