Ashleigh Riseley

I am a student of politics and international relations and enjoy applying my knowledge and research to thoughtful and insightful pieces across film, sport, pop culture and world affairs.
The F-Word •

The 8th has a clear message: empathy

Hailed as “an unmitigated story of triumph” by Screen Daily, The 8th follows the fight for the repeal of the eighth amendment in Ireland, which, for decades, had restricted access to reproductive healthcare. The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution Act, 1983 was an amendment to Ireland’s constitution that guaranteed the unborn the right to life, making abortion illegal (with the exception of the mother’s life being at risk due to the pregnancy). Even before the amendment, abortion had been puni
UEL OLIve Course Blog •

Weekly Round-Up of Refugee News – May 20th

As we look forward to some well-overdue sunshine, this week brings some well-overdue good news. Lewisham Council to award £1.7 million contract to the Refugee Council As the previous contract comes to an end, the Mayor of Lewisham has approved a new two-year contract with a value of £1,707,728 to the Refugee Council. Lewisham council says that the new contract will enable it to support up to 100 refugee families. The council added: “We consider that Refugee Council represents a recommended lev
UEL OLIve Course Blog •

Weekly Round-Up of Refugee News – 11th May

As we celebrate national mental health week, we celebrate all the good news surrounding refugees and asylum seekers over the past week. Following the success of the pilot course in February, refugee nurses in Liverpool are being fast-tracked into the NHS as part of a pioneering scheme. Funded by NHS England, the course costs £2,150 per candidate and if they are successful in landing a job role, they will be further provided with £1,000 in relocation support. The original pilot course consisted
UEL OLIve Course Blog •

Weekly Round-Up of Refugee News – May 4th

As April comes to a close, the past week has seen positive news from refugees, those seeking to help and from the officials up top. A young asylum-seeker whose journey to Serbia at just 16 was met with violence, robbery and attacks now teaches a course to young asylum-seekers who are having to travel alone on how to keep safe on their journeys. Through a course of 16 sessions over several months, participants are educated on their rights, how to recognise abuse and how to get help, as well as
DiversityQ •

Lost on starting with ethnicity pay gap reporting? Gapsquare is here to help

Closing the ethnicity pay gap would contribute an extra £24 billion to the economy per year, and as the UK falls into a recession – it’s needed. The Government responded to a petition to introduce mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting earlier this year, saying that: “The Government ran a consultation from October 2018 to January 2019 on the introduction of mandatory Ethnicity Pay Reporting. We are currently analysing these and will respond by the end of the year”. However, as we reach the end
DiversityQ •

Skillsoft’s new report reveals DEI courses are in-demand

Skillsoft has revealed that organisations are putting a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) courses now more than ever in their Lean into Learning: 2020 Annual Learning Report. The report shows that DEI courses saw a surge of 367% across industries and disciplines. Between May and June, completions of a course on Understanding Unconscious Bias grew by 1200%. The findings from the report show that the future of work requires real diversity, true equity, and meaningful inclusion. Skil
DiversityQ •

Ethnicity pay gap: Lloyds becomes the first major bank to publish data

Using data from April 2019-2020, Lloyds Banking Group has published its first ethnicity pay gap report – also becoming the first of its peers to do so. The report published its black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) pay gap, showing a 14.8% median difference, while the bonus pay gap stood at 32.5%. Black employees have the largest pay gap at the banking group, standing at 19.7%. The bank says that the large gap is due to the lack of black staff in senior roles, as black staff make up just 1.5
DiversityQ •

Women support women at the Women in IT Asia Awards 2020

Aliza Knox wins the Women of the Year in the Women in IT Asia Awards 2020 as IT powerhouses came together to celebrate Asia’s influential women in IT. Having worked for Visa, Google and Twitter, among others, Knox has extraordinary experience as a woman in the IT space and brings that to her work at Cloudflare. Knox won the award for her work as Head of APAC for Cloudflare, where she is known in the tech space for the contributions she has made to drive awareness of female representation withi
DiversityQ •

Gen Z: How this generation could be your diversity and inclusion saviour

With COVID-19 leaving thousands being made redundant or on furlough, thousands of more job prospects have also vanished. Casey Welch, CEO and Co-founder of Tallo, however, believes companies will benefit from hiring more Gen Z. Is Gen Z the generation best equipped for working from home? There’s no question that they are the digital generation. Growing up with technology means that they already have skills that are critical to successfully working from home. In fact, a recent survey we did fou
DiversityQ •

Why cybersecurity needs more women and is education the key?

