International Women’s Day

These are:

• Barry Town Mayor
• Town Clerk
• Leaders of all three political parties, Labour, Conservative and Plaid Cymru.

We interviewed all these amazing women on International Women’s Day, and shared their interviews over the afternoon on our social media.
The links below take you directly to these interviews on our Facebook page.
#internationalwomensday2021

• Councillor Bronwen Brooks answers the IWD questions we put to her.

  1. Which woman inspires you and why?

  I think Marie Curie has always inspired me as she came from very humble beginnings and fought her way to education at the Sorbonne University when she reached Paris. She is the recipient of 2 Nobel Peace Prizes and working as an equal alongside her husband, gaining respect and accolade in the scientific world for their dedication to the discovery of radioactivity.

• 2 How do you think the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has effected women in leadership, considering the shift to homeworking and with many parents having to Home-school at the same time as working?

  It’s been proven that women’s jobs are more vulnerable to COVID and unpaid care/working from home and home schooling is disproportionately carried by women. Interestingly Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark all have female Prime Ministers and have much lower rates of infection than their neighbouring Countries, who have male Leaders.

• 3 Have you experienced resistance in as a leader or at any time in your career, which you felt was gender related?

  Ever since I became a local politician there have been many barriers which are gender related unfortunately. For instance terminology such as ‘My dear’ or ‘Listen love’ is still used by some men....also policy and decision making is not always easily accepted unless you have a strong argument.

• 4 If you could meet anyone, Man or Woman, living or dead, who would it be and why?

  It would have to be Nelson Mandela. Mandela stands for freedom, fairness and liberty for all people. It would be fascinating to sit down and talk to him about his life experiences and what shaped him to become the incredible Leader he was.

• 5 If you could learn to do anything – what would it be and why?

  I would love to be able to speak several languages (including fluent Welsh). Languages are a gateway to so many friendships across the world....sadly as much as I have tried, I just don’t seem to be able to grasp learning a new language. Maybe one day.

• 6 What was the first thing you bought with your own money?

  It seems such a long time ago but I can still remember my first wage packet and being able to buy a pair of shoes that I’d been looking at for weeks in Etam store - l loved those shoes and kept them for years!

• What is your International Women’s Day message?

  In the words of Michelle Obama ‘There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish’. This is true in whatever we face in life as women.