The Queen's College Record 2023

QUEEN’S WOMEN’S NETWORK
Old Members’ Activities
Queen’s Women’s Network
The Queen’s Women’s Network celebrated its fifth birthday this
year and we were delighted to be able to celebrate in person at
our London event in March 2023. The anniversary gave us pause
to reflect on how far the Network has come since we launched in
February 2018.
The QWN is now an established part of College life, complete with
logo and branding (with those who visited our stand at July’s Garden Party lucky
enough to have received one of our sought-after bookmarks!).
The QWN LinkedIn group has doubled in size over the last year with over 170
members in August 2023 from a range of year groups, including some current
students. LinkedIn provides an excellent forum for connecting with fellow Queen’s
women and also gives an insight into possible career options and opportunities.
The variety of roles undertaken by Queen’s women is quite amazing and changing
careers was a topic for one of our events this year. We encourage current and Old
Members to join and to spread the word among fellow Queen’s friends and contacts.
Events
Our commitment to running an annual event continues with the aim of bringing people
together for networking and providing a forum for discussion of a range of issues of
particular interest to women. We record sessions where possible to build a useful
and interesting archive. We also aim to provide opportunities for Old Members to
share their own career stories, as it is something both current and Old Members
consistently request.
Our events in 2022-23 were a perfect illustration of this approach:
In our ‘Going with the Flow’ online event in September we were able to engage
with a panel of experts about the impact that stages in life such as menstruation,
pregnancy loss, infertility, and menopause have on the workplace and how best to
assist and support colleagues who are affected. The session, which was curated
and chaired by Nathalie Allan (Modern Languages, 1997), provided a sensitive and
instructive overview of the data and research around women’s health issues and
employment as well as practical advice and useful resources. Running the session
online also gave space for questions and individual conversations with specialists
in the field: Claire-Louise Knox, Business Psychologist; Kate Davies, Fertility Nurse
Consultant and Coach; and Dinah Tobias, Menopause Mentor and Coach.
68 The Queen’s College | College Record 2023