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Firm Culture

Advancing gender balance within our core sectors15 April 2024

We Further Women, WFW’s global women’s initiative, is dedicated to furthering gender balance in our firm and the sectors in which we operate. Employee led, with partner support, the initiative provides a supportive forum for women to develop their careers.

We are proud this initiative was shortlisted in the ‘Outstanding in DE&I’ category at the high-profile Law.com International Women, Influence and Power in Law Awards.

A key focus is to support the careers of women working in our core sectors of energy, infrastructure and transport. Recognising that it can be challenging for women to find senior role models in these sectors, we offer a series of ‘Women in Energy & Infrastructure’ and ‘Women in Transport’ networking events for our female clients.

Each event offers informal and supportive environments in which women can make new connections, build their external networks, exchange ideas and share common challenges with like-minded people. Designed and delivered by WFW partners and associates across our offices, with support from our Events and Business Development teams, events have taken place across multiple jurisdictions engaging with over 200 women from 165 organisations.

Alongside our networking offering, we host a series of client-focussed discussion events (open to women and men) which aim to involve everyone in the conversation on gender balance. These have included a ‘Break the Bias’ open forum in London with leaders from the construction industry, roundtable discussions with WISTA in New York and our Italian offices’ Women in Business and Law webinar series.

We also contribute to industry-wide initiatives, collaborating with industry leaders to share best practices and develop practical actions that can advance the careers of women.

  • Advancing Women in Aviation Roundtable
  • Ellas Vuelan Alto Asociación
  • Propel
  • WISTA – Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association
  • Women in Arbitration
  • Women in Export & Infrastructure Finance
  • Women in Mining
  • Women in Rail

WFW representatives regularly host and actively participate in their events, meetings and committees.

In addition to our external efforts, we support the careers of women at WFW and offer a range of events open to all colleagues that explore topics identified as priorities by our members. These include panel events sharing the career journeys of female management at WFW and an ‘unmasking imposter syndrome’ workshop.

Find out more about We Further Women here.