IWD 2025: Why is lifting up women a job that falls on women, not everyone?

Should women lift up other women? Absolutely. It’s a concept I am fully on board with. But it’s starting to feel a bit like a trick question.

In the run-up to International Womens Day, the team at With received a handful of media enquiries – from significant media outlets – asking for contributions from women CEOs on what they are doing to lift other women up in the workplace.

Now, don’t get me wrong, celebrating what women leaders are doing to help other women achieve is not wrong. Not at all. Happy to see it.

And I can rattle off all manner of women-led initiatives I see on a daily basis – those building women-led start-ups, those creating pathways for diverse leadership and those stepping back from the biased status quo to rethink recruitment.

But given that only 1 in 10 of the UK’s top businesses have a woman as Chief Executive, surely there is a wider audience for this question? 

To truly accelerate action we need male leaders to help break down the systemic barriers to gender equality that exist in the workplace. I am fascinated by the work of companies like Shape Talent who help businesses review their vision, as well as their policies and processes to create a truly level playing field on the pathway to leadership. But, as their CEO Sharon Peake often discusses, this requires strong male allyship. It is a tougher world than it has arguably ever been for a man to put his head above the parapet on gender equality, but it is why it is needed more than ever. 

This year I saw as many women who posted after International Women’s Day about not posting for  International Women’s Day – disenfranchised by its tokenism – as I saw posts in support. But what I still didn’t see was men posting their advocacy for equality. Maybe it’s the algorithm, but I would have ‘liked and shared’ the backside of that stuff if I’d seen it. 

One LinkedIn post by a guy did stand out for me and that was Martin Kimber of Sky News’ business production team – lamenting the lack of media-trained women that Sky News could include in its coverage, day in, day out, not just on this one day of female visibility. I was pleased as punch to be able to tell him about our free media training programme, With Women, and the cohort of 350+ women we have trained over the last couple of years. From founders to executives, our group of women have expertise spanning topics from crypto regulation to sustainable supply chains and even amicable divorce. 

And it’s this ownership of expertise that will help increase the visibility of women all year round. One of the things we advocate for most strongly in our media training is really honing in on your specific area of expertise – thinking through the brilliant achievements you have delivered in your niche (however nichey that niche may be) and totally owning the fact you deserve a seat at the table to discuss the latest developments in that area. 

So in the next 12 months, I would like to see equality action accelerated through more visible male advocacy and through more women owning their expertise. 

And of course, With can help with both. 

To sign up to our free media training for women leaders, email WithWomen@welcometowith.com

By Debbie Zaman, CEO of With