A FRENCHAY businesswoman welcomed leading female figures from business and other areas of public life across the UK and Europe to a conference.
Jo Kinsey is the national president of Business and Professional Women UK, which has been campaigning since 1938 for equality in areas including equal pay, sex discrimination, race relations and disability discrimination.
This year the organisation’s national conference was held at the Village Hotel in Filton on March 15 and 16, with the theme Women Flying High.
Guest speakers included the Lord Lieutenant of Bristol, Peaches Golding OBE, deputy police & crime commissioner Claire Hiscott, who spoke about misogyny crimes, prospective parliamentary candidate Claire Hazelgrove, and Alison Green and Jacqueline Castle, from the local aerospace industry, who spoke about the importance of science and technology skills.
The event started with BPW UK’s annual general meeting, which included a motion on a proposal to urge the government to amend the policy on asylum seekers’ right to work, recognising misogyny as a hate crime and raising awareness of human rights and online safety issues. It also hosted the final of the BPW UK Inter-Regional Public Speaking Championship, featuring teams of senior school pupils from Northern Ireland and the South and West of England, demonstrating the confidence and presentation skills that the competition develops.
The organisation’s support internationally for its Ukrainian members both living in the UK and in Ukraine was demonstrated by speaker Inna Gordiienko of Ukraine Response International Rescue Committee, and Jo Kinsey herself, who spoke on her project to buy a vehicle to help distribute humanitarian aid in Chernihiv, Ukraine.
For more information on Business and Professional Women UK visit www.bpw-international.org.