The Lieutenant-Governor Lieutenant General Richard Cripwell and Mrs Cripwell are to hold a reception at Government House on International Women’s Day.
The reception celebrates the changes that women are forging in society and how they are shaping the world for future generations.
Around 70 guests are invited from local women’s organisations, the States of Guernsey, douzaines and business groups.
The keynote speaker will be Commander Anna de-Saint-Bissix-Croix, currently an Instructor at Sandhurst Military Academy for the Advanced Command and Staff Course, responsible for preparing course members for future Command and the next phase of their career. His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor worked with Anna during his career in the military and says he admires the path she has forged in a distinctly challenging environment.
Other women who will speak at the reception are Brooke Kenyon, joint managing director of Orchard PR, 16-year-old Neave Chatting-Tonks, a Lieutenant-Governor’s cadet and chair of the Youth Forum, and Deputy Heidi Soulsby, vice-president of the Policy and Resources Committee.
The reception has been organised in association with Women in Public Life whose chair Shelaine Green (pictured) said: “We are very grateful to His Excellency for his suggestion that we do something together on International Women’s Day to showcase the positive changes that women are making in Guernsey and the wider world and the barriers they’ve overcome in the process.
“The reception is a great opportunity for women to build their network: having supportive women and men around you is so important when you are looking to make a difference in public life.”
International Women’s Day is an important date in Women in Public Life’s calendar. In March 2021, the group filled an online map of Guernsey with 50 flags to celebrate the contribution of women in public life. Each flag represented an iconic woman from that country or island, nominated by a Guernsey resident who was born there.
The following year another online map was filled but this time with pictures of more than 60 young women and girls who had been nominated by islanders as iconic women of the future, with the potential to make a positive difference to public life in the Bailiwick and beyond.
And in 2023, many of those nominees were celebrated again in an online campaign in which they spoke about the changes that they would like to influence in the next five to ten years.
