The International Women’s Day 2025 theme is Accelerating Action. IWD say: Focusing on the need to Accelerate Action emphasises the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.

This panel event will discuss systemic barriers to women’s progression in careers and leadership roles, the importance of intersectionality when understanding these barriers, the role of mentoring, allies and role models, and how to cultivate and nurture women’s ambitions in higher education and beyond.

Our inspirational panel is made up of students and staff form the University of Chester, but discussion will extend beyond education to consider women in leadership and the professions, and how gender and race intersect in women’s lives.

Our panel:

• Angie Standish: Head of Careers and Deputy Director of the Directorate for Access, Skills and Apprenticeships

• Toyosi Oyinloye: Deputy Head of Division, Computer and Engineering Sciences, University of Chester

• Hussna Waka: First Year Student (International) and Student Race Advocate, University of Chester

Interviewed by Prof Hannah Bacon, Professor of Feminist Theology and Kathryn Leighton, Diversity Festival Coordinator, University of Chester.

This event is a collaboration between the Diversity Festival and The Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Chester. It is supported by the Forum for Research into Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Chester.