Barclays Wealth and Investment Management in the Isle of Man hosted a breakfast event to celebrate International Women’s Day last month.
The breakfast, held at Douglas venue Bar George, provided guests with an insight into trends in female entrepreneurship and success within the business world. Introduced by Steph Gregg, Head of Isle of Man Intermediaries and Captives, the event featured guest speakers Dawn Webb, Partner in Moore Stephens Chartered Accountants and Merita Taylor, Director of Looking Glass Communications.
Steph Gregg commented: “Barclays supports a number of internal and external initiatives for women. The Barclays Female Client Group set up in 2010 by Barbara-Ann King, who recently visited the Island as a guest Gala Dinner speaker, supports women from all backgrounds and their families not only in managing personal wealth, but also in lifestyle and business needs. Internally, as part of Barclays’ broad approach to diversity, the Women’s Initiatives Network, established in 2007, is also a key area of focus.”
Dawn Webb, who last year won the coveted award for Corporate Business Woman of the Year at the Forward Ladies North West and Isle of Man in Business Awards spoke about the challenges she has faced in her career, progressing from office junior to sole female accountancy practice partner:
“In the business world gender, race, background and religion shouldn’t ever impact your career. Their different approaches mean women and men actually complement each other, often making some very strong teams.”
Merita Taylor echoed Dawn’s comments and shared her experiences of progressing up the career ladder on the Island and about setting up her own business as a young female, as well as sharing feedback from acquaintances of different genders: “When I was looking at starting my business, there was definitely a difference in attitude between the genders; males I asked for advice had no hesitation in telling me to go for it whereas females were a lot more cautious, encouraging me to ask lots of questions and make a big list of pros and cons.”
International Women’s Day was first celebrated over 100 years ago. The event is now recognised in many countries worldwide and this year’s theme was ‘The Gender Agenda: Gaining Momentum.’
