For our second training and development event of the 2017 calendar, JCI Manchester assembled 6 of Manchester’s most enterprising women for a panel discussion in celebration of International Women’s Day. The panel included:

Karina Jadhav - Owner of Menagerie Bar and Restaurant and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the 2015 Women in Business Awards; Nadine Merabi - Creative Director of Nadine Merabi; Sky Bibi - Barrister-at-Law; Jennifer Smith - Ex JCI Manchester President and Insider Young Lawyer of the Year and Charlotte Chadwick – Managing Director of Atlantis Digital and was Chaired by Caroline McCarron - Associate Solicitor in the Law Share team at JMW Solicitors and Chair of the Manchester Irish Lawyers Society

The event was hosted by one of the panellists, Karina Jadhav, at her fabulous bar restaurant, Menagerie, one of the most talked about venues in town. As well as being a perfect space to host an event such as this, they went above and beyond to provide us with teas, coffees, and juices alongside an excellent breakfast spread of smashed avocado on toast, bacon and egg rolls, and some of the nicest pancakes I think the attendees had ever tasted! A massive thankyou to them for pulling out all the stops. I would encourage all the Manchester groups to consider hosting an event there!

The panellists took to centre stage and were introduced one by one by the chair Caroline McCarron. Topics of discussion included gender discrimination in the work place, equal rights to pay, progression and position, the portrayal of women in general, the influence of parents in the mindset of women and how this is changing, the generational shift in terms of changing the culture surrounding gender discrimination, the power of sheer determination, and choices women are making to pursue a career despite a lingering societal pressure to have children and start a family.

Each of the panellists spoke about their experiences with all the issues above and their rise to success happening in spite of all the the above. It was a truly inspirational morning with each of the panel members offering a hopeful perspective on the issues women face on a daily basis. All attendees commented how positive they felt upon leaving the event.

The hard work doesn’t stop here though. The issue of tackling gender inequality is something that starts with the individual followed by the collective. This is why days like this are so important, particularly for groups like JCI Manchester. An individual decides to attend an event in support of the collective. That collective sends a message that gender inequality or discrimination is simply not OK. As a collective we can achieve a lot, simply by standing together.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our panellists for giving up their time to speak as part of our panel this morning. A special thank you to Menagerie for being perfect the perfect hosts, and t all our 56 attendees who showed support on this day of celebration.

As for our next training and development event this will be held on the 5^th April at Sedulo with networking guru Will Kintish – a nationally recognised networking trainer who will take attendees through the essentials of being a competent and effective networker. We look forward to seeing you there.

All the best,

The JCI Manchester Team