My take on the 2022 IWD theme is that any sort of International Women’s Day campaign is about standing together, about solidarity, and breaking biases by giving our opinions and hopefully getting our point across in the most productive way.
Work to break the bias is being done in retail, certainly over the last 5 years there’s been a huge change for women in senior positions and that can be seen a lot across places like John Lewis and their big partnerships. And of course in my role as part of the director team, there are a couple of women within that team so that’s changed massively, down to our hard work and commitment to driving that forward.
My career began by going into retail as a stop gap, like most people do. But I actually got an absolute bug for it. I got taken on board by another female colleague who said “actually, I’ll show you what you can achieve and it’s not just about putting stock on shelves”. Since then, I’ve had a lot of influential people in my life on the journey in the business that I’ve been in for 15 years now, which have helped me progress from a very small role to a more senior one. Progression as a women has been becoming easier over the last few years, and I’ve been in retail for many years. I’ve been with the same company over that time and there’s been a very clear strategy to progress because of your ability, not because of your gender, so it’s always been very positive. But I think in the wider market it’s changed massively over the last few years.
A lot of women have positively impacted my career. If I look back I don’t think I could give it to one person but my first manager was very clear on her expectations, she was a force to be reckoned with. She instilled a lot of passion in me for retail and people. A big part of our working day is our people, our customers and staff, so it’s important and she instilled that in me. I’ve got a nine year old daughter and I find myself saying “strive to do your best” and “look back on how you dealt with situations”. I say “don’t just accept what you’ve done but look back at how you did it and who you influenced”.
Retail is hard work, don’t give up. Persevere. Listen to your people – that’s the key one. They can take you where you need to be and you can’t get there without them.
What motivates you?
Every morning my daughter motivates me to get up and her fun loving attitude to life as well is motivating too.
Dead or alive, who would you most like to meet?
I gave this a lot of thought and this is controversial but it’s the Queen! I think for me she’s shown great tenacity, she’s been in her position for 70+ years which is such dedication and I think she’d have plenty of stories about past prime ministers.
What job did you want when you were younger?
I wanted to be a police detective to investigate and analyse! Even though I don’t have that job because I got the retail bug, I still do stuff like that – I’m very analytical, I like to review things; it’s still there - that small detective is still in me.
You can watch Caroline's Conversation about Breaking the Bias on Youtube
Sep 25, 2023
Sep 15, 2023
Sep 6, 2023
Aug 18, 2023
Aug 10, 2023
Jul 24, 2023
Jul 14, 2023
Jul 6, 2023
Jul 6, 2023
Jun 29, 2023
Jun 14, 2023
Jun 8, 2023
May 22, 2023
May 15, 2023
Apr 4, 2023
Mar 8, 2023
Feb 9, 2023
Jan 4, 2023
Jan 3, 2023
Dec 22, 2022
Dec 2, 2022
Nov 22, 2022
Nov 22, 2022
Nov 21, 2022
Nov 4, 2022
Oct 27, 2022
Oct 5, 2022
Oct 5, 2022
Sep 30, 2022
Sep 29, 2022
Sep 29, 2022
Sep 29, 2022
Sep 27, 2022
Sep 27, 2022
Sep 26, 2022
Sep 26, 2022
Sep 26, 2022
Sep 26, 2022
Sep 26, 2022
Sep 26, 2022
Sep 26, 2022
Sep 23, 2022
Sep 8, 2022
Sep 8, 2022
Sep 5, 2022
Aug 26, 2022
Aug 26, 2022
Aug 26, 2022
Aug 24, 2022
Aug 23, 2022
Aug 19, 2022
Aug 17, 2022
Aug 6, 2022
Aug 5, 2022
Aug 2, 2022
Jul 28, 2022
Jul 26, 2022
Jul 26, 2022
Jul 21, 2022
Jul 19, 2022
Jul 19, 2022
Jul 11, 2022
Jun 28, 2022
Jun 13, 2022
May 23, 2022
May 18, 2022
May 13, 2022
May 11, 2022
May 10, 2022
May 9, 2022
Apr 27, 2022
Apr 1, 2022
Mar 17, 2022
Mar 17, 2022
Mar 8, 2022
Mar 1, 2022
Feb 22, 2022
Feb 7, 2022
Jan 28, 2022
Jan 14, 2022
Jan 12, 2022
Jan 5, 2022
Dec 6, 2021
Dec 6, 2021
Nov 25, 2021
Oct 26, 2021
Sep 17, 2021
Jul 23, 2021
Jul 22, 2021
Jul 22, 2021
Jul 19, 2021
Jul 6, 2021
Jun 30, 2021
Jun 25, 2021
Jun 24, 2021
Jun 10, 2021
Jun 7, 2021
Jun 1, 2021
May 24, 2021
May 22, 2021
May 13, 2021
May 13, 2021
May 6, 2021
Apr 23, 2021
Apr 20, 2021
Apr 16, 2021
Apr 12, 2021
Mar 31, 2021
Mar 22, 2021
Mar 9, 2021
Mar 8, 2021
Feb 10, 2021
Jan 27, 2021
Jan 21, 2021
Dec 8, 2020
Oct 20, 2020
Aug 14, 2020
Aug 10, 2020
Aug 6, 2020
Aug 6, 2020
Mar 27, 2020
Mar 17, 2020
Mar 16, 2020
Jan 31, 2020
Jan 20, 2020
Dec 17, 2019
Dec 6, 2019
Nov 22, 2019
Oct 11, 2019
Oct 9, 2019
Sep 17, 2019
Sep 9, 2019
Sep 5, 2019
Aug 7, 2019
Jun 14, 2019
Feb 27, 2019
Feb 21, 2019
Feb 20, 2019
Feb 6, 2019
Feb 5, 2019
Feb 4, 2019
Jan 31, 2019
Jan 9, 2019
Jan 2, 2019
Dec 28, 2018
Dec 21, 2018
Dec 21, 2018
Dec 21, 2018
Dec 13, 2018
Dec 10, 2018
Nov 29, 2018
Nov 15, 2018
Nov 13, 2018
Nov 5, 2018
Nov 5, 2018
Nov 5, 2018
Oct 24, 2018