We are the women’s impact network, with a mission to promote gender equity, advocate on issues facing women in the workplace, and offer mutual support, and learning and development opportunities for staff at the RCPCH.
Having only been set up since March 2023 we have established ourselves as one of the most prominent and active staff networks within our organisation. We launched our network on international women’s day in 2023 and with a committee of 6 dedicated staff members we have delivered lunch & share events, bake sales for UK-wide charities on national awareness days and impactful events such as ‘Untangling the Career Web’, ‘Imposter Syndrome’ (from The Girls’ Network), and ‘Breast Cancer Awareness’ (from Breast Cancer UK and CoppaFeel!).
We have created a community that allows other members of staff to share openly, feel safe and trust in our committee to deliver what is asked of us.
Our biggest achievement to date has been launching a menstrual product scheme, providing products in all the bathrooms of our college building so they are easily accessible and free for those times when we are caught unprepared. This took a lot of joint effort between our committee members as well as the members of our staff network, pulling together a proposal for the senior leadership team to sign off, even when this was met with some resistance, and taking responsibility for the monitoring and restocking of these items. We have received a lot of praise and gratitude from members of staff who have benefited from this scheme being in place and are proud to be able to offer this.