Celebrating March 8th in Bruges!

On March 8th, the College and SAGE (Students Association for Gender Equality) organised several activities to raise awareness around gender equality and to celebrate this day with the College’s community.

At 10:30, Professor Agnès Hubert welcomed H.E Muriel Domenach, French Ambassador, Permanent representative of France to NATO. They had a very insightful discussion on Feminist Diplomacy. Ms Domenach talked about her personal experience in the work field. During the course, students were able to ask questions, this made it an interactive and interesting conversation.

ndo

At 14:00, Claudia de Castro Caldeirinha, CEO of Redscope and author of Women Leading the Way in Brussels, gave a masterclass on “Inclusive leadership, gender equality and microaggressions: Where we are and what we can do?”. It was a great opportunity to reflect on gender equality and gender issues at all levels, and how to collectively create a more inclusive society.

claudia

At 16:00, Benedikt Laloo, our communications officer, conducted a workshop on self-defence. While progress has been made in recent years towards gender equality, the unfortunate reality is that women still face a disproportionate amount of violence and harassment compared to men. International Women’s Day serves as an important reminder of the ongoing struggle for gender equality and is also a time to reflect on the challenges that women face, including the threat of violence and harassment.

At 17:30, a panel discussion took place on gender equality in the workplace with SAGE and the Best Friends group on international Law Firm. Several speakers from companies “De Brauw, Slaughter and May, Uria Menéndez and Bredin Prat” were present to discuss their own careers and issues. They talked about unconscious bias in the workplace, work/life balance challenges and leadership styles. The session was interactive and offered the opportunity to ask the panelists their views on a wide variety of issues. After that, there was a reception to wrap up the day.

law

Café Phoenix was open all afternoon. The proceeds of the café were donated to an organisation working on gender equality.

bkj

We want to thank all our speakers and participants for making this issue more visible!