International Women's Day

The keynote speech is given by ITV Content Editor & Weather Presenter Kate Lewis, who talks about her career experiences with regard to gender equality within the media industry. The welcome and introduction are respectively from Aimee Bateman, founder of CareerCake.com, and Professor Karen Holford, Pro Vice-Chancellor College of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Cardiff University. This event for International Women’s Day was hosted by the University of South Wales in March 2016, and organised by the Women in Academia@USW Network.

An e-book of collected writings. International Women’s Day represents an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women while calling for greater equality. The first International Women’s Day was held in 1911, and it is now established each year on March 8. Thousands of events occur to honour the economic, political and social achievements of women. Worldwide, organisations, governments, charities, educational institutions, women's groups, corporations and the media mark the day. Make It Happen is the theme for International Women's Day 2015, encouraging effective action for advancing and recognising women. In this collection staff and students of the University of South Wales join the International Women’s Day celebrations: we find out about the women who have inspired others; we bring you a glimpse of the journeys some of our academics have taken to reach their positions; and we take pride — great pride — in the part we have played in helping to develop the next generation of women of achievement.

Claudia Corsetti, a PhD student at the University of Glamorgan, discusses the barriers that lone working mothers face and how the public sphere invades the private sphere and 'care' becomes episodic.

Dr Timothy Jones, co-director of the University's Centre for Gender Studies, discusses how the early suffragette movement was closely linked with religious movements and how white middle-class women can be accused of speaking for others.

Dr Diana Wallace, head of English at the University of Glamorgan, discusses how the historical novel allows women access to history.

Dr Kathryn Ringwald, the Head of Undergraduate Studies at the Glamorgan Business School, celebrates 100 years of International Women's Day by inviting for women across Wales to submit their stories to create an archive of 1000 women's voices.

Christine Atkinson talks about differing motivations of women entrepreneurs and the way that they are measured against a male norm. Christine is head of the Women's Entrepreneurship Hub at the University of Glamorgan's Centre for Enterprise.