Celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) at Micro Focus

At Micro Focus, we celebrate the many achievements of women colleagues as well as in our communities and in our personal lives on International Women’s Day (IWD) but also throughout the year.

Aligned to the theme of this year’s IWD, #ChooseToChallenge, our aim is to encourage everyone to call out norms that can affect gender equality, raise awareness against the biases that can exist in the workplace or elsewhere, and to confront gender stereotypes. While IWD marks a specific day for focus and celebration of achievement: norms, biases and stereotypes are things we all need to challenge every day in order to drive tangible and lasting change.

I am delighted that Amy Williams MBE and Winter Olympic Gold Medallist, wellness coach, yoga instructor, personal trainer, and mother of two will join Micro Focus employees internally later this month for an interactive and lively conversation. Amy leapt to stardom when she won the gold medal in the Skeleton at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. Her journey and achievements are quite remarkable. Amy will share how she refused to let any obstacles get in her way of achieving the unthinkable. Her relentless search for that extra 1% was ultimately what made the difference. Even in a sole discipline, she discusses and stresses the importance of developing team dynamics, resilience, power of preparation, controlling the controllables as well as tools for dealing with adversity, uncertainty and fear.

Micro Focus Employees are also encouraged to recognize female colleagues who have had a positive impact on their lives and show their support by submitting a selfie striking the #ChooseToChallenge pose to our internal International Women’s Day resource page. In addition, our “SHINE” and “dataGALS” Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are hosting a panel which will explore the unique challenges faced by women through COVID-19, how they have adapted, persevered and built resilience for the future.

We are also launching a series of interviews designed to showcase female talent at Micro Focus and inspire young women to think about careers in technology. Look out for the first interview coming soon.

Diversity, inclusion and a sense of belonging is the backbone of our culture at Micro Focus. The responsibility of challenging unconscious bias rests with each one of us. Together, let’s #ChooseToChallenge to further enrich our workplace, ourselves and to secure an inclusive and sustainable future.

This blog was written by Susan Ferguson, Chief Human Resources Officer & Senior Vice President Business Operations at Micro Focus

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