5 minutes with Unleashed Women member, Joy Burnford

Joy Burnford is an experienced business leader, entrepreneur and mentor. Joy is the Founder and CEO of Encompass Equality and author of bestselling book ‘Don’t Fix Women: The practical path to gender equality at work’. We spoke with Joy about her passion for our women-focused work to end hunger sustainably and her plans for International Women’s Day.

We asked Joy why she decided to join the Unleashed Women movement. She said “I’ve always been a great believer in giving back and am passionate about making a bigger social impact. I am incredibly proud to support the Unleashed Women campaign by The Hunger Project. It is such a brilliant cause and I love its philosophy that it is ‘hand-up’ not ‘hand-out’, empowering women across the globe to lead sustainable change in their communities to end hunger and poverty. By supporting women, together we can create a better future for all.”  

With over 25 years’ experience as a business leader, non-exec director and speaker, Joy supports organisations with practical solutions to advancing gender equality in the workplace through research and consulting, leadership development programmes, talks and workshops, and one-to-one and group coaching. She hosts the podcast ‘The Equality Conversation’ and has contributed over 70 articles on Forbes.com. She regularly speaks at conferences and industry events and is working with the British Standards Institution to create a new standard for menopause and menstruation in the workplace.

We asked Joy what her plans were for International Women’s Day this year. She says “I have an extremely busy week of client speaking engagements for International Women’s Day events, including three keynote talks on the day itself! I’m looking forward to sharing the message that cultural change is needed to progress gender equality and how we can all embrace equality to impact positive change.”

“I’m also excited to be launching a new Encompass Equality research project on International Women’s Day into the factors that impact the retention of women in the workplace. The aim of the research is to create the clearest picture yet of the equation facing many women in deciding whether to stay with or leave their employer, and to help organisations to understand what they can do to improve their chances of retaining talented and experienced women through the various stages of their lives. I’d love to hear from as many women as possible to build the clearest picture of what’s happening – you can complete the survey via our website at www.encompassequality.com.”

Joy has a plethora of inspiring achievements including being recognised as a gender equality trailblazer by WeAreTheCity. She says “I am also proud of my book ‘Don’t Fix Women: The practical path to gender equality at work’ which received an incredible response from the media and readers. It is an Amazon Best Seller, was reviewed in the Financial Times and was also listed in ‘Best of HR books’ (HR Magazine), ‘Best leadership books’ (Management Today) and ‘Best management books’ (The Globe and Mail).”

A huge Hunger Project thank you to Joy for her support and partnership in the end of hunger. If you would like to speak to us about becoming part of the community to end hunger and poverty, please get in touch with our Country Director, Rebecca Burgess – rebecca.burgess@thehungerproject.org.uk

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