Smashing the glass ceiling: an insight into Warwick’s International Women’s Day Summit

Warwick Women in Economics (WWiE) hosted their flagship International Women’s Day Conference on 2 March 2024, bringing in a wide variety of female speakers from fields including finance, health economics, and public policy. The day-long conference was a culmination of months of hard work, commitment, and planning: it was also a heartfelt tribute to the women of today who continue to inspire the future leaders of tomorrow.

One of the most important purposes of the Conference was to celebrate women by telling their stories and shining a light on their remarkable achievements within the field of economics, which is heavily male-dominated. The Conference was set up in such a way that there was a mix of panel discussions, talks, workshops, and networking opportunities within each session. As such, the attendees left having been exposed to a wide range of new perspectives. Most importantly, the Conference provided insights into several different fields within economics, celebrating its diversity.

The day of the Conference was very interactive and exciting, with many attendees staying around afterwards to talk with the speakers

There were inspiring talks and workshops from Warwick alumnae Aneesah Sarwar and Ana David, alongside health economist Mireia Jofre-Bonet. The Conference also included equally engaging panel sessions. The first was the Economics of Education Panel featuring Hanaa Almoaibed, an academic researcher; Reem Ibrahim, Communications Officer at the Institute for Economic Affairs; and research economist Elaine Drayton. There was also a joint careers panel discussion with Chara Tzanetaki, a microeconomist and former Warwick PhD student; data scientist Ida Chak; and Isabell Moessler, who works as a head of distribution within the decentralised finance ecosystem. The speakers made for a very enriching experience as they joined us in celebrating International Women’s Day.

As a freshers’ representative for WWiE, I assisted with the organisation of the Conference, most of which I did through helping with outreach. All throughout my experience, our speakers were incredibly accommodating – they were very keen to come to campus and participate in our conference rather than joining us virtually. As a result, the day of the Conference was very interactive and exciting, with many attendees staying around afterwards to talk with the speakers.

My experience has also shown me the amount of planning and dedication required to organise a conference, especially one as important as the IWD one. The experience was quite a fruitful one, for both the organisers and the attendees, and I look forward to being a part of an even bigger IWD conference in 2025 to push for increased diversity within the field of economics and celebrate the remarkable progress that has been made so far.