Here at Dutyfy, we have a few core aims around which we base all our activity:
- Start a conversation about women in the working environment and parenthood. We’ll ask what we can do, and what we can expect employers to do, to make our work more compatible with other aspects of our lives. Through our blog posts, discussions and mentoring events, and our regular features, we want to get the conversation going about women at work and explore what still needs to change and how.
- Challenge conventions that are holding women back from getting what they want out of their lives and fulfilling every aspect of their ambitions. We don’t believe that a women should have to choose between fulfilment at home and at work. We don’t believe a mother should be forced to make sacrifices she isn’t happy with. This is why we are sharing advice and experiences, both online and at our events, with the hope that new options can be made clear and available to women and parents in the workplace.
- Give relevant advice and set realistic goals that we can all hope to achieve. We think that the existing networks and advice services focus too much on celebrity culture, and promoting sky-high ambitions that only a tiny fraction of women will find relevant to their lives. We want to offer advice that’s doable, with event speakers and mentors who are experts in their fields, or have relevant experiences, rather than being a distant and unreachable figure.
- Get people together in a positive and constructive environment. Support offered by our network, our events and our mentoring should result in a new set of contacts and friends, and encourage women to seek exactly what they are after in their working lives. We believe that women can achieve more by helping one another and sharing their experiences and advice.
- Change the status-quo for the next generation of parents. Should the decision to have a child be dictated by career plans and progression? We don’t think so. When more solutions are open and we all hold the conviction that our careers do not have to stall, pregnancy will not be the enemy of professional advancement. It will be as it should be; a personal choice rather than one dictated by the workplace.