RGU celebrates International Women’s Day with Mandy Rhodes

‘In conversation with Mandy Rhodes’ will be held on Monday, March 2, to begin the week-long celebration of International Women’s Day 2020 at RGU.

Mandy is the managing director of Holyrood Communications and the editor of the flagship title Holyrood magazine. She has worked for more than 30 years in journalism in Scotland in newsprint, TV, and radio broadcasting. She has won numerous awards over the years including PPA Magazine Editor of the Year, Feature Writer of the Year and Columnist of the Year.

The event has been organised by the Women’s Network at RGU in partnership with Rise Up Quines! Festival, which celebrates women in politics and leadership, past, present and future.   

Professor Sarah Pedersen of RGU’s School of Creative and Cultural Business and organiser of the event, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Mandy Rhodes to RGU to celebrate International Women’s Day. She has a wealth of media experience, and has been described as one of the best interviewers in the business by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

“She will give us her personal perspective on Scottish power and politics, and discuss some of the challenges women continue to face in positions of leadership in Scotland.”

Mandy commented: “With the appointment of Kate Forbes as Finance Secretary, Scotland now leads the world in terms of having more women in its Cabinet than men. However, we still fall far short of 50:50 in terms of gender balance in the parliament and you only need to look at the parliamentary lobby, to see how the political news is seen through the optics of men.

“There is much to celebrate in terms of progress around gender equality but much more still to be done. I would like us to get to a point where a woman promoted into a leadership position is not seen as news but simply the norm.”

Throughout the week, there will also be other events held at the university’s Garthdee campus in the lead up to International Women’s Day which is on Sunday, March 8. This year, the theme is Each for Equal which aims to raise awareness against bias and take action for equality.

A Menopause Café, which will give women a supportive environment to talk about all things menopause, will be held on Tuesday, March 3 from 12.30pm – 1.30pm in N243 in the Sir Ian Wood Building.

Professor Liz Hancock, vice-principal for academic development and the student experience, and Vicki Nairn, vice-principal for corporate operations, will both host an event to discuss and share their career journeys, and how they got to where they are now. The event will take place on Thursday, March 5, from 1pm-2pm in room 620 of Aberdeen Business School.

To sign up to ‘In Conversation with Mandy Rhodes’ which is free and will be held at RGU’s Sir Ian Wood Building from 5.30pm, please visit Eventbrite.