{"id":2357,"date":"2015-06-23T18:38:25","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T17:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/?p=2357"},"modified":"2015-06-24T13:07:35","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T12:07:35","slug":"conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Women&#8217;s Conference &#8211; wonderful!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Soroptimist International St Albans &amp; District were proud to host a successful Women\u2019s Conference and Regional Meeting on Sat 20th June in Redbourn on behalf of Soroptimist International London Chilterns Region.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2361\" src=\"\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb.jpg\" alt=\"80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb\" width=\"700\" height=\"351\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb-300x150.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Forced Marriage <\/strong>was the topic for the morning &#8211; with keynote speaker<strong> Aneeta Prem<\/strong>, founder of the<strong> Freedom Charity\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedomcharity.org.uk\/\">www.freedomcharity.org.uk<\/a> The charity works to empower young people to feel they have the tools, confidence and support around the issues of family\u00a0relationships which can lead to early and forced marriage and dishonour based violence. Aneeta has been on\u00a0national TV recently covering these important human rights issues. Aneeta was joined by Sophie Lott from the Home Office Forced Marriage Unit (see picture below Sophie L Aneeta R). Recent law changes haven&#8217;t forced this crime underground &#8211; in fact there was the first sentencing only last week. <a href=\"\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/79-SILC20JuneSophieLottAneetaPremBooksWeb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-2362\" src=\"\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/79-SILC20JuneSophieLottAneetaPremBooksWeb-300x240.jpg\" alt=\"79-SILC20JuneSophieLottAneetaPremBooksWeb\" width=\"200\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/79-SILC20JuneSophieLottAneetaPremBooksWeb-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/79-SILC20JuneSophieLottAneetaPremBooksWeb.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>Aneeta told\u00a0some moving stories about individuals&#8217; personal horrific stories of forced marriage &#8211; and these are just the tip of the iceberg &#8211; forced marriage affects girls everywhere. Aneeta brought copies of her book &#8220;But It&#8217;s Not Fair&#8221; for everyone (see picture above) &#8211; the book&#8217;s tag line is &#8220;Reading this book could save your best friend&#8217;s life&#8221;. This book is being used in schools to help the children to look out for the signs and say something if they think a friend will\/has become a victim of forced marriage. Freedom also has a rescue helpline.<\/p>\n<div>Please watch these 2 short videos:<\/div>\n<div>#Freedom2Choose film With Home Secretary &#8211;\u00a0<a class=\"c_nobdr t_prs\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wd0PtkhP10s\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=wd0PtkhP10s<\/a><\/div>\n<div>Freedom Charity App &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_RWfbmGq4e0\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_RWfbmGq4e0<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/Freedom-Logo-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2369\" src=\"\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/Freedom-Logo-1.jpg\" alt=\"Freedom-Logo-1\" width=\"180\" height=\"60\" \/><\/a>Aneeta advises that there are Freedom School Packs available and also Young Ambassador Packs for working with schools with Forced Marriage as a curriculum item. She also said the Freedom would welcome Soroptimists and volunteers to help deliver the workshops in schools. Aneeta has almost completed a book on FGM which will be called &#8220;Cut Flowers&#8221; &#8211; 20,000 girls\/year in the UK are cut &#8211; it is a violation of Human Rights. We are all incited to challenge language &#8211; honour based violence must be called &#8220;<strong>DISHONOUR<\/strong> based violence&#8221; &#8211; calling it honour makes what has happened to the victims appear benign.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Women and Engineering\u00a0<\/strong>was the topic for the afternoon\u00a0\u2013<strong> <b id=\"ecxyui_3_16_0_1_1431607857084_390225\">Vanessa Diaz, Women\u2019s Engineering Society <\/b><\/strong>(WES)\u00a0Council member and an Engineer working in Medical Research <a href=\"\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/81-SILC20JackiePalingRitaPaulineVanessaDiazWESWeb.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2364\" src=\"\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/81-SILC20JackiePalingRitaPaulineVanessaDiazWESWeb-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"81-SILC20JackiePalingRitaPaulineVanessaDiazWESWeb\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/81-SILC20JackiePalingRitaPaulineVanessaDiazWESWeb-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/81-SILC20JackiePalingRitaPaulineVanessaDiazWESWeb.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>gave us a fascinating and highly energetic insight to her work &#8211; she is like a human dynamo! It is National Women in Engineering Day on 23 June <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wes.org.uk\/nwed\">www.wes.org.uk\/nwed<\/a>\u00a0 \u2013 \u00a0Vanessa talked about the shockingly few women engineers we have in the UK (8.7% of engineers are women which is the lowest in the world). WES (based in Stevenage) works to promote women in engineering including outreach with schools to encouraging more girls to take up exciting careers in Engineering. Our Club was fortunate to have a past President of WES as a Member &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/about-our-club\/our-inspirational-members-past-and-present\/peggy-hodges-obe-1921-2008\/\">Peggy Hodges<\/a>\u00a0OBE. Jackie Paling, a Chemical Engineer and another inspirational Soroptimist was also at the meeting. Jackie has been a member of WES for 40 years and gave a brilliant vote of thanks to Vanessa which included telling us about some of her own challenges in overcoming barriers to become an engineer in the first place. Jackie has been ill recently and she challenged herself again to be with us &#8211; saying &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t have missed it for the world&#8221; &#8211; and we wouldn&#8217;t have wanted to miss having Jackie with us either! In the picture above L to R are Jackie Paling, Rita Beaumont and Pauline Panter (joint Regional Presidents) and Vanessa Diaz.<\/p>\n<p>Soroptimist International Great Britain &amp; Ireland (SIGBI) Immediate Past President Margaret Oldroyd gave a presentation on \u201cBuilding the Future of SIGBI&#8221; which was very well received &#8211; even in the after lunch grave-yard slot!