International Women's Day: Choosing to Challenge

At Clarivate we value every voice. As we celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, we amplify a few of our women leaders’ voices and their pledges for equality. This article is the first installment of an ongoing series throughout the month of March.

Through our global Women@Clarivate colleague network, we are committed to cultivating an environment in which women flourish through networking, community engagement and professional development. Uplifting our women colleagues assures richer, more diverse solutions for our customers and enables all colleagues to better contribute to our vision, mission and values.

This year’s theme for International Women’s Day is #ChooseToChallenge. We are each responsible for our thoughts and actions and therefore, we can choose to challenge. We can choose to challenge and call out gender bias and inequality. We can also choose to seek out and celebrate women’s achievements. From challenge comes change, and by choosing to challenge, we will change the world for the better.

At Clarivate, a few of our women leaders share what equality means to them and how they choose to challenge:

Kerri Nelson, Chief Strategy Officer, Clarivate

As a woman in the workforce for the past 31 years, I have had to remind myself to make my voice heard… every day.  This is not always easy for me to do because my inner voice tells me of all the reasons I may or may not be as “equal” as someone else. What I have learned is that women are smart, good at math, know how to listen, are very action oriented, like to work in teams and can lead large initiatives and groups of people. We just have to tell ourselves every day that this is true and just do it! We also have to surround ourselves with people that encourage us to show up and be who we are in all of our interactions.  Our network is really important to our success – and it has been instrumental for me to have awesome men and women in my corner!

In my role, I try to ensure that the teams I personally pull together are diverse in not only a men/women mix, but also areas such as language, location, tenure, race and educational background. It is important to be sure our voices are heard and that forums are created to listen to diverse thinking and ideas. I will be a keynote at the University of Iowa’s Women in Analytics in April – and I am doing this to challenge all women to dream big and know they can do anything they are passionate about and believe in. It starts by believing in yourself!

Nandita Quaderi, Editor-in-Chief of the Web of Science, Clarivate

Striving for women’s equality in the workplace is a matter of good business sense, not just fairness. So often, even in companies where there is a good representation of women overall, the proportion of women at the highest levels is, sadly, still low. And yet, there is an established body of data – for example the McKinsey reports on diversity from 2015 and 2018 – showing a clear correlation between higher levels of female representation at board level and above-average financial performance.

Of course, the lack of female representation at top levels isn’t confined to the corporate sector. We all need to do our part so that in years to come, when a woman wins a Nobel prize for chemistry, physics or medicine, the only thing to be celebrated is their achievement as a scientist. The fact that they’re a woman should be irrelevant. As Editor-in-Chief of the Web of Science, I’m proud to head a team in which 80% of the leadership roles are held by women.

Julia Mair, Chief Marketing Officer, Clarivate

Equality is not optional.  Every person deserves the same opportunity to live a full and productive life – regardless of gender, race or other definitions. But equal does not mean the same. Women are not men – and we need the flexibility to raise children and care for families without having to sacrifice our long-term career ambitions. Better childcare options, flexible work offerings, and career pacing are all things that I believe are necessary to support women as equal partners in work and at home.

I’ve had the opportunity to lead, to voice concerns and challenge where I see issues. I’ve also had the opportunity to step up and take on new challenges like sustainability. When I was younger in my career, I stepped back and went part time in order to spend more time with my young children. I was lucky that this didn’t jeopardize my career ambitions – but it did slow them down. I am conscious that slowing down your career can look like a mistake to some people – I was once called a “late bloomer” because I didn’t become a CMO until my mid-40s. Women (and men) should be encouraged to pace their careers and balance all aspects of their lives.

Sarah Hardison, Head of Product, Regulatory and Pharmacovigilance, Clarivate

Many studies have shown that diversity leads to better decision-making in organizations. I am aware that when I speak my voice represents women in business and so I aim to be as authentic as I can in every interaction, because women are diverse and every woman’s voice should be recognized. I think women often feel that it’s a “type” of woman that succeeds in business; however, as it is diversity that drives better decision-making, women need to observe other women being authentic and succeeding at it.

Women are not equal until we are equal among ourselves; therefore I #ChooseToChallenge all women to be intentional in elevating diverse voices among us, especially women of color and LGBTQ women.

Learn more about the Clarivate commitment to sustainability.