Celebrated local women look back to ‘move things forward’

More than 100 women gathered at the hotel and heard from guest speakers Shelaine Green, who spoke about Women in Public Life, which she chairs, Jo Priaulx, who took questions on the Priaulx Premature Baby Foundation, which she founded more than 20 years ago after the premature birth of her children, and Bex Goater, financial adviser and director at Network.

Attendees also heard from three of the nominees for Guernsey’s Iconic Women Under 30.

Lawyer Rebekah Johnston, an associate at Ferbrache and Farrell and member of the Police Complaints Commission, said that the day was an opportunity to reflect on women’s achievements.

‘International Women’s Day is a fantastic time to reflect on who we are as women and how far we have come and also to reflect on all of the role models who have helped make us who we are today,’ she said.

Lizzie Singer, officially Guernsey’s strongest woman, was nominated for her work with the Guernsey Youth Commission before she started at the Guernsey Employment Trust. She spoke about how while it was important to reflect, it was also necessary to look ahead and push things forward for women.

‘I think it’s good to reflect on what we have done as women both today and historically, but also to push things forward and keep things going, like a positive snowball effect, thinking “right, what’s next?” and how we can improve and how we can band together and support other women,’ she said.

Krista Osborne, account manager at Black Vanilla, spoke about how women are multi-faceted and that should be celebrated.

‘To me International Women’s Day is all about celebrating our conflicting assets, I think it’s really important that we don’t pigeonhole ourselves and we should really celebrate that we can be multiple different things. While they might not align on paper, that’s what makes us human and that’s what makes us incredible, powerful women,’ she said.