The Soroptimist International London Chilterns Region Celebration of International Women’s Day at the University of Hertfordshire, School of Law was a resounding success! https://www.herts.ac.uk/study/schools-of-study/law
The United Nations International Women’s Day Theme for 2025 was “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment”.
The Region’s Theme for 2024-25 is “Impactful Women”.
This event really hit the spot for both the UN theme and the Region’s theme!
We were very grateful to the University of Hertfordshire for hosting the event. The afternoon programme provided us with a unique opportunity to visit the Law School and hear first-hand from students how they are able to develop practical skills and experience linked to academic knowledge to enable them to be world class practitioners in the future.
We began with a Courtroom Tour – ahead of the main event. The courtroom facility in the Law School provides a fitting forum for the award-winning advocacy activities where students have the opportunity to put the law learnt in the classroom into practice in the courtroom. It has also been used in many TV dramas!
SI London Chilterns Regional President: Kate Belinis DL welcomed everyone at the start of the main event and gave a brief introduction to the day.
The keynote address: “Breaking Barriers and Shaping Futures” was given by Amanda Thurston – Director of Hertfordshire Law Clinic, Principal Lecturer & Solicitor: School of Law & Education.
Amanda referred to the 2025 IWD theme # Accelerate Action and emphasised the important role of education, quoting a book by feminist writer bell hooks “Teaching to Transgress: Education as a Practice of Freedom”. Amanda talked about the importance of treating students fairly and equally as they will go on to be the next generation in the workplace.
Amanda is a Pracademic, having practised as a solicitor for many years before joining the UoH teaching staff 5 years ago. EDI (Equality Diversity Inclusion) underpins the University’s vision which is “to set the standard for what a modern University should be”.
In the legal profession, 53% of practising solicitors are women but only 33% fill senior roles in legal firms. This tends to be called the “motherhood penalty”. Family/caring commitments cause delays in career progression for women. The law has also had a positive role on women’s rights with legislation protecting women from discrimination in the work place and for example, giving rights to equal pay.
Amanda reflected that it took 70 years for women to get degrees at all Universities, after London University awarded the first degrees to women in 1870s. Cambridge University didn’t award women degrees until 1948!
Across the globe more women are studying at university than ever before. They are also allowed to teach and reach senior positions. At the UoH 57% of staff are female which is higher than the national average and more female staff than the national average hold senior positions. At the student level, the ratio of male and female students is lower than the national average, possible because of the University’s focus on STEM (Science Technology Music Maths) subjects where women are typically under-represented.
But the UoH is not necessarily typical and there are still barriers that exist, particularly the issue of getting women into senior/higher positions. The School of Law has 100% of women in senior positions! But this is quite unusual.
Women need to feel welcomed in fields where they are under-represented and need to engage men as allies in this. Amanda mentioned the recent report by JP Morgan that at the current rate of progress it will take another 134 years to achieve gender equality. Gender partnership is vital to accelerate action. It’s also important to remember that women are not a minority group – they are ½ of the population!
Amanda then mentioned the University’s Law Clinic which has been going for 5 years and provides pro bono legal support.
Amanda finished by emphasising the importance of equity and not just equality for women in higher education. Women might need more assistance because of motherhood/caring responsibilities. So, it’s not just being inclusive but being equitable to #accelerate action.” Please click here to download and read Amanda’s speech: IWD – 25 Amanda Thurston Keynote Speech
Panel Discussion – What does inclusion look like for women in Higher Education?
Panel Members – from the University of Hertfordshire were Amanda Thurston: Director of Hertfordshire Law Clinic, with Shanina O’Reilly and Sylvia Holmes, plus Student Representatives – Ocean and Funke and from SI London Chilterns Region Kate Belinis DL and Rita Beaumont.
There was some discussion around the glass ceiling, about taking control and self-belief. A man spoke from the audience, often men don’t understand the issues because it hasn’t affected them. A point was raised that some women break the glass ceiling and then don’t want to rock the boat by helping other women. Leadership needs to look different, encompassing the different traits brought by women. Whose responsibility is it to change the rules of “the game”? Gendered roles need to be broken down. The comments from everyone are captured in the interactive session later – if you scroll down you can download and view the feedback in the file “IWD – Mentimeter”.
