When women thrive, we all rise

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8th March was ‘Give to Gain’. The campaign aims to encourage a mindset of generosity and collaboration, emphasising the power of reciprocity, knowledge sharing, and support.

Having led people and HR organisations across global technology, telecommunications, and retail companies, I have seen firsthand how giving can be a leadership multiplier. Investing time, trust, and opportunity in women, whether that is through sponsorship, mentoring, or advocacy, creates returns that go far beyond individual careers.

Companies with gender-diverse executive teams are more likely to have financial returns above their industry average. Inclusive organisations are also better equipped to anticipate unmet needs and innovate – qualities which are vital in clinical research. At a societal level, gender equality reduces poverty and promotes health and education.

Yet, despite these benefits, women are still underrepresented in pharma and biotech executive teams, as well as the wider STEM industry. At the current rate of change, we will not see equal representation in STEM until 2070.

To accelerate gender equality, we need to shift perspectives on the impact of progress for women, emphasise the benefits of pay-it-forward leadership, and demonstrate why investing in people is core to sustainable growth and performance.

Shifting from scarcity to abundance

The first step to accelerate gender equality is to move away from the false idea that progress for women means competition for limited space, and toward the reality that inclusive cultures make everyone stronger.

Employees working in gender-diverse workplaces are more likely to have higher levels of job satisfaction and better wellbeing. Inclusive and diverse teams have also been shown to make better decisions up to 87% of the time, with varied perspectives reducing the risk of group think and enhancing strategic thinking.

Earlier in my career within a global technology organisation, I saw firsthand how diverse engineering teams outperformed more homogenous groups. When women were intentionally included in architecture and product design discussions, solutions were more user-centric and commercially viable. It demonstrated that inclusion is not about fairness alone – it directly strengthens innovation and execution

Reciprocity and pay-it-forward leadership

Sharing knowledge, visibility, and support create ecosystems where women can thrive, and bring others with them. Throughout my career, I have been lucky enough to have had some wonderful mentors who have shown me how to lead with compassion and encouraged me to embrace new challenges. I believe it is vital to pay that support forward through leadership that builds a culture of engagement, feedback, and development.

Within my organisation, for example, we are committed to amplifying women’s voices in the clinical research and data science ecosystem, through conference panels, industry publications, and thought leadership opportunities. Ensuring women are visible as experts in RBQM, AI-driven risk detection, and clinical analytics helps reshape industry perception of who leads in STEM.

It is also vital for women to celebrate and amplify each other’s successes. This is about more than just supporting each other. Recognition, whether through awards, fellowships, or other opportunities, can elevate a woman’s career, making their contributions visible in a system that has historically under-represented them.

The value of this type of support and representation should not be underestimated. Women in STEM with a sponsor or advocate are 70% more likely to have their ideas endorsed, 119% more likely to see them developed, and 200% more likely to see them implemented. When there are more women in leadership roles, it leads to greater diversity across organisations as a whole.

Using an effective people strategy as real leverage

Investing in development, education, and equitable systems should not be viewed as an optional “extra”. Instead, it should be the core of plans for sustainable growth and performance. People – both men and women – are the most important asset of any successful company.

Research has shown that investment in employee training not only increases goal achievement among staff, but also frees up managers’ time, resulting in further productivity increases.

Data is central to how we improve clinical trials. I believe the same discipline should apply to people strategy. That means using data to understand representation across levels, track progression rates, measure engagement, and ensure equity in development opportunities. In addition, we need to be mindful to the fact that culture can dilute quickly without intentional design.

We need to break free from the idea that giving to women’s advancement is a subtraction. Instead, we need to see advancing women as an intentional multiplication that benefits teams, organisations, and communities. When women thrive, we all rise.

About the author

Sinead Godkin is chief people officer at CluePoints. She holds an MSc (Hons) in Occupational Psychology from the University of Leicester, UK and a BA (Hons) in Psychology from University College Dublin, Ireland. She has extensive international experience leading people and HR organisations across global technology, telecommunications, and retail companies. Most recently, Godkin served as chief people officer at DigiCert, where she was a member of the executive leadership team and led the global people function. In this role, she supported the scale-up of a private equity owned business, led enterprise-wide people transformation initiatives, and spearheaded post-acquisition integration during periods of rapid growth. Prior to DigiCert, Godkin held senior people leadership roles at Veritas Technologies and Symantec.