The award, presented by Women in the City Founder Gwen Rhys, at the 10th Annual Women in the City Lunch & Awards Ceremony held at Plaisterers’ Hall, London.
The principal aim of the Women in the City Woman of Achievement Award is to highlight and formally recognise those women who, as well as fulfilling a demanding senior level role, are actively promoting and encouraging the progress of women in their organisation and sector.
On winning the Woman of Achievement Award Denise Jagger said; “I am delighted to have been honoured with this award, which provides another opportunity to keep the issue of women’s education, development and advancement in the public eye. Whilst progress is being made most recently in relation to women on boards across a range of sectors, there still remains much to do to create working environments where women are as likely as men to fulfil their potential.
“I have been active in encouraging the advancement of women for over 20 years, first in retail and more recently, actively supported by Eversheds, in law firms and in relation to women on boards. Eversheds is fully committed to diversity and in particular to promoting women into senior roles. Progress in certain sectors such as retail only highlights deficiencies in other areas; we recently learnt of the falling number of young girls studying science in schools which will have a devastating effect in certain sectors of the economy and sadly reinforces unhelpful stereotyping.
“Effort must be maintained from the earliest stages of education throughout the workplace and if ever we needed inspiration to continue in this endeavour we need only think of the courage and determination of the 14 year old Malala Yousafzai fighting for the most basic right of education for women in her home country of Pakistan.”
Seven finalists, who each won their categories, competed for the overall prize and award. Once again the Woman of Achievement Award proved a hit in the city with many entries received from talented female executives based in London and the Home Counties.
The Award judging panel was chaired by Prof Susan Vinnicombe, OBE, Director, Cranfield International Research Centre for Women Leaders. Prof Vinnicombe OBE, commented; “Currently there is a great deal of attention focussed on the subject of women on boards and EU quotas, and this prompts the much more fundamental question about the lack of women executives in general. This is why the Women in the City Woman of Achievement Award programme is so important, as it helps to raise the profile of women and propel women through the ‘talent pipeline’.”
The main Woman of Achievement Award prize for 2012 includes a place on the prestigious Accelerated Development Program delivered by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business at its London campus.
For more information on Women in the City and how to get involved in 2013 visit www.citywomen.co.uk