As the world has moved to working and living online due to the coronavirus pandemic, cybersecurity has become more important than ever. Niamh Muldoon, EMEA Senior Director of Trust and Security at OneLogin details what it’s like for women in the industry, and how gender diversity can improve. What do you do to help improve gender equality in cybersecurity? I work with (ISC)₂, to help them award scholarships to women who want to further their career or get into cybersecurity. My job is to revie
DiversityQ •

Germany moves to tackle diverse boardrooms and gender inequality

Businesses, where the German government owns a majority stake, will have a mandatory quota imposed on them, ensuring that at least 30% of their boardroom is made up of women. The German cabinet approved the mandatory requirements designed to close the gender gap on 20th November, and companies have until 2025 to meet the goal. Other businesses who are registered on the stock exchange will also have at least one female board member. This comes after previous legislation from 2015 requiring comp
DiversityQ •

Marisa Hall crowned Woman of the Year at the Women In Finance Awards

Marisa Hall was crowned Woman of the Year at the virtual Women in Finance Awards, London 2020, last night. Hall’s work co-heading the Thinking Ahead Institute, as a Senior and Investment Consultant at Willis Towers Watson, being on the standing committee of Investment 20/20 and the steering committee of the #talkaboutblack movement has shown her to be a powerhouse in the financial sector. As the leader of the largest institutional investor focusing on sustainability, the judges were overwhelme
DiversityQ •

Why you should value your ADHD employees

As someone with a sociologist approach to her role, Anna Jakielaszek, diversity and inclusion consultant for SeeBeMean uses her Attention Deficit and Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) to help organisations engage in conversations around neurological diversity. Speaking with DiversityQ during ADHD awareness month in October, Jakielaszek shared, what employers can do to help their employees with ADHD. How do you manage having ADHD in the workplace? If you have ADHD in the workplace, there are several
DiversityQ •

Women in IT Virtual Summit New York: Actions speak louder than words

Co-hosted by Sher Downing, CEO and EdTech Strategist, Downing EdTech Consulting, and Ramat Tejani, Marketing & Strategist Confidence Coach, the WIT Virtual Summit New York saw trailblazers in the IT industry coming together to inspire action towards creating a more diverse, inclusive and equitable IT world. Lisa O’Connor, Managing Director at Accenture, inspired in her opening keynote speech, saying: “Diversity is the fuel to innovation. In that spirit, here’s how the Women in IT Virtual Summi
DiversityQ •

Tech is a changing world, and employers need to keep up

Hortonworks (now Cloudera) was founded in 2011, and when Ana Gillan joined the EMEA team in 2014 as employee number 27, she was the first woman in a tech-focused role in EMEA. Having faced impostor syndrome in an industry dominated by men, Ana shares why employers in tech need to adapt to new candidates, and the new normal. Ana, how have you battled impostor syndrome? Realising that everybody who is successful has suffered from impostor syndrome is incredibly comforting. If we boil impostor s
DiversityQ •

Women in STEM need the support of both genders

Women taking time to celebrate and support other women in STEM is a wonderful thing; it makes women more likely to join the industry, and most importantly, remain in STEM. However, Jennifer Albertson, Software Engineering Leader, and Tracy Rankin, Vice President of Engineering, at Red Hat, say that men can offer support that is just as invaluable and needed. Jennifer, how has Red Hat supported women in STEM? Red Hat put myself and others on an Executive Leadership Programme recently, and it wa
DiversityQ •

Wilson James: The journey of of creating a diverse workforce - Part 2

To Wilson James, retaining a diverse workforce is a journey with no end, which should not be seen as a challenge – but an opportunity. Wilson James does a lot to help its employees struggling with mental health, for example, the Employee Assistance Programme. What more do you think can be done? This has been a bit of a journey for us. We previously worked quite closely with Mind and took part in Mind’s Workplace Wellbeing Index, which gave us feedback on our strengths and where we needed to im
DiversityQ •

The Virtual Women in IT Summit Silicon Valley gets personal

Co-hosted by Cheryl O’Donoghue, founder of Emotional Intelligence Leadership Resources and Anita Gardyne, CEO of Oneva Inc., the Virtual Women in IT Summit Silicon Valley delved into how direct action can change the future of IT for the better. Opened by the co-hosts and keynote speaker Sally Eaves, Senior Policy Advisor for Global Foundation for Cyber Studies, attendees were inspired by O’Donoghue to take action into their own hands when thinking about diversity and inclusion (D&I). “It’s not
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