Do It Like A Girl: IWD 2020
The 9th March will mark International Women’s Day 2020 and the tagline focus for the movement globally will be #EachforEqual. The message worldwide is to continue the fight for gender equal rights. To work together, as the media touchpoints highlight, our “Collective Individualism”. This is a concept that is a given at Compass and taken as the norm within our working environment.
Our ethos at Compass HQ has always been to maximise our individual skills to the benefit of the whole. To shine a light on the talents of others to the greater end of achieving a wider goal. Most importantly and at the same time, to celebrate the strengths of our colleagues, partners and connected community without the external drive of a specific result. #CompassWomen being one case in point.
As we referenced last year in our IWD19 blog, the concept of #EachforEqual, that each humanoid on the planet has equal importance, should appear redundant and even slightly old fashioned in the year 2020 and yet, here we are. Again.
At Compass we will continue to support, voice and push for all aspects of this drive for equality, for “Collective Individualism”, and in this case we are celebrating the professional women and businesses who have inspired us. The brain trust at HQ were quizzed about their favourite professional women and this was the result:
Name a woman in your industry or working life who inspires you in your work and what qualities do you admire most about them?
CM: Amy Porterfield and Purna Virji. Both are trailblazers on a global platform and lead the way in digital marketing right now. If you want to know what’s happening in digital media right now and in the future, pay attention to them.
GM: Borders based jeweller Hannah Louise Lamb. Her attention to detail is impeccable - coastlines, skylines and landscapes come alive in her work. Her use of the environment as subject matter, of being inspired by her surroundings, shows great skill and incredible talent.
JW: Ellie Lamont at Mackays Hotel and Iona McLachlan North Coast Watersports. Both equally driven, dynamic and fully ready to absolutely nail any project or proposal you put in front of them. North coast tourism dynamos.
Which female-led or female-focussed companies do you support or admire?
CM: Gwyneth Paltrow & Goop, Jessica Alba & Honest Beauty and the incomparable Reese Witherspoon for her platform straddling media empire.
GM: Irish design and fashion label Lines & Current, Love and Squalor (a Glasgow-based honest clothing company), fitness icon and Cyclebox founder The Body Sculptor (otherwise known as the utterly inspiring Mandy Burns).
JW: I am obsessed with women in sport and fitness right now and there are some incredible role models out there – IG accounts that show substance as well as style: Silje Torp, Tiff Hall, Ashley Joi, Gabby Reece. These bloggers and businesswomen are also absolutely killing it on the daily - Rosie Ramsey, Nyomi Winter, Gail Brown, Lottie Lewis, Veerle Helsen, Lindsey Gallacher.
These are some of the many sources of professional inspiration for us here at Compass HQ but they are not alone. Our “Collective Individualism”, to use the IWD tagline, is our greatest strength. We all strive to be our best selves and to continue to better ourselves, to deliver on time, to meet the deadline, to ensure our children eat their greens. Without these companies, individuals and colleagues leading the way and working in tandem - in all aspects of life - we would be a poorer professional community.
This IWD2020 we are taking the time to celebrate these formidable examples of inspiration in our working lives and hope that the more we do continue to do that, the less urgent it will be to do so.
Editors Note: All images have been quite brazenly pinched (with much admiration and appreciation) from respective Instagram accounts. They are the property of the owners and we didn’t even ask permission - better to ask forgiveness, thought right? *cough.
THANK YOU to those who spot themselves and are rightly outraged but you looked so amazing we had to share your greatness.