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Mishal Husain and Martha Lane Fox on Careers, Life and Leadership

What are the key personal skills you need to help you cut through in the workplace, overcome doubt, build resilience and develop authority?

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Equal pay. Gender bias. Sexual harassment. A year on from the start of the #MeToo movement, conversations around these topics have exploded – and progress on many fronts can seem slow. Nearly 80 percent of British companies have a gender pay-gap; more than two thirds of MPs are male; and FTSE 100 companies are more likely to be led by a man called David than by a woman of any name.

It is clear that new ideas and concrete actions are needed to redress gender inequality at work. Award-winning broadcaster Mishal Husain and tech entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox have a game plan. Come and hear a frank and personal conversation between two leaders in their respective fields about the challenges and opportunities that women face rising to the top.

Mishal Husain has over twenty years of experience as a journalist and is perhaps best known as presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Her reporting and interviewing have taken her all over the world, from Rohingya refugee camps to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first interview on their engagement. Her new book, The Skills – From First Job to Dream Job; What Every Woman Needs to Know, aims to inspire, motivate and encourage women of all ages to reach their potential by focusing on practical skills that make a difference in the workplace.

Martha Lane Fox is one of Britain’s best known businesswomen. She co-founded lastminute.com, was appointed the government’s Digital Champion and became the youngest ever female member of the House of Lords at the age of forty. She now serves on the board of Twitter and has founded a charity which fights for a fairer internet and responsible technology.

Together they explored what it takes to be successful and what has to change at a structural level to allow women to reach their full career potential. What are the key personal skills you need to help you cut through in the workplace, overcome doubt, build resilience and develop authority?


Speakers

Featuring

Mishal Husain

Presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme


Presenter of BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme as well as the television news on BBC One. Over twenty years in journalism she has worked on big domestic and international stories. She has reported from numerous regions around the world and has interviewed world leaders and prominent public figures, from Boris Johnson and Aung San Suu Kyi to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Martha Lane Fox

Co-founder of Europe’s largest travel and leisure website lastminute.com


Co-founder of Europe’s largest travel and leisure website lastminute.com. She went on to become the UK’s Digital Champion, helping to create the Government Digital Service which launched gov.uk, transforming government service delivery. She became the youngest ever crossbench peer in the House of Lords in 2013 and was soon after appointed Chancellor of the Open University. She founded Doteveryone.org.uk, a charity fighting for a fairer internet and is currently a director of Twitter, and a non-executive director of Chanel, the Donmar Warehouse and Queens Commonwealth Trust.