Celebrating International Women’s Day 2024
Today is International Women’s Day! To mark it, we sat down with Catherine Cooke, Vice-Chair of Apex, to chat about her role in Apex, the significance of female role models and why celebrating International Women’s Day is so important.
1. Tell us a bit about yourself
My name is Catherine Cooke. I will be married to my husband 40 years this August. I have four daughters, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
My first job was in the Leprechaun Café, washing dishes. I then moved to a factory where I worked until 1997. I got involved in community work when my children were small, setting up a community playgroup, but it wasn’t until 1987 that I began to take community development seriously and I went to Magee to study part time. Most women get involved in community work because of a need or issue identified in their area and mine was the fact we did not have a playgroup.
I joined the Peace and Reconciliation Group in 1997 as their Project Training Officer and moved to Foyle Women’s Information Network (FWIN) in 2004 as their Project Co-ordinator. FWIN is a membership organisation and we have around 900 members. Our mission statement is “Increasing the capacity, visibility and voice of women throughout the North West.”
2. What is your role in Apex Housing Association?
I am Vice-Chair of Apex. Our business is focused on housing and associated care and support services. However, my role along with the other Board members is also concentrated on providing good governance, with particular emphasis on accountability, integrity and risk management.
3. Why do you think it’s important to celebrate International Women’s Day?
I work full time and find that at times it is difficult to maintain a work-life balance; this is something that is very important to women and many struggle with it. This year, the United Nation’s theme for International Women’s Day is Invest in Women. FWIN held a conference in the Guildhall yesterday, hosted by the Mayor of Derry City and Strabane, on Amplifying Women’s Voices and celebrating 30 years of Foyle Women’s Information Network.
I think it’s important to celebrate International Women’s Day because it shines a light on the inequalities that women still face today. It also celebrates achievements, calls for positive change and it gives women a platform to lobby on issues that need accelerated to achieve gender parity. It highlights the fact that we don’t have a childcare strategy or a women’s health strategy; and that the gender equality strategy that many of us worked on over 10 years ago has never been implemented and is very much out of date.
4. This week is also National Careers Week. How can we encourage more women in housing to pursue leadership roles?
One of the many factors that arguably stop women from taking on a leadership role is confidence. Many feel they can’t do it. However, if we can get past that negative feeling, women who become leaders provide a different set of skills and imaginative perspectives. More importantly, female leaders bring structural and cultural differences to the table, which drive effective solutions.
Women need good female role models and as stated earlier, balancing work and family life isn’t always easy to juggle. Apex is very lucky to have a female CEO [Sheena McCallion] as she understands the issues and is a good role model for those in housing to follow.
The role models in my life, like most other women, were my granny and my mum, both who were very strong and determined women. However, my father who had four daughters was also very motivating in my life; he believed that we could do whatever we wanted, and that we were as good but no better than anyone else.
Find out more about International Women’s Day via UNWomen.
