Each year, International Women’s Day (IWD) is an opportunity to honour the remarkable women in our lives and push for equality in the workplace and broader society. While these efforts shouldn’t be confined to a single day, 8th March has come to serve as an annual reminder to look around us and see how far we’ve come — and what work there’s left to do.
In 2024, the IWD campaign theme is ‘Inspire Inclusion’ — a call to action that emphasises the importance of collaboration in creating more inclusive environments for everyone. It also highlights the role of education, breaking down barriers, and leadership.
To explore what this looks like in practice, we spoke to three female leaders at Google U.K., who each offered their unique perspectives, wisdom, and tips on fostering greater inclusion all year round.
Helping women rise through visionary leadership
Inclusion is about shaping and creating a culture and society where everyone is free to be who they want to be without fear of censorship or intimidation. It’s the foundation of everything I do as a leader and a human being — both within Google and externally.
It’s not who we are that matters; it’s what we do that counts. As an advocate for gender equity, I talk openly about everything from imposter syndrome to women’s health inequity. I also have a podcast, Courage is Contagious, which tackles taboos from period shame to the stigma of being child-free or same-sex motherhood.
Privilege is often what you don’t have to go through. I’ve worked really hard for my success and faced a considerable amount of gender bias (some of it unconscious, much of it not), but it’s also really important for me to acknowledge that I haven’t had to worry about the colour of my skin, the ability of my body or who I love.
I try to empower women to shine more brightly and to unapologetically take up more space.
It’s still far too hard for many women to do well in this world, but even more so for Black, brown, queer, transgender, disabled, and neurodiverse women. I wish more male leaders had the courage to openly admit this. I hesitantly suggest that one of the reasons it’s going to take 130 years to close the gender pay gap is because to those with privilege, equality can, unfortunately, feel like oppression.
I try to empower women to shine more brightly and to unapologetically take up more space. We rise by lifting others, which is why I recently started #WonderWomenWednesday across my socials — an initiative to regularly celebrate inspiring women I’ve met or worked with.
My advice to women rising through the ranks: believe in yourself and don’t self-reject. Not sure if you’re the right candidate for a job? Apply anyway. Don’t think anyone will read your blog post? Write it regardless. Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will, so go for it.
Digging into data can be a truth-teller and leveller
As a marketing scientist, I help marketers understand and improve the impact of their work by putting users at the heart of their decision-making. It’s all about experimentation, which means facing both success and failure and learning progressively from both. While it can be tough to enthuse people when they feel they have got something ‘wrong’, data is data — when respected and used correctly, it’s a real truth-teller and leveller.
Over the years, the industry has built marketing effectiveness models that capture audiences at scale rather than at an individual user level. That’s why we can all be guilty of assuming that everyone will react the same to stimulus.
But if you have been less than fairly represented by data in the past you’re likely to be more sensitive to the diversity of people you are analysing. For example, until as recently as the 1980s, women with childbearing potential were being excluded from drug trials — with some catastrophic results. This is a typical decision made to make experimentation ‘easier’ while actually painting an incomplete and therefore dangerous picture of reality.
As a woman, it is my responsibility to be very aware of this. I bring data to life by doing my best to treat it without bias and seeing it for what it is. I want to make sure all users are taken into account.
If you have been less than fairly represented by data in the past you’re likely to be more sensitive to the diversity of people you are analysing.
While my team does use traditional measurement methodologies, such as media mix modelling (analysing sales drivers), I equally value experimental approaches through neuro-marketing and digital anthropology (how people engage with marketing and digital platforms).
I believe this attitude helps me bring an empathy to data analysis that I might not have if I were a man. I always want to be sensitive to who we may be excluding and what impact that exclusion might have on our overall understanding of our user landscape.
Challenging underrepresentation through self-promotion
Managing a team in the automotive sector comes with unique challenges as it’s an industry still seeking to redress its gender imbalance. A 2020 Deloitte report showed only 20% of the automotive workforce and fewer than 10% of executives identified as female.
In 2023, a report by Automotive Council UK revealed no improvement — with the ONS’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earning even indicating a 1% increase in the industry gender pay gap, from 20% to 21%.1
So, very little has changed. And on top of that, the majority of female roles remain in marketing and sales, where leadership opportunities tend to be more scarce, and thus career progression is often restricted.
I’ve always felt it’s so important to champion inclusion both vertically and horizontally.
To make progress, companies require clear policies for equitable and transparent hiring, performance, and remuneration processes. Female leadership should be prioritised, with initiatives like the Automotive 30% Club — a network of 70 industry CEOs and MDs who have committed to filling 30% of leadership roles with females by 2030 — already paving the way.
I’ve always felt it’s so important to champion inclusion both vertically and horizontally, not least by making minority groups feel heard and giving them the opportunity to show their unique skills. At Google, initiatives such as the #IamRemarkable programme have helped shed light on unconscious and conscious biases and the self-limiting beliefs that can get in the way of career progression and promotions amongst women.
Knowledge is power: it’s essential to know the facts about challenges our colleagues might be facing to help us all develop a deeper appreciation and be better allies and cheerleaders for each other. I feel privileged to work for an organisation where I feel seen, heard, understood, and, most importantly, supported — and I wish that for all women.
