This year, International Women’s Day (IWD) are tackling the enduring, and often silent, struggles of women in the workplace.
In 2020, only 5% of FTSE 100 CEOs were women. This lack of female voices at top-level management has been thrown into sharp relief by IWD’s #ChoosetoChallange, which is designed to highlight gender bias and inequality and challenge the status quo by actively seeking out and uplifting female achievement in the workplace. The main hope of the campaign is to bring together people of all genders and encourage them to work towards actionable solutions and long-lasting changes.
A female-led solution
For their part, PwC have acknowledged the gender imbalance across UK businesses, noting that: "Female talent is currently underrepresented in our industry with only 21% of equity partners at PwC being female." In 2020, the company also surveyed a number of corporate directors and revealed that only 16% of those surveyed believed that their companies scored “excellent” for recruiting a diverse workforce.
Now, PwC’s Women in Business programme is seeking to close this disparity. Developed through the perspective of one of PwC’s female leaders, this three-day virtual programme is open to all undergraduates, regardless of gender, and will give you the chance to meet some of the organisation’s female employees to hear about their own personal career journeys and challenges.
As part of the programme, you’ll also hear from some of PwC’s networks focused on Inclusion and Diversity. These interactive sessions will help you to develop confidence in a business setting and encourage you to bring your whole self to the workplace.
The programme is currently open to all first-year university students on a three-year degree or second-year students on a four-year degree and will be run virtually in Summer 2021.
Why it matters
PwC’s Women in Business programme is one of many female-led schemes adopted by businesses across the UK in an effort to bring more women into the business sector. If you’re thinking of pursuing a career in areas such as professional services, human resources (HR), marketing, public relations (PR), or corporate management, the benefits of this programme will help you identify your key leadership skills, support your own personal development, and drive your own career.
In 2020, Forbes demonstrated that having a more diverse work environment helps foster more creativity and innovation within in the company. According to the article, having a wider talent pool and a mixture of diverse experiences and backgrounds promotes more collaborative thinking and adaptability, and better positions the company to innovate and drive market growth. It also explains that “companies with the highest levels of digital investment [have] exhibited the strongest link between diversity and innovation revenue.”
With these revelations in mind, PwC’s Women in Business programme is the perfect opportunity to take control of your future.
Take a leap this International Women’s Day and #ChoosetoChallange yourself and PwC by signing up to the programme, and get started on your dream career in business and leadership.
You can sign up for the Women in Business programme at the link below, and hear PwC’s people stories right here.