Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025
This year, the theme for International Women’s Day (IWD) is #AccelerateAction, urging individuals, communities, and organisations to take decisive steps toward gender equality.
“For me, International Women's Day is about recognising the amazing potential within every woman. EDI-T exists to unlock that potential, the connections, and the unwavering support needed to drive more women into leadership roles across the global education sector and improve diversity at the top,” said Bri, Co-Founder of EDI-T Network.
What does accelerating action mean?
With each IWD a new theme is introduced. This year the theme is focused on the current rate of progress for full gender parity and the urgent need to push for immediate action.
It comes at a crucial junction for the future of women’s rights. If the current projections from the World Economic Forum stay on course then we won't achieve full gender parity until 2158, five generations from now.
Accelerate action calls for the breaking down of systemic barriers that feed inequality, such as unequal pay, limited access to education, and under-representation in leadership. To drive progress in your organisation and to help work towards gender equality, it’s everyone’s responsibility to forge a more inclusive world for women and all employees.
Morgan Allen, Partner at Newmark spoke to Bri about what accelerated action means to her and how education has influenced her journey.
“I consider that Accelerate Action can be compared to the "snowball effect", which is also an analogy for compounding interest. The bigger the snowball gets, the more snow it can pick up and the faster it grows. The analogy explains how small actions can lead to big gains over time. Whilst the rate of change and progress in terms of gender equality has not been as rapid as I would like, we are making gains all the time.
“I was fortunate to be able to attend a highly selective independent girls’ school, which was only possible with financial assistance. My school experience was truly transformational. Along with a benefactor, last year I established a Charity, which will give grants for bursaries. The grants will be available only for girls’ who qualify for 100% bursaries and meet the stringent entry requirements for the top independent schools. We hope that in this small way, we can increase social mobility and in turn, the ratios of women in leadership roles.”
Promoting and delivering EDI in the workplace is an essential aspect for a sustainable and equitable future. It’s about creating working environments and cultures where every individual can feel safe, experience a sense of belonging, and is empowered to achieve their full potential.
Female leadership in education
Across the global education sector, leadership roles have long been dominated by men although this varies slightly across specific areas of education. While there is still a long way to go, there have been several positive shifts across education institutions and the women who lead them have noticed a change in awareness.
Mandy Richardson, CEO of Naturally Learning, a group of early years education settings in Cornwall said that more recognition is needed for women working in her workforce.
“I am incredibly proud to work in the female-dominated field of early years education. It is an honour to lead a team of inspirational women who demonstrate strength, resilience, expertise, and passion while serving as exceptional role models for our children. My vision is for this sector, and the dedicated professionals within it, to receive the recognition and respect it deserves as a valued and esteemed career path. For too long it’s been considered as a job to fit in around family life. It’s not!”
Mandy also invests significantly in staff development and leadership training at all levels to support her colleagues in their own goals.
As women build their careers and expertise their influence grows across all areas of education, diversifying leadership perspectives and outcomes.
“When I started out in international education and stepped out of the classroom into the wider sector I saw a lot of women leading the way in different organisations.
“I think one of the most important things as a leader to help push for progress is to keep showing up and be visible so that other women and girls can see someone who looks like me doing their own thing and, most importantly, in their own way,” said Hannah Youell, Inclusive Wellbeing Specialist and EDI Champion.
Analysis of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2025 reveals a notable increase in female leadership within top-tier institutions. Specifically, 55 of the top 200 universities globally are now led by women.
This represents an increase from the 50 universities under female leadership recorded in the previous year.
Key highlights include:
The University of Oxford, currently ranked number one, is led by Irene Tracey, who assumed the role in January 2023, succeeding Louise Richardson.
Four prominent Ivy League institutions in the United States, Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Yale University and Brown University are all under female leadership.
The increase of female leaders in higher education, outpaces the amount of female CEOs in the fortune global 500.
The Netherlands, the US, Germany and the UK are some of the countries with high numbers of female-led institutions but,
There are variations in the increase of female leaders, in different countries. Switzerland has increased the number of female University leaders, while countries such as the UK and France have seen a decrease.
Jessica Glauser Guiver, International Education Professional and Executive Recruitment at The PIE has observed gender disparities across C-Suite and leadership roles.
