The Ministry for Equality together with the Israel Chamber of Commerce hosted a multi-faith ladies' networking night. The aim of the evening was a networking event for professional women of all religions in Gibraltar to come together and celebrate the success women’s achievements throughout history and how to overcome obstacles faced as women.

The evening was opened with a motivational speech by Minister for Equality, Samantha Sacramento and the proceedings for the evening were led by Ayelet Mamo Shay, Chairwomen of Gibrael who also spoke about and celebrated iconic women in history.

Over 100 ladies purchased tickets to attend the event. The mood during the evening was extremely positive and those attending expressed that they found it extremely useful and motivational.

Minister Sacramento in her address explained how religious harmony and empowerment of women were two important parts of her portfolio and how one of the priorities in her responsibilities was to advance the movement for gender equality in the workplace.

‘It was inspiring to see how many ladies from across the Gibraltarian community who joined us for the night of networking and discussions on progress. Research shows that organisations that are diverse deliver better outcomes particularly when decision making is more inclusive and holistic, that is why it is important that that management boards are representative and are gender balanced. It is of course important not to make sweeping generalisations, I do not believe that men are better than women or that women are better than men, people need to be treated as individuals and most importantly treated on merit and unless we believe that, we are doing a great disservice to women who succeed and risk being accused of tokenism. Our objective is to ensure that women are empowered to aspire and are not denied the same opportunities as men are. Much progress has been made in the field of progressing the gender equality agenda locally, not least in raising awareness of the issue in the last five years, but changing perceptions and mindsets takes time so we must continue. It is important that change is achieved properly and responsibly and my dedicated team at the Ministry for Equality will continue working hard on this front."

Ayelet highlighted that one of Gibrael's key objectives has been to promote cooperation between the Jewish community and other religions. Indeed, a business delegation from Gib to Israel last March comprised of delegates from several denominations which experienced the shared holy sites of the Holy Land. Ayelet thanked Minister Sacramento and her team for the support and cooperation.