<\/p>\n<p>The speakers were inspiring, the company was great,\u00a0the food was delicious, the venue was perfect &#8211; what a wonderful women&#8217;s conference!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soroptimist International St Albans &amp; District were proud to host a successful Women\u2019s Conference and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[152,138,164,151,165,163,156,155,162,12,60,11,150,13,153],"class_list":["post-2357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-club-news","tag-aneeta-prem","tag-conference","tag-freedom","tag-freedom-charity","tag-jackie-paling","tag-london-chilterns","tag-national-women-in-engineering-day","tag-nwed","tag-region","tag-soroptimist","tag-soroptimist-international","tag-st-albans","tag-wes","tag-women","tag-womens-conference"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Women&#039;s Conference - wonderful! | News | Blog | Events | SI St Albans and District<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SI St Albans and District : Blog &amp; News : Women&#039;s Conference - wonderful! : Keep up to date with the latest news, articles and events from the Soroptimists of SI St Albans and District . Read more about Women&#039;s Conference - wonderful! .\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Women&#039;s Conference - wonderful! | News | Blog | Events | SI St Albans and District\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SI St Albans and District : Blog &amp; News : Women&#039;s Conference - wonderful! : Keep up to date with the latest news, articles and events from the Soroptimists of SI St Albans and District . Read more about Women&#039;s Conference - wonderful! .\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SI St Albans and District\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-23T17:38:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-06-24T12:07:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"514\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"st-albans-and-district\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"st-albans-and-district\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/\",\"name\":\"Women's Conference - wonderful! | News | Blog | Events | SI St Albans and District\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-23T17:38:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-06-24T12:07:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/#\/schema\/person\/4f2fff0fbb8acdda13799948de589da9\"},\"description\":\"SI St Albans and District : Blog & News : Women's Conference - wonderful! : Keep up to date with the latest news, articles and events from the Soroptimists of SI St Albans and District . Read more about Women's Conference - wonderful! .\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":514},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Women&#8217;s Conference &#8211; wonderful!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/\",\"name\":\"SI St Albans and District\",\"description\":\"SIGBI Club site for St Albans and District\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/#\/schema\/person\/4f2fff0fbb8acdda13799948de589da9\",\"name\":\"st-albans-and-district\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cdc0a121992bc8320f45cf320eaa8b0fcafad2b423ec1736ce59c6138d0a9b3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cdc0a121992bc8320f45cf320eaa8b0fcafad2b423ec1736ce59c6138d0a9b3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"st-albans-and-district\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/author\/st-albans-and-district\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Women's Conference - wonderful! | News | Blog | Events | SI St Albans and District","description":"SI St Albans and District : Blog & News : Women's Conference - wonderful! : Keep up to date with the latest news, articles and events from the Soroptimists of SI St Albans and District . Read more about Women's Conference - wonderful! .","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Women's Conference - wonderful! | News | Blog | Events | SI St Albans and District","og_description":"SI St Albans and District : Blog & News : Women's Conference - wonderful! : Keep up to date with the latest news, articles and events from the Soroptimists of SI St Albans and District . Read more about Women's Conference - wonderful! .","og_url":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/","og_site_name":"SI St Albans and District","article_published_time":"2015-06-23T17:38:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-06-24T12:07:35+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":514,"url":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"st-albans-and-district","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"st-albans-and-district","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/","url":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/","name":"Women's Conference - wonderful! | News | Blog | Events | SI St Albans and District","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb.jpg","datePublished":"2015-06-23T17:38:25+00:00","dateModified":"2015-06-24T12:07:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/#\/schema\/person\/4f2fff0fbb8acdda13799948de589da9"},"description":"SI St Albans and District : Blog & News : Women's Conference - wonderful! : Keep up to date with the latest news, articles and events from the Soroptimists of SI St Albans and District . Read more about Women's Conference - wonderful! .","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/files\/80-SILC20JuneFreedomAudienceBooksWideWeb.jpg","width":1024,"height":514},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/2015\/conference\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Women&#8217;s Conference &#8211; wonderful!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/","name":"SI St Albans and District","description":"SIGBI Club site for St Albans and District","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/#\/schema\/person\/4f2fff0fbb8acdda13799948de589da9","name":"st-albans-and-district","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cdc0a121992bc8320f45cf320eaa8b0fcafad2b423ec1736ce59c6138d0a9b3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/cdc0a121992bc8320f45cf320eaa8b0fcafad2b423ec1736ce59c6138d0a9b3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"st-albans-and-district"},"url":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/author\/st-albans-and-district\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2357"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2374,"href":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357\/revisions\/2374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sigbi.org\/st-albans-and-district\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}