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Celebrating International Women’s Day at º£½ÇÖ±²¥

º£½ÇÖ±²¥ is celebrating International Women’s Day with a series of activities on campus and will also host the first event as part of the ‘This Northern Girl Can’ campaign, designed to raise the profile of female role models in the region.

The opening event on Saturday 3 March will see talks from some of the region’s most successful and inspirational women and will also feature interactive exhibitions, activities and dance performances in the University’s Curve building. Guest speakers include Councillor and poverty campaigner Di Hewitt, Director of TechATP Sharon Jandu and ultra-distance runner and world-record holder Sharon Gayter. In addition, the University will also welcome a member of the Yorkshire Rows – a team of four formidable mums from Yorkshire who became the first women to row across the North Sea.

There will be several other events at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ throughout the week as part of International Women’s Day, including a movie screening of ‘Suffragette’ to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women getting the vote in Britain. There will also be a talk from Dr Gill Owens, a º£½ÇÖ±²¥ lecturer who became the fastest altruistic kidney donor on the planet. Jacqui Miller-Charlton MBE, of Miller Construction and Patricia Whaley, a social historian who will discuss the making of ‘At The Works’, are also part of the line-up.

International Women’s Day at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ will also help launch a wider regional campaign, ‘This Northern Girl Can’, aimed at advancing gender equality across the Tees Valley. Inspired by the ‘Northern Power Women’ campaign founded by Simone Roche in 2015, ‘This Northern Girl Can’ strives to raise the profiles of largely hidden women role models to recognise the talent in the Tees Valley. The campaign aims to raise the aspiration, ambition and influence of women across the local region.

Visitors to the event will hear first-hand from the women who helped set up the campaign and a panel discussion will consider how to raise the profile and influence of women in the Tees Valley.

Professor Jane Turner OBE is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise and Business Engagement) at º£½ÇÖ±²¥ and one of the nine inspirational women behind the ‘This Northern Girl Can’ campaign.

She said: 'There are some amazing women of all ages in the Tees Valley region, paid and unpaid, doing some incredible work, and we simply want to raise awareness of what goes on within organisations across the region. By doing so we will create greater opportunities to collaborate and engage to address the economic and social issues facing our region.'

'International Women’s Day is a global day of celebration and we are proud that º£½ÇÖ±²¥ is again supporting the event and, at the same time, launching this brand new campaign. We look forward to welcoming guests from across our local community to join us in celebrating and raising awareness of the achievements of women both past and present.'

The 3 March event will also feature a raffle prize draw with all proceeds going to the Target Ovarian Cancer charity.