Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team is celebrating International Women's Day, highlighting the importance of diversity and inclusion to celebrate and value differences as it stresses the need for equality.
This year's IWD theme is #BreakTheBias, which reminds us all of the principle of a gender-equal world, free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.
These are goals that the team passionately believes in, actively celebrating the women within AMF1 and the wider world of motorsport.
The team recently held an AMF1 International Women's Day Event at the Silverstone Interactive Museum, which invited all female employees, as well as male colleague allies.
Celebrating International Women's Day 2022
On International Women's Day 2022, we're celebrating the women of Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team and those across the motorsport industry. Join Natalie Pinkham and guests as we discuss the importance of representation in motorsport and beyond.
A group of female fans and young women supported by the Social Mobility Foundation also joined.
The event was important to AMF1 as it encouraged the celebration of the achievements of women in motorsport, bringing to the attention the personal stories and challenge, while also inspiring women to take up a career in motorsport and engineering.
We're on a climb across all aspects of our business, on and off the track. Part of this journey is to inspire and promote a diverse workforce to take on this challenge. We Climb Together.
A panel discussion, presented by Sky Sports F1's Natalie Pinkham featured two of the team's female employees, as well as racing driver and LGBTQ+ activist Charlie Martin, Cathy Hastie, Head of HR Strategic Projects and D&I Projects Lead at Cognizant UK, and Hilary Andrew who is the Technical Assistant to Head of Vehicle Engineering & Procurement at AML.
They were also joined by Elizabeth Sprason from the Social Mobility Foundation 2020 Engineering & Physics cohort, who is also a first-year student at the University of Leeds studying Natural Sciences BSc, MNatSci (Physics, Maths and Biochemistry).
The panel discussed the importance of allyship, how to use our platforms to encourage female participation in motorsport, how to address bias in motorsport, and our desire to encourage diverse thinking in motorsport.
Team Aerodynamicist Eleanor Rajaratnam explained the importance of "giving back" as a woman in a high-profile industry to help encourage the next generation of female talent.
She also shared her insight into working in a male-dominated industry and explained how her experiences in the workplace differ from male colleagues.
We started with a team of really passionate people, and we all talked about what we saw as the challenges, and how we wanted to overcome them.
The team's HR Business Partner & DE&I Lead Bryanna Harding shared how the transition from Team Silverstone to Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team offered an opportunity to make significant changes.
"A positive for me is that we were able to start from scratch with Diversity & Inclusion [policies]," she said. "We started with a team of really passionate people, and we all talked about what we saw as the challenges, and how we wanted to overcome them.
"We had a really good opportunity to make those strides and make some impactful changes.
Jessica Hawkins on IWD 2022
A message from Jessica Hawkins on IWD 2022. Together, with our partners at Cognizant, we're pledging to #BreakTheBias.
"I'm aware that I'm a woman, and in a minority, whether it comes from meetings that I'm in, or in email chains. It does have its challenges.
"But we try and look at the positives, and the improvements that we can make, to make sure we're having an impact.
"As a team, we are making some great steps forward."
The team continues to celebrate the principles of LGBTQ+ inclusivity, as well as equality and ethnicity as core principles of who we are.
The idea of We Climb Together perfectly encapsulates this, inviting people from all walks of life to join us on our journey towards the front of the grid.
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