WISH Spring Newsletter 2023

WISH Spring Newsletter 2023

by Lucy Malarkey

Welcome to our Spring newsletter! It’s been such a busy quarter for everyone at WISH that I hardly know where to start….

In January we closed our annual WISH survey and analysed the results. Can I say a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone who took the time to complete it? Your views really do matter and they will shape and inform our activities over the next 12 months. We have created an infographic from the results and here is a link. Click here for the WISH Survey Infographic.

We shared some of the key survey findings around gender equality as part of our social media activity on International Women’s Day. The survey established that over 28% of housing professionals have recently experienced sexism in the workplace and a quarter say there are still significant barriers preventing women from progressing in housing careers. Furthermore, 50% of respondents believe women have to work harder than their male counterparts to access the same career opportunities. Whilst we may have made significant progress in relation to gender equality in the last decade, there is obviously still much more to do!

And of course this is where your WISH membership can add huge value, investing in WISH networking and learning opportunities brings tangible benefits to an individual and the organisation. Women who engage in and build an external network are happier and healthier and they bring this positivity back to the workplace to effectively challenge gender inequality. Now, more than ever, is the time to invest in networking opportunities!

In February we also announced that our Chair and Co-Founder, the amazing Debra Constance, is stepping down from her role as Chair of the WISH CIC Board. Debra wrote a fantastic blog that was published in Inside Housing (read Debra's blog here) about her experiences of so often being ‘the only’ in the room when she started her career. Concluding that whilst she may now be less likely to be the only Black woman or woman in the room, it does still happen and  “we must not sleepwalk into bad practices”. So very true!

As Debra steps down we welcome Tracey McEachran into the newly created role of WISH President. Many of you will know Tracey as she was the brilliant Chair of our London region for a number of years. Whilst Tracey will take over responsibility for chairing the CIC Board in this new Presidential role, she will also have a key area of campaign/focus during her tenure and more information about this will follow soon…

Moving onto our celebrations of International Women’s Day and the word that springs to mind is WOW! What fantastic regional celebrations we had. So many events, both in person and online, focusing on themes from breaking the glass ceiling to endometriosis. Did anyone not see all of the social media activity? We also supported and partnered with other organisations to celebrate IWD, including HouseProud, the CIH, Echelon Consulting and SHARE.

Looking ahead, we have announced our free Brighton networking event to be held on 10^th May – tickets are limited so visit the Events page of our website for further details and ticket information. And, we will be once again holding a free networking event in Manchester in June, again, tickets are always very popular so please keep your eyes on the website for further details shortly. And we must say a HUGE thank you to our sponsors of these events – Lovells, Calfordseaden and Novus Property Solutions – thank you!

So, happy Spring to everyone and here’s to the weather springing into summer soon!