Celebrating our extraordinary women

This year, we celebrate the fifth anniversary of ‘Ireland’s Most Powerful Women: Top 25 Awards’. This event recognises the exceptional achievements of women across Irish business, the public sector, the arts, culture and any other area of life in which they were pioneers and pathfinders.

‘Ireland’s Most Powerful Women: Top 25 Awards’ have recognised many high profile and celebrated leaders: Samantha Power, Emily O’Reilly, Edna O’Brien, Philomena Lee and Mary Robinson among others.

Conversely, some of our winners may be governing multi-billion euro budgets or influencing the habits of a nation, but not necessarily well-known or recognised.

By highlighting these women, others are bolstered and encouraged by their success.

WXN has 2,500 members in its network in Ireland with a further 19,500 across the Canadian and UK markets. WXN events and programmes are well-attended and its longevity in the market shows the continuing appetite for women’s networks.

Networks are places where women (and men) can talk about things which weren’t talked about before or seemed less important in a working world which hadn’t always allowed for the flexibility women sometimes need at different stages in their careers. They address challenges like maternity leave and its implications – not just for the new mother, but for her colleagues and the business she works for; Concerns around 24/7 business and its impacts on family life; Topics such as ambition and the right of a woman to own, rather than distance herself from it.

Garda Commissioner Noírín O’Sullivan — a two-time winner of Ireland’s Most Powerful Women: Top 25 — captured it succinctly at a recent WXN event. Thanks to professional women’s networks, she thinks: ‘It’s ok now to be a success’. She believes that networks for executive women — such as WXN — give permission to women to be high-achieving and not feel that they should apologise for it.

But progress is slow. While the professional women’s movement has brought forward the commercial world by eons, it’s not enough to simply talk about change, we need to see it.

Today, in Ireland the gender pay gap is 14.4pc, having been 12.6pc in 2009. Only 10pc of ISEQ board directors are female, and only one has a female chair (who, coincidentally is Rose Hynes, one of our winners this year).

Companies are becoming more aware of this, and Thora Mackey, Head of the IoD’s Boardroom Centre told a recent WXN event that women are in high demand for non-executive board roles at present. We are proud to be an important part of the continued conversation in Ireland and know that women across this country have incredible value to offer. The 2016 Award Winners are a testament to this and we congratulate them on their achievements over the last year and looking to the future.