Related
Recommended
laura.pringle

It's International Women's Day... so here is Staff member Laura writing about what International Women's Day means for her.

Being a women in the nature conservation sector does have its difficulties, and many women* don't feel safe or comfortable to enjoy the countryside alone.  I don't want to touch too much on this today, but have a read of this blog as it highlights many of these difficulties. https://community.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/b/martinharper/posts/being-a-good-man-a-reflection-on-what-can-be-done-to-ensure-the-countryside-is-welcome-and-safe-for-all

Instead, I'd like to focus on the positive things. Let's focus on 3:

  1. Events for women.  I have had the absolute pleasure of organising and leading women only events over the last 2 years. For several months of the year, I lead Full Moon guided walks alongside other female members of staff and volunteers. It is wonderful to see like-minded, nature loving women enjoying each others company, with the incredible backdrop of the shining full moon over the darkness Poole harbour. 
  2. Women doing many roles. I work within the Visitor Experience Team, organising and leading events, family activities and school visits. My role is varied and takes me across several different nature reserves throughout Dorset, as well as engaging with a diverse range of people of all ages and backgrounds. While some of my female colleagues have roles similar to mine, there are women throughout our workforce taking on so many different aspects of reserve life. Many work within the Estates team, coordinating the habitat management across all the Dorset reserves to maintain and improve our reserves for wildlife. Some work in surveying, to keep track of the numbers and general health of populations of different species of wildlife. Others work in our café team to source and sell local, eco-friendly products or our retail team who love to equip visitors with the knowledge and resources needed to get better connected with nature. 
  3. Embracing equity. This year's theme for International Women's Day is Embracing Equity. While equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances. This is true for all aspects of life, not just gender. To me, this is what International Women's Day, in a nature conservation setting, is all about - not bringing down men, but raising up women to feel safe in their ability to enjoy nature. At Arne, we also have Men-Only wellbeing walks on offer to (dates and details to be confirmed). Just as we've identified that women often struggle to enjoy nature at night time, without fear of their safety; men often find it difficult to talk about their mental health. We hope that these walks, created by men for men, will work to dissolve this stigma. 

*(It should be noted that when I use the term woman throughout this blog, women and female, I mean this in the most inclusive way to include trans women, genderqueer women and cisgender women).

If you'd like to read more about International Women's Day and this years theme of equity, please follow the link here: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/

If you'd like to book onto our women only or men only events, follow the link to our event's website (men's walks coming soon): https://events.rspb.org.uk/arne

To keep up-to-date with all of the latest Arne news, check us out on: