A drive to inspire more women into male-dominated careers was launched in the city this week.

Throughout Sheffield, events have begun taking place to commemorate IWD this Friday March 8th.

Sheffield United Football Club’s inspire inclusion event is being launched this week to encourage diversity, equality and unity into a male-dominated space and highlight the significant role women’s football plays in the journey towards inclusivity.

SUFC’s event in collaboration with Bhayani HR and Employment Law, a woman-only law firm are advocating for equal opportunities and breaking down systematic barriers.

An event run by the British Army in collaboration with Work Wise foundation also aimed to promote an array of careers to young people and provide them with toolkits to succeed.

As of March 2023, female representation in the UK regular forces was only 11.5% so an event held at the Manortop Army Reserves today aimed to change that.

Major Kate Hannaford, the Community Engagement officer for North-East Yorkshire, who was running resilience workshops at the event, said “women have more self-doubt and can’t visualise themselves as we don’t see as many people in those careers”.

On average women do have less confidence then men and find entering marginalised careers much harder.

Currently women only made up 34.7% of police officers (as of 2023), and 38.8% of ambulance staff (in 2020).

The workshop headed by Major Hannaford hosted representatives from the army, fire brigade, ambulance service and police and aimed to recruit more women into male-dominated careers.

Major Hannaford said “seeing what other people achieve makes you realise that you can do that too.”

As well as local events, South Yorkshire Police rolled out their latest initiative “DO MORE” to stop harassment and aggression towards women.

The latest campaign has been targeted at cat calling and is a call to action for men to do more in calling out harassment from their friends.

South Yorkshire Police announced on social media “If we all do more, we can help stop violence against women and girls.”