Why my International Women’s Day was really special

Had an amazing day in London on Tuesday and spoke at Accenture’s celebration of International Women’s Day.  The theme was “Pioneering Women” and with my growing collection of “First Women” portraits I am beginning to know a thing or too about that subject! I was first up on the stage and it was really exciting talking to around 350 people – mostly women of all ages and from all different jobs. Accenture told me that this was the seventh event they had organised to celebrate International Women’s Day and it was by far the best.  I was in good company with a star studded cast of women speakers including Sarah Outen, the first woman to row solo across the Indian Ocean, and coincidentally my “first woman” – hers was the first portrait that I took for the project.

We also heard Dame Julia Cleverdon, a British charity worker who served for 16 years as Chief Executive of Business in the Community and Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a space scientist who spoke to the audience about getting more participation in science (and also brought her very well behaved baby along too!).  Sarah Treseder, Chief Executive of the RYA, and Gill Ryder, Director General of Leadership and People Strategy in the Cabinet were also great speakers.

I stayed in Kew and bagged another “First” in the form of the first Lord Speaker – photographed against the magnificent backdrop of Pugin’s panelled carpentry – and I sussed out a couple more lovely locations for photographing future firsts. I also managed to drop into the National Portrait Gallery and take in the press preview of a new show called Ida Kar, a not particularly well known Bohemian photographer who is described as someone “utterly at home in the world of artists and writers”. I loved what I saw – go see it!

Celebrating 100 Years of International Women’s Day

Just 24 hours to go before I am due to speak in London at the International Women’s Day celebration organised by Accenture. The focus for the celebration will be ‘Pioneering Women’ and is a great fit with my own First Women project. We will explore how far women have come in the last 100 years and look forward to what they will achieve in the future. Accenture has designed an agenda to inspire, encourage reflection and motivate our women to explore how they too can become pioneers. 

I have been asked to speak about “First Women” and will be exploring some of the questions put to me by host and top Australian comedian Deborah Frances-White. As Deborah is something of a female pioneer in the comedic field in her own testosterone fuelled country and is about to star in her own show “How to Get Almost Anyone to Want to Sleep With You” I am sure we are promised an afternoon of sharp wit and incisive comment.

Accenture’s intention is to leave the women (and 15 men!) delegates attending “with a sense that they too are capable of incredible things in their work and personal lives” – I have a feeling they wont be disappointed.

Anita Corbin, creator of FirstWomenUK

Girl on a Wire

This week Blue Peter viewers will see presenter Helen Skelton become the first person to high-wire walk between the chimneys of Battersea Power Station, in aid of Red Nose Day 2011. About this time last year Helen completed a 2,000-mile solo kayak along the Amazon for Sport Relief, again the first person to do so.  As I watched the You Tube video of Helen completing her walk balanced on just a 18mm thick piece of wire and 66 metres up in the air, I not only marvelled at her sheer bravery but also at her perfectly applied make-up. When I photographed Helen for First Women, she wanted to look glamorous too and the photographs I took of her on the Embankment at Putney really capture that “gritty but girly” look. And why not?   It’s really important that women rejoice in their own sexuality. Helen is a beautiful woman with a fantastically fit body – in the twenty first century we shouldn’t be afraid to celebrate that aspect of women – we have worked hard to win the freedom to look the way we want, and in my First Women photographs I am striving to show that truth: we are who we are and we should be able to display ourselves in the way we choose.

To see Helen as The Girl on the Wire, check out: http://tinyurl.com/65yvt93