“The other day I was looking into two different international education organisations for something I was working on, and they had very little female representation on their boards. One had ZERO women on the board, the other had ONE woman (on a board of 8). And sadly, this is all too common in our industry (and in most other industries).
“We need more male allies in positions of power (those guys on the board) to support accelerated action and be proactive about it. Gender equality will only be achieved if everyone is working towards it, not just women. Thankfully, younger generations seem to be more inclusive and expect things like equality and diversity, which over time will trickle up to leadership. And there is evidence to show that diverse and inclusive teams outperform and are more innovative than those which aren’t, so some organisations are taking note of that now and making sure leadership teams are diverse and include more women. Progress is happening, albeit perhaps more slowly than we’d like!”
Cheryl Warren, Founder of Aperion Training who is releasing her new book on 18 April said to Bri,
“Globally, and in higher leadership roles, the male voice can still dominate. However I think we are seeing a shift in amplifying women’s voices and dismantling systemic barriers. Knowledge and understanding of women’s health differences, alongside flexible thinking and working are enabling women to be seen and heard to ensure we continue to move forward and change can become possible.”
Uncertainty ahead to tackle
We will always celebrate and highlight the progress being made to accelerate gender equality. However we can’t deny that we are living in a time of societal and political uncertainty and women more than often become the target of these movements.
In the US a slew of executive orders attacked EDI programmes and initiatives directly impacting women from all backgrounds.
Just hours after he took the oath of office on Jan. 20, Trump began issuing executive orders to dismantle programs, put pressure on federal contractors to end “illegal DEI discrimination”and direct federal agencies to draw up lists of private companies that could be investigated for their EDI policies.
As well as gender parity taking over 100 years to achieve, UNICEF estimates that there are 122 million girls out of school globally.
Inspiring momentum for change
Yes, there are a lot of worrying elements that can’t lose our attention. However, in many ways, women have seen huge strides towards gender equality, with salaries and representation at executive level improving over the past few decades.
“A seismic shift is happening in terms of women having access to and gaining leadership roles across the global sector, in many countries and organisations, particularly in locations historically perceived to be the most challenging.
“Despite the ongoing and generally negative press around regions such as the Middle East, there are authentic and frequent opportunities for women, more so than in the West, where the recognition of talent rather than the issue of gender takes centre stage. It’s up to us, as experienced Senior female leaders to share the opportunities and encourage the next generation of powerful women to ‘go for gold’,” said Pam Mundy, Executive Director at Pam Mundy Associates.
According to the Annual Fortune 500 list 2024, the proportion of women CEOs in the Fortune 500 has more than doubled from 4.6% to 10.4% since 2014 and the pressure to improve that further must continue.
We also know advancing women’s opportunities and rights is smart business. PwC UK’s 2025 Women in Work report estimates that improving female participation in work across the OECD has added USD$10.2 billion a year to the average OECD county’s GDP through boosted productivity since 2011. By 2030, the average OECD country could gain a further USD$15.1 billion annually.
Jennifer Lewis, CEO of Smarty Pants Abbey Lane and Clever Cloggs Day Nurseries said, “As a women in business I truly believe in valuing what I have achieved. having the confidence in my abilities has enabled me to use my voice to support and raise the self esteem of others. Shared success is the best success".”
Sarah Crossley, Founder and Manager of Your Wellbeing Co sums up what makes her positive about the future for equality and creating inclusive environments.
“I draw hope from the increasing visibility and advocacy for women in leadership. Organisations are recognising the importance of diversity and the unique perspectives women bring. Initiatives that prioritise mentoring and development programs specifically for women are gaining traction, and this shift in organisational culture fosters a supportive environment. Additionally, the rising number of successful female leaders in education serves as a powerful inspiration for the next generation, proving that progress is possible and can be accelerated.”
Join EDI-T
Our network stands to be at the forefront of progress of equal representation and diversity across leadership positions in the global education sector.
Talking about the future for women in leadership, Morgan said, “Initiatives such as EDI-T, for a start! It is so inspiring that Briony and Simone have created a global network for women leaders in the sector who are unfairly represented and to give them access to equitable opportunities. This is a great example of women collaborating to drive the change they themselves want to see. I am excited to see what happens next..! "Be the change".
AT EDI-T we want to empower women and connect those who are underrepresented with inspiring people across the world who are united in our shared goals for gender equity.
You can sign up and join our community here - https://community.edit-network.com/home
