Every International Women’s Day (IWD), I feel proud – and irritated. Proud because I can see progress in our profession. Irritated because the same conversations keep coming back. If we’re still repeating them, it’s probably because the gap still exists.
I’ve sat through enough sessions on confidence, visibility, progression, sponsorship, pay, the second shift at home, and that familiar moment of being the only woman in the room. Some days I leave feeling energised. Other days I leave thinking, how are we here again?
Then I do what many ACCA members do: I go back to ACCA’s research and commentary on gender equality, inclusion and progression, and it resets me. The themes are consistent: progress exists, but it’s uneven. The leadership picture doesn’t match the talent picture. The same issues keep resurfacing because the outcomes haven’t shifted enough.
I’ve felt the weight of doors that only opened once I pushed – hard
That’s when the more uncomfortable question shows up: What am I doing about it?
Confidence in context
I’m a senior woman in the profession. I’ve benefited from people who opened doors for me. I’ve also felt the weight of doors that only opened once I pushed – hard. I’ve watched women around me deliver excellent work quietly, then feel disappointed when the opportunity went elsewhere.
In the Middle East, there’s an added layer that’s hard to explain. The pace is quick. Expectations are high. Rooms are diverse – nationalities, cultures, communication styles – and not everyone is rewarded for showing up the same way. Many women are navigating serious responsibility at work while managing family commitments, social expectations, travel, late meetings and the unspoken rule that you should make it all look effortless.
I didn’t set out to build a community; I was just looking for a lever
So, when we talk about ‘confidence’, it’s rarely just confidence. It’s context. It’s whether you feel safe to be direct. It’s whether your authority is received as authority or reframed as attitude. It’s whether you have allies when you take a risk.
Superconnected women
Waiting for the system to evolve on its own is a slow strategy.
I didn’t set out to build a community; I was just looking for a lever. The simplest lever I could find was to gather women who already feel the gap and give them a place where it becomes normal to practise the behaviours that close it.
I spoke about the idea. A handful of women resonated. Two said: ‘I’ll build this with you.’ They brought friends. Those friends brought colleagues. Slowly, the room started to fill.
That’s how the ACCA Superconnect Women’s Community began, and how it became She Counts. Not with a grand plan but with conversations and a shared instinct that women weren’t short of capability – they were short of space. Space to speak without being interrupted. Space to ask the question they’d otherwise keep inside. Space to be ambitious out loud. Space to admit uncertainty without being judged for it.
Take responsibility
If we have to keep repeating ourselves, it usually means that the message isn’t reaching the rooms where decisions are made, or that behaviour isn’t changing consistently.
Responsibility for change sits on both sides.
The fact is that the system rewards what it can see
For men, it means genuine sponsorship – the kind that happens behind closed doors, not just on conference panels. It’s putting a woman forward for a high-stakes project, not just the ‘safe’ one. It’s saying her name when credit is being assigned. It’s backing her once she’s in role instead of scanning for the first mistake.
For women, the work is spotting opportunities earlier and reaching for them sooner. Asking before you feel fully ready. Taking up space before you feel fully comfortable. I don’t say that lightly. I know what it costs – the second-guessing, the internal editing. But the fact is that the system rewards what it can see.
Women need to speak louder about what we do. I wish someone had told me that a lot earlier. So now I practise what I’ve learned through the #IAmRemarkable initiative:
- Put the outcome in writing.
- Say it in the meeting, once, clearly.
- Share credit with your team and include your own role without apologising for it.
- Keep a record of wins so your performance conversation isn’t a memory test.
This isn’t ego. It’s fairness. If your work is invisible, your opportunity becomes optional.
What else can we do?
If I could ask the profession for three practical shifts this year, they would be these:
Make sponsorship measurable. This should be a habit, not a sentiment. Track who is getting stretch roles, who is being put forward, who is getting visibility.
Build more practice spaces. Offer accessible places where women practise negotiation, presenting, influencing and board-level writing.
Normalise direct invitations. One sentence – ‘I want you in this room’ – can change a career trajectory.
We don’t need a new conversation about women in the profession every year on International Women’s Day. We need the right actions, repeated, until they show up in leadership teams and boardrooms. The day itself is a moment. My focus is the months after it.
