Inspiring the Future Ireland launches its ‘Inspiring Women’ campaign to highlight
successful female role models in today’s workplace
South Dublin County Partnership seeks 1,000 female professionals to speak with
underrepresented school students from disadvantaged areas about succeeding in their career
Friday 8th March 2019: Inspiring the Future Ireland (ITFI), an initiative run by South Dublin
County Partnership, has launched its ‘Inspiring Women’ campaign, which aims to give young
school students from disadvantaged areas a chance to hear from successful female role
models working in a broad variety of roles and industries.
Inspiring Women is seeking 1,000 successful female professionals to give one hour of their
time to speak to school children about their career to date, the challenges and opportunities
they’ve encountered, and how best for young people to achieve their dream profession.
Volunteers interested in participating in Inspiring Women can sign up via
www.inspiringthefuture.ie.
The campaign was launched on International Women’s Day (8th March) at The Foundry at
Google, via a ‘career speed networking’ event where 250 young women heard from 25
female leaders in business, education, science and the arts.
Young girls in particular can benefit from seeing women excelling in professions that might
be more typically thought of as ‘male’ roles, and engaging with successful female
professionals from a wide variety of sectors can challenge stereotypes and raise aspirations
among young women.
A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggests
there is a particular need to increase the number of interactions between young women and
successful female professionals working in a wide variety of jobs. The study gives an
example of girls trailing boys in mathematics tests due to reported lower levels of self-
confidence higher anxiety in approaching the subject. However this gender gap in
performance disappears when self-confidence and anxiety levels are equal, suggesting a
clear need to build girls’ self-confidence not only in mathematics but other subjects and
extracurricular life in general. 1
Katherine Zappone TD, Minister for Children & Youth Affairs, who provided the keynote
address on the day, commented, “I believe it is vitally important for young girls who are
considering any career to have female role models in their chosen fields. Representation is
key to success – you need to be able to see yourself in those roles you are aspiring towards.
And, I believe this can be achieved through building such relationships as we are here to
establish and creating positive networks between young women and professional female
1 OECD. 2015. The ABC of Gender Equality in Education: Aptitude, Behaviour, Confidence. OECD:
Paris.
role models as envisioned by the ‘Inspiring Women’ Programme. That is what this network
can and will provide – it can show all of us what is possible as we hear from women who are
succeeding and exceeding their own expectations in the workplace.”
A 2015 survey by the Education and Employers charity in the UK found that three-quarters of
respondents who had engaged with volunteers working in different jobs through their state
school felt that they had learnt something new and useful about jobs and careers from the
experience. The three things these young people most commonly said they had gained from
such interactions were a better understanding of: what they would need to do to get the
sorts of jobs they were interested in (55%), jobs and careers they were already interested in
(46%), and different ways into jobs like apprenticeships or going to college or university
(46%).
Sharon Murray, Inspiring the Future Ireland Coordinator at the South Dublin County
Partnership, added, “The Inspiring the Future Ireland initiative involves volunteers from all
backgrounds – from apprentices to CEO’s, archaeologists to zoologists – pledging just one
hour a year to volunteer in a school near where they live or work to talk to young people
about their job and career route. We are looking for 1,000 inspiring female role models who
can pledge just one hour of their time a year to visit primary and secondary schools to talk to
young people informally about their career and the route they took to get there. By engaging
with school-age children across Ireland, we aim to eradicate the obstacles – real or perceived
– they may encounter on the way to their dream professions.”
Fionnuala Meehan, Head of Google Ireland, said, “It is often said that ‘you can't be what you
can't see’, and this is particularly true of women in the workplace – visible role models are
critical to enabling the aspirations of young people and challenging preconceived
perceptions. Google has been a supporter of the Inspiring the Future Ireland initiative since
its foundation here in 2017, and we are delighted to host this special Inspiring Women
networking event for this year’s International Women’s Day. By meeting leading professional
females in person, it is hoped that career success is not an abstract notion to young girls,
but instead something that is very much achievable with the right mindset. It’s an exciting
day which I was very excited to be involved with.”
Patty Clement, EU Chief Operating Officer at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said: “As the
dialogue about diversity and inclusion evolves, we are steadfast in bringing forward
conversations about gender, race and social equality to the business. We are guided by our
ambition to be part of a broader solution for social mobility, which forms a vital part of our
responsible growth strategy. We believe through education and mentoring students will be
motivated to realise their ambition and look forward to encouraging female professionals to
join this progressive and exciting programme.”
Inspiring the Future Ireland is managed by South Dublin County Partnership with support
from Google and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. To sign up
