Bristol Woman is a Company Interest Company. We envision a world where women’s voices are heard and make a difference. To achieve this, we engage with individual women, government, companies and community organisations to help create a fairer and more equal world.
The aims of Bristol Woman:
- We want to help girls and women find their confidence and inner leadership;
- We want to give women a framework to debate women’s issues and be empowered into positive action;
- We want to inspire and support women into enterprise and leadership roles;
At Bristol Woman we achieve this by:
- Believing that women are the heroines of their own lives;
- Believing that real, ordinary lives are in fact extraordinary experiences that can inspire dreams for a better future;
- Ensuring that the opinions of each individual woman are heard and believed, and that issues raised through debate lead to positive change;
- Celebrating women’s lives;
- Providing creative avenues for women to inspire change;
- Running workshops, mentoring schemes and counselling services which allow women to process, adapt and embody leadership;
- Supporting women as they unlock their leadership and enterprise potential;
- Supporting companies in becoming leaders of change in gender equality.
- Ensuring policies at local and national level support the development of a fair and equal society.
Our service model is based on three core components meant to bring out the extraordinary in the lives of ordinary women: emotional well-being, leadership, and enterprise.
Bristol Woman has three core products on offer:
Magazine
A quarterly magazine highlighting the lives of ordinary women with extraordinary lives, thus raising debates on everyday sexism and discrimination, domestic abuse, mental health and wellbeing, and parenting.
LeaderSHE
Bristol Woman is committed to helping companies, organisations and policy makers in creating a fairer and more equal world.
Bristol Woman’s LeaderSHE is intended as a way of improving the effectivity of mainline policies and procedures by making visible the gendered nature of assumptions, processes and outcomes and working with companies, organisations and policy makers to address them.
Increasing numbers of companies have a commitment to develop a fairer and more flexible labour market and draw on the talents of all. The government is encouraging companies to address gender equality through the Think, Act, Report.
Whether your organisation is just starting to look at gender equality or has a long established culture of tackling diversity, supporting Think, Act, Report is a great way for companies to demonstrate their commitment to gender equality.
Elaine Arden, Chief HR Officer, RBS:
Think, Act, Report is helping because it challenges us to work harder and be more transparent about the subjects that haven’t been discussed as openly in the past, like gender targets and pay gaps. It invites us all to join the debate on these issues.
Mark Dorsett, Director of Caterpillar UK:
Think, Act, Report has helped us ask ourselves some questions about the actins we are taking in our move to a more diverse and inclusive workforce.
The framework encourages organisations to undertake analysis on measures including pay to ensure systems are fair and do not discriminate against men or women. Companies may choose to not report these publicly.
However, in 2014 the government legislated to give employment tribunals power to order employers to conduct a pay audit where they have been found to discriminate over pay.
The LeaderSHE programme works with organisations to:
- Analyse current context and identify gender equality gaps;
- Support senior management teams in developing action plans to address the gaps;
- Develop internal and external communications to report on positive actions to address gender equality.
Girl’s Leadership Programme
Young women today are the future of tomorrow, and we want young women to feel like they are listened to and acknowledged.
We offer 1.5 or 2 hour workshops on a weekly basis (term time only), or summer schools where girls learn to engage authentically and assertively at every level of decision making.
The format involves play, group discussion, craft activities, drama, presentations, artwork and games. The girls are encouraged to pick a specific topic and are supported to develop a workshop which they deliver to other girls in their school or the community. Girls of all academic abilities work together in an inclusive structure.
Bristol Woman 