International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. We are proud to support a wide range of women’s initiatives which advocate for gender equity and to support the next generation of women leaders.
At KPMG, we believe that ensuring women thrive in the workplace is one of the keys to our success now and in the future. This International Women’s Day we’re delighted to celebrate the progress made towards achieving gender equality and highlight ways we can all inspire inclusion and accelerate progress by investing in women.
International Women’s Day Events
Each year we celebrate International Women’s Day with a series of events that bring together women and their allies to continue the important conversation around actions we can all take to promote greater gender equality.
This year we are delighted to welcome Laura J. Hay, former KPMG Global Head of Insurance, who will facilitate an in-person workshop for our colleagues that will look at building confidence, taking risks, and conquering imposter syndrome.
This is part of our Executive Speaker Series, with previous speakers including Former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, Lady Chanelle McCoy, co-founder of Chanelle Medical; and Glamour magazine editor Samantha Barry; among others.
We are also proud to partner with the Galway Chamber of Commerce and the Newry Chamber of Commerce on two great events celebrating local inspirational women; and to continue our sponsorship of the Institute of Directors (IOD) Northern Ireland Women's Leadership Conference.
Supporting women in KPMG to thrive
Our Gender Action Plan
In 2023, we launched our Gender Action Plan, building on our existing gender equity programmes with strategic supports aimed at getting more women into senior leadership positions.
The plan included a series of life cycle support policies including fertility leave, surrogacy leave, early pregnancy loss leave, fostering leave, domestic abuse leave, and carer’s support leave, as well as emergency childcare support and a ramp up initiative, providing one day of paid leave for the first eight weeks after maternity leave, to support women as they transition back to work.
Connect@KPMG
We also launched Connect@KPMG, a peer mentorship initiative designed to help our women build their networks and develop their leadership skills.
One hundred women participated in the first year of the programme and we have recently launched year two which will see another hundred women go through the programme.
Supporting gender equity in the community
We are committed, not only to supporting women to thrive in KPMG, but also in our community. Here are a few ways we are working towards greater gender equality in business, sport, and education.
- KPMG is proud to support Going for Growth, award-winning programme for ambitious female entrepreneurs determined to grow their business. More than 900 businesswomen have completed the programme to date.
- KPMG is a long-term supporter of women’s sport in Ireland and strives to create equality between men and women’s sport in Ireland, having previously supported the 20x20 campaign. We have sponsored Irish golfer Leona Maguire since she turned professional in 2018, and more recently in March 2022, Irish Jockey Rachael Blackmore came on board with us as a brand ambassador.
- KPMG partnered with Children’s Books Ireland to support their BOLD GIRLS Initiative, creating innovative workshops based on women who changed history thus encouraging young girls to achieve their ambitions. The BOLD GIRLS workshops aim to break down societal barriers and to instil confidence in girls by showing them female characters in children’s books with passion, power and opinions.
