Celebrating ‘every aspect of being a woman’ at a unique event in York

Impossible York opened its doors to a plethora of inspiring women to celebrate ‘every aspect of being a woman’ on International Women’s Day.

The evening was set up by marketing and sales director of Impossible York, Marilu, in support of Smart Works charity.

Smart Works coaches women in need and provides them with the appropriate attire to succeed in job interviews.

The gathering was held in Impossible’s ‘Pink Room’ and included motivational talks with guest speakers Toni C. Eastwood OBE, MBA from Beyond2030 and Bronte Clare from Femme Country Magazine.

Marilu stated: “After Covid-19, this event is such a special way to get women together and empower them. I wanted to ask women to speak who I thought had influence in York and also uplifted other women.”

Covered from head to toe in sparkling pink balloons and extraordinary pink macaroons, the room looked magical and an evening of female empowerment ensued.

The first inspiring woman to take to the podium was Bronte Clare.

Bronte is the founder and owner of Femme Country Magazine, a magazine consisting of fashion, country and lifestyle content. She started the magazine when she was just 19 years old and centres her pieces around women.

She stated: “I wanted to showcase women in the agricultural world, a world which is typically male dominated. There are women who are getting on tractors and their voices are not heard.”

Photoshoots with “everyday women” helped them grow in confidence, she said – adding: “‘Being vulnerable as a woman is OK. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for my failures that I’ve grown from.

“Love yourself and the woman you’ve become. That’s my magazine’s ethos.”

Toni C Eastwood then took the stand. Toni is the Chief Executive officer of Beyond 2030, a company which provides women with training courses to help them ‘develop their talents and unearth their passions.’

Courses include the ‘Future Female Leader’ programme and the ‘Visionary Women’ program.

In her moving speech she stated how, coming to her wits’ end in 2009, Toni wrote down a goal on a napkin in a Starbucks in Bradford.

“I wanted one million women to have the career and business of their dreams.”

She has kept the napkin to this day, and shortly after created her company Beyond 2030.

Speaking to Toni after her talk, she told us: “International Women’s Day is still needed as currently we are making no progress. There is still a gender pay gap and there is still a drastically low number of women sat on directors boards.

“Women often take a different path to men, typically going into marketing and HR roles. Men are more likely to go into roles such as finance.

“This limits women’s opportunity to sit on boards and I want to give them the confidence to change their path.”

Along with the guest speakers at the event, the sponsors for the night also included inspiring business owning women.

These women include Holly Wigness, owner of Hollys House Bakes, a business which creates personalised biscuits and treats and Samantha M, owner of Sweet Tilda Designs, which specialises in unique clay jewellery.

Following the talks, attendees also received a dazzling cocktail making masterclass in which everyone got to make Impossible York’s new ‘Who Run the World’ cocktail, which is available to the public from tomorrow in support of International Women’s Day.

Overall, the evening was a wonderful way to get inspiring women together to share their stories and inspire each other as supporting the charity Smart Works.