Lila Thompson (CEO, British Water) and Perminder Atwal (HR Business Partner, Xylem UK & Ireland) share their experiences as women working in the water sector.
In Episode 1, Lila and Perminder set the tone for the honest and insightful conversations that will follow across the rest of the series, by sharing their own experiences relating to Gender Equality.
Perminder draws comparisons between when she worked in manufacturing (where she tried to raise sexist behaviour with management and struggled to get it dealt with) and her later experiences in the water sector (which have been better, but still there are issues to address).
Lila talks about the differences between working in an organisation in the UK where good standards may exist, but that challenges can be faced when representing the industry overseas. She also shares her concerns that many women in the water sector feel that their voices aren't valued, and that these women could be close to leaving the industry.
Giving a male viewpoint are two industry figures (Steve Kaye from UKWIR and Garry Tabor from Smart Water Solutions) who both say that things have improved over the years, but there is still work to do.