Mayor David Skaith and Deputy Jo Coles celebrate International Women’s Day  

At the event Mayor Skaith heard about the project’s work and spoke about why International Women’s Day was important to him and the work being undertaken in York and North Yorkshire to support women and girls. 

Talking about International Women’s Day, Mayor David Skaith said: 

“International Women’s Day is an opportunity for everyone to stop and reflect on the achievements of women and the inequalities they face.

“My vision is to create healthy and resilient communities, and this starts with respecting each other and treating everyone equally.

“This year’s theme is to accelerate action, and I encourage everyone to join me in calling out stereotypes, challenging discrimination, questioning bias and celebrating women’s achievements.”

Jo Coles, Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime joined Selby Soroptimists International to hear about their work on International Women’s Day. 

Soroptimists are a worldwide group for women in business and the professions. They strive to improve the status of women and girls throughout the world, raising awareness, acting as advocates and taking action on a range of issues locally, nationally and internationally. 

Jo also joined the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service Women’s Network at the Incident Command room in an event for women, within the service, to find out more about the role of Incident Command. The event provided staff with an opportunity to learn more about themselves, such as what kind of decision maker they are. There was also an opportunity to take part in scenarios.  

Talking about what International Women’s Day means to her, Jo said:

International Women’s Day for me is about celebrating the brilliant work taking place in our public services and in our communities.

“Across the police and fire services we have hundreds of amazing women doing brilliant work supporting our communities, every day, often juggling complicated family and caring responsibilities.

“Thank you to them and to all those who support them to do what they do to make a difference in our communities every day.”

Information about the services in York and North Yorkshire to support women and girls is available online here: Services supporting women and girls – York & North Yorkshire Office for Policing, Fire, Crime and Commissioning