Podcast – Women in Leadership Angela Mezzetti

Regina Mangan Liberty Blue Estate Agents and Author is the guest on the Women In Leadership podcast. She talks about the need to live by your values and make sure your actions align to those values. She also advises not to be afraid to let people off the boss if their values don't align with yours.

Dr Louise Kavanagh McBride Chair of the NMBI talks about the retention of nurses and midwives, something the NMBI have as a priority. In the podcast she talks about the various challenges facing nurses and the profession in general. She also advocates for nurses acquiring microcredentials and continuous upskilling in the profession.

Nina Noonan is the guest on this episode of Women In Leadership. She says systemic barriers still exist for women in the workplace and often companies are not aware of it until someone points it out. "Some organizations have picked up on that and are trying to create a different system around that. But you know, very often, if there's a systemic barrier, we might not even know it is one, until somebody points that out. But if a meeting is being scheduled for five o'clock, and we don't stick to a clear finishing time, by default, it might affect your female colleague, the one who has to excuse herself perceived early and run off because the crash closes at six. That may not be a problem for your male colleague who doesn't have to go off because his wife picks up the child. So nobody might say I'm putting up a barrier deliberately here for women, but ultimately, what it means is if it is a woman who has to leave early, that's how she's going to be perceived."

Why The World Needs More Women In Leadership

 



Lee Ann Burke,Treasurer and Emma Connolly and Clíodhna O'Callaghan Co-Chairs Mnà UCC recording the Women In Leadership podcast

Podcast

International Women's Day in UCC University College Cork was celebrated with a series of presentations and discussion on the subject of 'why the world needs more women in leadership'. After the event, the co-chairs of Mnà UCC, Emma Connolly and Clíodhna O'Callaghan together with Dr. Lee Ann Burke the Mnà Treasurer, recalled highlights of the IWD event in UCC.  They are terrific women and recalled the messages they took from the morning and are well worth a listen.

UCC Event 'Why The World Needs More Women in Leadership' IWD 8th March 2024

Four guest speakers Roberta O'Brien Commander Irish Naval Service talked about the difference women make in the naval service and how they can influence policy when they reach leadership levels. Commander O'Brien talked about how women can and do influence outcomes positively and with more long term consequences when they are involved in peace negotiations. She talked out how she was able to influence the Navy's maternity policy and she had the audience enthralled with her recollections of her participation in migrant rescue missions and fire fighting at sea. "Within the military- it is importance to incorporate the gender perspective to enhance operational effectiveness eg. Dealing with EU migrant crisis- the Naval Service recognised the need to have females onboard in order to carry out searches but also meet the varying needs of women and men.



Commander Roberta O'Brien and HE Maaike Van Koldam Dutch Ambassador at the IWD UCC Event Why the World Needs More Women In Leadership 2024 8 March



Orla Joyce, Legal Director Heineken in Cork showed how it makes business sense to have more diversity in an organisation like Heineken and how policy has to support everyone at all points of their careers. She also spoke about the value of mentoring and sponsorship for both men and women in organisations. The business case for diversity has been proven she said but stressed we have to be laser focussed on the delivery of true equality and diversity in business.



Tom O'Halloran Diversity and Inclusion at LAYA Healthcare was passionate about recognising the contribution of women colleagues and says he sees the benfits of a having a diverse workforce like they have in Laya especially when it comes to understanding the women's health journey. Their own workforce is often its best source for testing new offerings and policies he said and he advocated the necessity of ensuring bias free recruitment, onboarding, promoting and developing of staff throughout the careers of employees.



Ali O'Mahony Education Officer with the Students Union spoke about the challenge she faces as a young woman often walking into a room of men in suits but talked of how she has learned from this experience. She also talked about the efforts the college is making to tackle gender based violence on campus and their bystander intervention programme which is an essential part of the college led out Prof Louise Crowley.



College President John O'Halloran, a strong supporter of MnàUCC, celebrated the contributions of female staff but agreed there is a long road ahead to bring more balance for women in leading roles in the college.



The event was the brainchild of DIBA the Dutch Irish Business Association led by Marc Berghouwer President and Linda Nugent of DIBA.  Her Exellency Maaike van Koldam, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands opened the event and said for her “it remains important to highlight the achievements and

capabilities of women each year until we reach a truly equal society."



Group selfie of panellists for UCC Event Why The World Needs More Women In Leadership

Learning The Secret Sauce of Leadership for women. Navigating the territory of leadership for women is not easy. There are unwritten rules that are not often shared naturally with women in the workplace or in political life. Dr Melrona Kirrane DCU Business School and Andrea Dermody give a taster of that secret sauce.

Ireland's business community has much to learn from France when it comes to diversity and inclusion according to Aine Murray President of the France Ireland Chamber of Commerce.

France is way ahead when it comes to gender diversity in politics, society and in business. The French realised that there were barriers preventing women progressing into leadership a long time ago and they decided to do something about it.

In the podcast shares her thoughts about what we can learn about life and balance from the French way of doing things.