8 March, International Women's Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

ANTZ have two strategic central beliefs that underpin and guide the purpose and provisions of this movement.

We identify, celebrate, and increase the visibility of women’s achievements. By doing so, we hope to help in the forge for equality.

We brokerage cross-sector collaborations based on a foundation of shared purpose, trust and appreciation which impacts positive change for all and allows organisations to change business and change lives.

In aid of International Women’s day, we are celebrating the women in our network and the work they do daily to contribute to gender parity and impact their communities.

Fenella McCarthy, Founder of Housebrands and collaboration partner to the ANTZ New Beginnings programme comments that... “Every time I think we have made great strides forward and achieved a far more gender-equal world, I am suddenly pulled up short. The pandemic has thrown our disappointing advances into the limelight once again, with women twice as likely as men to have lost their jobs and many times more likely to have taken on the additional roles of homeschooler and carer. That is why the work ANTZ is doing in the areas of social value, inclusion and diversity is so important. The New Beginnings programme is targeted directly at people who need to restart their careers and many of them will be women. We know we need great initiatives like this if we are going to create a fairer society, which is why we were delighted to be involved.” 

Network partners and community interest company Inspire Women focus on the empowerment of women through involvement and collaboration. They recently performed a march through Oldham to call for better services for victims of domestic violence.

Director and women’s advocate Sally Bonnie spoke on her thoughts for women in the world. “We are part of a world where our voices and our ability to contribute, our power to act has been eroded. We are seen as a set of labels, a set of deficiencies, problems that needed fixing; we created a new story. We are Inspire Women Oldham, and we are StrongHer Together.” 

Debra Jackson, Director of Internal Operations at ANTZ believes ANTZ purpose is embedded with the ethos of inclusivity, diversity and equality which enables us to sustain an environment where we can all grow and develop to be the best we can be and have the strength and knowledge to challenge inequality and bias. These are the building blocks that make a difference. My personal aim is to do my bit to get to a place where we no longer use gender as an identifier, as Sheryl Sandberg said "In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders.”

Counsellor and Antz Junction Project Lead Becky Harding acknowledges ANTZ in the movement to a gender-equal world. Becky states that she is "proud to not only work for an organisation that focuses on the equal contribution of women and men in the workplace and specifically the social value sector, but most importantly reflects this across all the social impact programmes we run.”

Management Consultant at KPMG David McIntosh once described ANTZ Founder and CEO Jen Gillies Pemberton as a woman who “champions the voice for aspiring females and those who identify as neurodiverse. Jen’s mission statement, and legacy, is a construct of her mantra: PURPOSE before PROFIT. She will not quite until the social value is embedded in the core principles of every organisation. Her dream climate, ‘doing good’ would be unrecognisably normal like the taste of our own mouths.”

Jen herself said that “Collaboration within our diverse and unified network offers outstanding results in helping break negative cycles for women and improve the life chances of future generations.”

ANTZ continue to commit to helping to forge an inclusive world, to challenging inequalities, call out bias, question stereotypes and help forge an inclusive network. ANTZ stand together today for an equal tomorrow.