This Tuesday 8th March, Sheffield care provider Palms Row Healthcare joined women around the globe to celebrate International Women’s Day, an opportunity to promote women’s rights, address gender bias and increase women’s visibility. The organisation took to social media to celebrate the many women who live and work there as well as running a number of events within their homes to mark the occasion.

Homes were decorated in the traditional colours of lilac, green and white and bake sales raised over £120 for domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid. Residents also decorated female figures, providing the opportunity to join together and talk about everything it means to be a woman; carers also handed out gifts female residents.

Nicola Richards, director of Palms Row Health Care, said:

“As an organisation with a large female workforce, International Women’s Day was the perfect opportunity to thank our wonderful staff members for everything they do, as well as learn more about the lives of some of our residents and help tell their stories to a wider audience. Care workers play an absolutely vital role but their work often goes unnoticed or underappreciated. Meanwhile, older women are some of the least ‘visible’ in society. We wanted to tackle both issues by using our platforms to celebrate their lives and what they bring to our community.”

Some of the women featured as part of the social media takeover include:

• Shirley (86) who was married to her husband Gordon for 66 years, until he passed away in 2019. She was employed as a comptometer operator, responsible for performing complicated calculations. An intrepid woman, Shirley loved to travel, visiting countries ranging from Spain to Australia, Italy to America.

• Mabel (96) who grew up in Stocksbridge outside Sheffield with her brother and sister, now both sadly deceased. War broke out when Mabel was 14 years old and she remembers hearing bombs dropping on Sheffield, though her parents largely shielded her from the realities of the destruction being caused. She spent her entire working life at Fox’s Steel Works in Stocksbridge where she was employed as a tracer, responsible for tracing plans onto linen using ink; an important role in a male-dominated industry; and

• Shirley (73) who worked as a health care assistant at Nether Edge Hospital. Always a determined woman, she went to University as a mature student and achieved a degree in Applied Social Studies (BA Hons) in 1991 when she was in her forties.

More about the women featured in the social media takeover is available via the organisation’s Facebook and Twitter pages. 

Photo: Palms Row Health Care