In honour of International Women’s Day 2024, Impact’s co-founder Jules Dosne spearheaded a compelling Vodcast featuring Dipti Shah, the Founder of Conscious Rebel Leadership.
Their dynamic conversation delved into the vital topic of allyship, branching out to explore Dipti’s remarkable journey as a woman of colour operating at the helm of leadership in the global media landscape.
Our Vodcast also features as part of UpliftHER’s global series – hearing from inspiring women around the globe on IWD.
Click here to watch our International Women’s Day Podcast with Jules Dosne and Dipti Shah and don’t forget to comment your thoughts!
Imagine a gender-equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #EmbraceEquity.
Celebrate women’s achievements. Raise awareness about discrimination. Take action to drive gender parity.
International Women’s Day belongs to everyone, everywhere. Inclusion means all IWD action is valid.
We spoke with Jules Dosne, Impact Creative Recruitment Ltd.’s Co-Founder, to discover her journey.
I see it as a chance to shine a spotlight on the important issues affecting women and it promotes greater awareness and support for gender equality. I love how we recognise and celebrate the achievements of women to raise awareness of the challenges they face around the world, such as discrimination, violence, and unequal access to education and employment opportunities.
This is about inspiring people to take action to create a more equitable world.
Whilst focusing on equality is vital, every business should be embracing “equity” in the workplace. Ensuring the allocation of resources against individual needs as opposed to equal for all helps even the playing field so that everyone can thrive. Associating this with IWD gives a great platform to highlight the differences between Equality and Equity.
It is not only the right thing to do, but it is also good for business, drives innovation, and helps companies attract and retain top talent. When people see that a company values diversity and is committed to equity, they are more likely to want to work there.
I am very passionate about helping the industry to value greater diversity and can see a huge benefit in showcasing industry female role models. Mentoring creates opportunities for women to network with successful female leaders to help build the necessary skills and confidence to pursue these roles. Supporting and championing flexible working arrangements as well as creating a culture that values and promotes diversity and inclusivity will attract more women to take on leadership roles.
Having kicked off my career in advertising – a truly male dominated industry in the late 90s, I have immense admiration for Karen Blackett OBE.
Her career path and progression that led to her promotion in 2011 at Mediacom to CEO has always felt like a game changer moment with the industry. An inspirational and powerful female with so many accomplishments but I’m particularly interested in her early adoption of driving inclusion. In her 5 years as CEO of MediaCom, ethnic diversity transformed from 11% to 19% and women in senior management roles increased to 44%.
There’s a lot that I’m proud of and I guess it started with taking the decision to step away from a career in advertising and, at the age of 26, launching Impact with Nick.
Going on to build Impact into an award winning, ethical business where ED&I is embedded in our DNA. I’m proud of the difference we are making in the media industry. We have been championing women for 21 years and when we look at our data, including leadership hires, 70% of our placements are women.
An internal view at Impact fully represents society in ethnicity, sexual orientation, academic choices and social economic climates. Our team are 65% female, 43% diverse and 85% of our SMT are female.
I couldn’t be prouder of Impact and our commitment to future proofing talent through diversity.
I’d say to be true to yourself, set goals that align with your passions and values and retain positivity and belief in your capabilities. Ultimately, I believe anyone can achieve their career goals and make a meaningful impact on their journey.
International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. At Impact, we strive for a world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated.
We are proud of our fabulous ladies and are taking the opportunity to share a Q&A with a few of them.
Carly: It’s a great recognition of women across the world and to celebrate women in general!
Ellen: To me, it means celebrating the amazing women in my life who have helped shape the person I am today. My beautiful mum and sister are all the good things in the world – I wouldn’t be who I am today without them. I’m also lucky enough to be surrounded by some of the strongest, smartest and funniest women I know every day in the office.
Sarah: IWD to me means celebrating the woman around you – supporting them and empowering them to continue to be the boss’ that we all are!
Erica: It is an opportunity to acknowledge the strength and perseverance of our mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers in succeeding to get us to this point of equality in the workplace that we may take for granted. Although as a society we are very far from perfect, conversations with key women in my life have shown me the struggles they faced, which we may not even consider now.
Carly: Absolutely! Working with a lot of CEOs/Hiring Managers that are male, I have often felt like I have to work twice as hard to gain respect and impress.
Ellen: As I am still early (ish) in my career, I luckily started my career at Impact – where I genuinely feel all opportunities are equal when it comes to gender equality. Not many people can say this, so I feel very lucky!
Sarah: Not fight harder… but fight differently for sure. I come from an acting background, so my gender has always been a big part of my career, that’s just what happens when your own body is your business – I have met so many people who have struggled to see me as more than “just a woman”. Navigating that has been exhausting at times, but it’s made me stronger and I am confident and secure in my ability because of it.
Erica: I have felt that I have had to fight harder. Previously, I have been treated differently & sexualised, I’ve not been listened to for ideas and not been included in projects for them being a bit of a ‘boys club’. I am fortunate that at Impact I feel confident to put forward my ideas and I am treated as an equal. Now, I am on a bit of a mission to make sure that all of our candidates are treated this way too.
Carly: 12 years ago, working in the Business Support sector within creative & media it felt very much like an old boy’s club, where support staff were hired for all the wrong reasons. Now working with senior HR professionals and driving the discussion around diversity and inclusivity, I’m proud to be part of the huge shift in the world for the better, where the industry feels much more inclusive.
Ellen: I think it can be particularly difficult for women in the creative industry. Take advertising for example, from a recent study only 29% of the creative directors were female. With such a male dominant industry, this can be particularly daunting for women entering the industry and not seeing female representation in leadership roles. Saying this; the figure was 3% not long ago. Although we have a long way to go, we need to keep pushing!
Sarah: We still have a long way to go to make it perfect, but people are starting to wake up and take notice, so I have faith in the society we are building for future generations.
Erica: I feel that the Media & Entertainment industry has come a long way and we are progressively seeing diversity and inclusion at the height of everyone’s agenda. I think the most important step now is to make sure that our attention is towards intersectional representation and having female representation at every level, bring on more female CEOs!
Carly: Be more transparent and inclusive in their approach and recognise women’s value at the leadership level, despite potential career gaps to raise families.
Ellen: I think leadership needs to own it- it has to come from the top! Having leaders with the right intentions and a clear view of gender parity will flow down naturally.
Sarah: I think introducing more gender neutrality in their everyday practices is one of the best ways forward. By that, I mean gender-neutral toilets, gender-neutral terminology in communication. Not only is it more inclusive of the LGBTQIA+ community, but it encourages people to not make automatic assumptions of who a person is, and will help break down barriers both personally and professionally.
Erica: I would like to see companies open up the conversation around gender and work to support all gender identities, and that we are not forgetting the difficulties that our trans & non-binary communities face in the workplace. Creating an office culture where everyone feels they can show their true self is crucial and that’s when the best ideas and work can come to play.
Carly: Know your worth and work hard – it’s a strong combination!
Ellen: Be yourself and use your voice. It’s just as important as anyone else’s in the room.
Sarah: Don’t be afraid to challenge and don’t be afraid to be proud of who you are. Stop enabling old-fashioned ways of thinking and operating, have a fierce approach to life, and – most importantly – stay kind.
Erica: Don’t underestimate yourself! If you play yourself down so will other people. Always upsell your skillset and believe in yourself. You’re not being blunt or bossy, you’re doing your job and you’re not there solely to make others comfortable. Be you, and if they don’t love it someone else will!