IWD: Believing in gender equality isn’t enough; action is needed too

Our Managing Partner Nik White discusses how he plans to be a vocal and visible advocate for gender equality.

Today marks International Women’s Day (IWD), with the global celebration adopting the theme of #ChoosetoChallenge. In recent years, we have made great strides in improving female representation and progression at Brabners and I’m proud of the environment we’re developing to better help our female colleagues achieve their ambitions.

Believing in the cause of gender equality isn’t enough; it requires action to achieve it. We mustn’t allow fear or apathy to hold us back. Facing into the issues and doing something about them requires acknowledgement and raising awareness. Even if that means dealing with some uncomfortable truths.

Embracing vulnerabilities, rather than being held back by them, requires courage. We should all be courageous and focus on what we can do and contribute towards the solution rather than holding back, perhaps fearful of having somehow been part of the issue in the first place. 

It's for these reasons that today I’m choosing to challenge all my colleagues to feel encouraged and empowered to call out inequality wherever they see or experience it.

I’m well aware that with my role as managing partner comes privilege and responsibility. I want to use that and be a vocal and visible advocate, helping to set the tone and engender an environment at Brabners where any inequality sticks out, it’s called out and it’s not tolerated and any negative or unhelpful assumptions are challenged. I want to help bring about positive change and not merely stick within my comfort zone. Indeed, I’ve learned to live with an element of discomfort wherever that’s necessary.

Whilst we’ve made a lot of positive progress over recent years and there have been many accomplishments to celebrate, there is still a long way to go. In a number of ways, we still fall well short, particularly in connection with gender equality within senior leadership roles. But we are heading in the right direction, we are addressing any structural challenges and our resolve and action won’t let up.

The pandemic has had a disproportionately negative impact on women and we must redouble our efforts to mitigate that. It’s opened my eyes to many ingrained disadvantages and additional challenges women face. In choosing to challenge myself, that challenge extends beyond my work life and also includes my contribution to home life.

Working from home and the need for home schooling in particular has certainly exposed uncomfortable truths for me. Whilst I may contribute to family life in other ways, it’s made me appreciate more than ever the many aspects to which I have not contributed enough or at all, and also the imbalance in some of our parental duties.

So, my additional challenge is to learn from that and ensure that normal service and routines aren’t simply restored after the pandemic has passed. Instead, I will continue to contribute more and maintain a better life balance. I’m sure my family won’t hold back in calling me out if and where I fall short…

Nik White

Managing partner, Brabners