We’re excited to be hosting a wide range of activities to celebrate International Women’s Day on the 8th March, aiming to inspire conversations and changes to make a real impact for women all year round. Our first activity of the year is our International Women’s Day panel event, taking place at Leigh Court on the 8th March. 

We spoke to one of our panellists for the event Rachel Mostyn, Co-Founder and joint CEO of the Women’s Work Lab, to discover more about the work she does, and why she’s excited to get involved with International Women’s Day and inspire inclusion in the world of work and beyond.  

Women’s Work Lab was set up by Rachel and her colleague Camilla Rigby back in 2019, and offers much needed support to Mums on benefits to help them get back into work through training, work placements and coaching. So far, they have transformed the lives of over 300 mums, helping them to secure meaningful work, rebuild their confidence and support their families further. 

Prior to setting up Women’s Work Lab, Rachel worked as a national newspaper journalist and communications specialist for over 15 years. She worked flexibly around her three children and is passionate about all women having this opportunity. In her words, this should not be seen as a privilege, but a given! 

Why did you choose to get involved with our International Women’s Day event this year?  

As a women’s led organisation, we clearly champion and talk about women every single day of the year but International Womens Day gives us that opportunity for our voices to be front and centre.  

We know that many of the businesses involved in Business West are passionate about being inclusive employers and this event gives us an opportunity to celebrate how amazing the women we work with are, and it gives us the chance to educate businesses on the power of inclusive recruitment. As this is a Business West event I am also hopeful that there will be many men in the room too; we all need to be involved to champion the power of women!  

Why do you feel this year’s theme of Inspiring Inclusion is so important?  

The very nature of the words ‘inspiring inclusion’ goes to the heart of the work that we do at Women’s Work Lab. These kinds of buzz phrases can often feel a bit cliched but ultimately what we need is more workplaces to truly be places where ‘everyone is welcome’. Many of our Mums have faced significant barriers to employment; single parenthood, surviving domestic abuse, health conditions, children with SEN…. but every single one of them wants to work and be financially secure.  

Whether we like it or not, many of our mums feel excluded or overlooked due to recruitment processes and inflexible working patterns that simply don't accommodate caregiving responsibilities. This means there is talent out there that isn’t even applying for roles in the first place; having open conversations around inspiring inclusion and really looking at it practically can go a long way to helping that.   

How can we inspire organisations, groups and individuals to value women’s inclusion through recruiting, retaining and developing female talent? 

Mothers returning to work are hidden talents; they bring transferable skills, life experience, and a new perspective. But businesses need to be ready to support such women to thrive; that might mean looking at barriers to recruitment processes, not least the unnecessary focus on previous work experience rather than the plethora of transferable skills many women possess. Then there is work culture, onboarding processes and progression to consider too. We are all about supporting businesses to enable those with multiple barriers to thrive.  

How can we inspire organisations, groups and individuals to value women’s inclusion by providing women and girls with access to quality education and training? 

The training that our Mums receive to get them ready for work is all about setting everyone up for success. We want our Mums to feel special and understand their worth and we ensure that they access the kind of training and coaching that you might usually expect in a corporate setting. Our courses are completely free for women and we are always keen to work with business partners to provide really quality offerings that support our Mums in different ways. Ultimately financial status should never be a barrier to accessing quality provision.  

How can we inspire organisations, groups and individuals to understand and value women’s inclusion?  

Women’s inclusion is not a ‘nice to have’. A recognition that organisations have a role to play and responsibility within their local communities sits alongside a realisation that it makes ‘good business sense’ to better engage with a deeper and more diverse pool of talent, often beyond the traditional reach of tried and tested HR practices and processes. Ultimately, we know that there are lots of vacancies out there at the moment; we are often contacted by businesses who tell us they have only had one or two people even apply for a live role. We want to ensure that businesses get the talent they need and our mums thrive too; it’s a win-win situation. Last year for example we set up an entry level returnship with Hargreaves Lansdown; 15 more mums are now back working and it has also filled vital vacancies too.  

What do you hope people get out of listening to you and the other panel members after the event? 

That there is a lot of brilliant work happening to support women in this city and that there are a huge amount of opportunities for businesses and individuals to get involved. 

If you would like to be a part of our International Women’s Day conversation, we would love to see you at our panel event on the 8th March, taking place at Leigh Court in Bristol. Spaces are still open, and you can find out more and sign up here.