The UK Women in Economics Network (UK WEN) held their first launch event at the Bank of England yesterday, discussing how the network could help improve and support the representation and presence of women in economics.
The UK WEN is an initiative by the RES Women’s Committee, sponsored by the Bank of England, to support career development of UK-based women in economics across the pipelines by monitoring representation, by providing support for women in their careers as economists, and by enhancing the visibility of women economists and their interests across all sectors.
The event was well-received with a high turnout both online and in-person. It was also full of interesting and thought-provoking topics from various speakers within economics. The first session was ‘UK WEN – Vision and plan for the future’ which consists of a keynote speech by Karen Ward (JP Morgan Asset Management) and chaired by RES President Elect Mary Morgan, followed by the UK WEN initiative and what were the plans for the future. Speakers include Almudena Sevilla (RES Women’s Committee), Chloe Maycock (Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) and Misa Tanaka (Bank of England).
The second session, which was chaired by Huw Pill (Bank of England) covers ‘Increasing the representation of women in economics: cross-sectoral perspectives’ with a panel discussion. The panel consisted of Helen Beebee (University of Leeds), Clare Lombardelli (Government Economic Service), Yael Selfin (KPMG United Kingdom), Bea Martin (UBS) and George Buckley (Nomura and Society of Professional Economists).
The third session chaired by Tera Allas (RES Council Member) on the other hand, talked about ‘Raising the profile and influence of women in economics’ with speakers including Stephanie Flanders (Bloomberg Economics), Charlotte McDonald (BBC), Mehreen Khan (The Times) and Chris Giles (Financial Times).
The event was concluded with a closing speech by RES Women’s Committee chair Almudena Sevilla.
RES greatly welcomes this new initiative with more events and activities to be expected from UK WEN. Stay tuned for more UK WEN news by visiting our website and the UK WEN LinkedIn and Twitter.
