Following on from the success of last years event, Law student Megan Gough successfully organised an expert panel and networking event for International Women’s Day 2023.

International Women’s Day each year celebrates women’s achievements and raises awareness against bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. It promotes a world that is diverse, equitable and inclusive. It celebrates a world where difference can be valued and celebrated. This, alongside Edge Hill’s long and proud history of advocating for women’s rights and equality provides for a fantastic opportunity for an event to celebrate women in law and their journeys to where they are today.

The panellists shared their background, their experience and what brought them to be where they are today. Their authenticity, and at times vulnerability, led to an extremely inspiring discussion of what it is like to be a woman in their industries. They shared advise for current students and discussed what the next generation of women in these industries can do, to better their positions. 

This event was so informative and useful, with the panellists from different backgrounds and with different journeys, hearing about their experiences enabled the audience to hear about different perspectives. Importantly, each topic event ended with some outstanding advice from the panellists, all in agreement supporting more change for the legal environment. Some advice highlights included: ‘Be brave, show courage, show kindness’ from Sabi Kaur; ‘do something that scares you everyday’ from Rebecca Filletti, and ‘stop trying to fit a mould, be proud of who you are’ from Lara Orr. I left the event truly inspired for my future career.

Emily Oliver
Paralegal, Bell Lamb Joynson

The panel and networking event was an amazing event and it was great to see the event being so well run and organised by my peer Megan Gough. It was a fantastic experience to be able to speak to a barrister as a lot of the time it’s solicitors and law firms who take on students, it was a great opportunity to speak to Rebecca in particular. It was also great to hear everyone else’s stories too as everyone has a different path, to hear about the creation of CEL Solicitors first hand from Jessica was also fantastic! 

Katie Turner
LLB (Hons) Law

Megan told us the most inspirational thing she took away from the event and the most surprising thing to her that the panel had to share:

Lana was discussing not having to fit into a mould and being your authentic self, and that in doing so the opportunities made for you will flow. This really resonated for me as it would have been easy to just flow through the university process without putting myself out there, potentially out of fear of what peers may say, but instead I have really pushed to get out my comfort zone and get the most out of my university experience in putting on events like this, entering competitions, going for the roles I have within the society and in turn trying to push those around me to do the same.

The most surprising thing I learnt from the panel was how now the statistics show women in the profession are much more prevalent than we once were, but that this is on a junior level. As you go up in ‘ranks’ and senior positions women become less and less. The fact we only have one woman in the twelve supreme court justices show that there is still work to be done within the legal profession.

My career goals are to become a barrister, hearing from these inspiring women truly motivates me and makes me want to strive to push into these poor statistics and break them down.

March 28, 2023