Rita Beaumont gave a short presentation about Soroptimists’ projects, with a focus on education:
“Education is a thread permeating throughout the principles of Soroptimism to Educate-Empower-Enable. We have United Nations Accreditation and via the UN office in Paris focusing on Education & Technology are a strong input into the High-Level Political Forum and our Accreditation with the Commonwealth enables us to influence the Commonwealth Education Fund.
A range of diverse projects initiated by the five Soroptimist International Federations demonstrate the impact our work has on communities worldwide especially when partnering with established organisations working locally to have maximum impact. In January this year Soroptimists proudly joined the global community to celebrate International Day of Education with a focus on life long learning. A number of projects were show-cased including:
From SI America, their long established Live the Dream Award Programme that provides financial assistance to pursue education and achieve career goals. It supports women overcoming challenges such as poverty, domestic violence and single parenthood to help them create a brighter future for themselves and their families
From SI Great Britain and Ireland, the work of the Diamond Education Fund. During 2023-2024 the fund gave out grants totalling £28,000 divided between 26 recipients aged between 27 and 61 years to undertake further education, pursue career pathways & gain relevant qualifications.
SI Africa funded Scholarship and Excellence Awards recognising the potential in young women inspiring change; the funding helps ease the financial burden and equip young women to play an active role in community and national development
SI Europe provided information about the well-established university linked Management Preparation and Mentorship programme in Italy targeting junior managers with the skills to be role models to others.
The Soroptimist International Foundation was launched in July 2023 to bring all international projects under a single umbrella replacing the previous Presidents’ Appeals. This now includes the four final President’s Appeal “Opening Doors to a Brighter Future” projects established during the two-year duration of the appeal (2022/2023): Education & Learning in Cambodia working with Cambodia Community Dream Organisation has run courses involving over 2000 women and children in three districts focusing on “throughout life learning”. The second project is in the Soroti District of Eastern Uganda working with Rose Academies, whose guiding principles are “social-justice, human rights and education are the foundations for positive change”, the project has so far supported 30 out-of-school girls between 11 and 22 years of age living in rural communities to learn about nutrition, healthcare, life skills & parenting. Project three is in Georgia in collaboration with World Vision Georgia, and aims to empower women and girls by improving life skills and employability in a country where 74% of women experience intimate partner violence. The fourth project working with “Restore a Sense of I Can” works is in the Caribbean and aims to provide training and resources to help women to bridge the digital divide to facilitate better decision making and engender self-confidence enabling them to breakdown socioeconomic barriers and academic divisions. Two new projects have now been added to the portfolio: “Ensuring Girls Equitable Education” working with the Steve Sinnott Foundation starting in Haiti and Nepal to address the two issues of period poverty and violence against women and girls. The Kori Development Project Ltd providing funding to complete the building of three classrooms and a toilet block at the Bob Simson Technical Secondary School in the Kori Chiefdom in Sierra Leone, to ensure separate sanitary facilities for the girls. The multifaceted umbrella Kori Project was set up to address the criminal practice of Female Genital Mutilation.”
After this there was an Interactive session led by Kathleen Tripp, Senior Lecturer in SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) and Inclusion with Ocean, a Level 5 Law Student and ambassador at the University. The audience was asked questions: “Who are some women who have inspired you?”, “What does international women’s day mean to you?”, “What piece of advise would you give to the younger generation of women in higher education?”, “What action will you take in the future?”. Please click on this link for the responses from the audience IWD – Mentimeter
Regional President Kate wrapped up the event, thanking everyone for making it such a thought provoking experience for everyone – a great way to mark International Women’s day.
The Law School enables students to get involved with a wide range of linked activities alongside their academic studies to help build applied skills. This includes volunteering at Hertfordshire Law Clinic who provide free advice to the local community, provide support to litigants in person through the “Support at Court” project or design and deliver interactive presentations for schools and community groups as part of the “Streetlaw” project.
Students also have the opportunity to represent the School in both national and international competitions for mooting, trial advocacy, client interviewing and mediation. Over the past decade the school has earned an excellent track record in these competitions, regularly beating teams from both Oxbridge and Russell Group universities and winning national trophies.
As a result of the event we were able to make a donation of £120 for the Soroptimist International Foundation and £75 to the LawWorks in support of Herts Law School’s Pro Bono legal work https://lawworks.enthuse.com/pf/hertfordshire-law-united