International Women’s Day 2021 – #ChooseToChallenge
Together we are stronger
iwibdus Festival First Edition
This year the International Women’s Day theme was choose to challenge.
Under this banner, we challenged our iwibdus community to try something new in 8 sessions, on March 8th, with 15 minutes sessions across the day.
The result could not have been better! More than 100 women came and challenged themselves to learn something new.
We are so proud of our members that in this opportunity we would share the experience in the words of one of our members: Christine Burrell.
#iwibdusfestival #choosetochallenge #iwibdus #IWD2021
I spent a delightful and thought provoking day with the enthusiastic, intelligent and energetic group of women who belong to International Women in Business Dusseldorf or iwibdus for short. I was challenged to complete eight unusual and varied challenges during the day, each fifteen minutes long. I learnt, with Ali, how to use American sign language to “sing” Dolly Parton’s song “Working 9 to 5”, an appropriate choice for a group dedicated to supporting women in their career and business development.
This was followed by practicing my debating skills, with Gabriella, taking on a persuasive argument for a topic I actually did not support. At lunch time I was relieved to discover, with Tove, that nuts don’t make you fat but rather a good source of fibre and minerals.
Later in the evening, Erika showed me how much work could be done on eyebrows which had me raising mine but calmed me with the reassurance that blusher and mascara were the only absolute essentials.
Poliana’s relaxing voice soothed us with abdominal breathing and then Jackie woke us up again with exercise to do with a ten minute time slot and 2 tins of baked beans. Then finally Katy raised everyones blood pressure with a quiz on gender equality! Only 108 years to go.
Happy first birthday iwibdus. I am now wanting to come to Dusseldorf even more, to meet all these welcoming, friendly women with such a fantastic growth mind sets and experience more of the businesses showcased today. My challenge? I will challenge gendered assumptions in literature.
Thank you for a lovely day.
Christine Burrell
Christine Burrell is a retired biology teacher and lives in the UK. She is the secretary of a non-profit organization called Kenilworth Literary Society. This is a club for women who want to learn more about books, understand them and their context in society. She also happens to be the mum of iwibdus’ Chair.
