"Taboo-tackling" events to shine light on women's health

Thursday 10 February 2022

A series of “stigma-smashing’ and “taboo-tackling” events on women's health aimed at promoting policy-level change in the workplace will be launching next month.

The 'Championing Women's Health' series - which Express is supporting as media partner - will aim to raise awareness of the gender health gap through a panel discussion event focused on women’s health in the workplace.

The first event is taking place at the Pomme D’Or at 17:00 on 17 March, and islanders are invited to join both virtually and in person.

Fiona Wylie, founder of Brand Champions and long-term campaigner for “more female friendly” work practices, is organising the event.

“Men and women can find discussing female health awkward or uncomfortable, whether that’s in the workplace or amongst friends and family,” Fiona explained.

Pictured: Organised by Fiona Wylie, the events aim to spark conversations, and change, in relation to women's health in the workplace.

“We know normalising conversations about topics such as painful periods, the menopause, endometriosis, gynaecological cancers, fertility and miscarriage, to name a few, will take time and many small steps, which is why our campaign mantra is ‘say something about women’s health’.

"We hope our events start the conversation and get the ball rolling towards cultural and policy-level change in the workplace. If any additional businesses would like to help us steer the conversation and help us to affect change by joining as a sponsor, please do get in touch. The more support we have the more awareness we can generate and the faster we can drive much needed change."

She added: “Companies are waking up to the idea that being a women comes with challenges that men simply do not encounter, and that steps need to be taken to make sure female health is not a barrier to employees' work. Perhaps more persuasively, with statistics to show that women score higher than men in most leadership skills and that female investors are outperforming men, companies ought to realise that in neglecting to put female health on the agenda, they are creating their own barriers success."

Alongside Fiona, appearing at the first event will be:

• Dr Sarah Brewer who is a GP and Medical Director at Healthspan;

• Neil MacLachlan MBE FRCOG, the founder of Indigo Medical Centre’s women’s wellness clinic;

• and Lynne Capie, consultant for Appleby, who co-founded the Female Leader’s Network and lobbies for Menopause Friendly Workplaces as part of The Diversity Network’s 51 Employers Initiative.

Healthspan are sponsoring the event that will be donating all profits from ticket sales to The Eve Appeal, a charity “set up to prevent gynaecological cancers and save lives by funding ground-breaking research."

“Using our events to raise as much money as we can for The Eve Appeal is very important to us and as such we are incredibly grateful to our lead sponsor, Healthspan, networking sponsor, Affinity, and our media partner, Bailiwick Express," Fiona said.

"Without their support we wouldn’t be able to put on this event and also raise money for a very worthy charity.” 

Tickets to attend the event, either in person or virtually can be booked online HERE.