February 28, 2025 
Share This PostI’m marking International Women’s Day by highlighting some of the inspiring women we collaborate with every day. This year, the theme is “For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.”, so we’ve gathered personal inspiration, insights, and visions for the future from clients, colleagues, and partners at the forefront of making the online world safer and more inclusive.
As the CEO of a leading moderation agency, I believe it’s essential to celebrate the power of women-led businesses and amplify women’s voices. Success comes from fostering flexible working patterns and upholding a deep, mutual respect for equality.
Women’s rights are human rights – and that includes the right to feel safe and respected online. Sadly, online abuse disproportionately targets women and girls, a problem that is only growing with advances in technology and AI.
At StrawberrySocial, we take pride in our daily work to combat harmful, abusive, and misogynistic content, upholding those rights in digital spaces. It’s crucial that we work together to build a digital world where everyone feels respected, protected, and free to express themselves without fear.
Rebecca Fitzgerald, CEO & Founder, StrawberrySocial
Who inspires you?
My mum is one of the kindest people I know and has often told me to ‘kill them with kindness’, which, when you work in social – is a really strong piece of advice. Social media, as we all know, can be a negative place and applying positivity can really throw the trolls which can be very satisfying.
What’s your wish for women and girls of the future?
When hidden behind a keyboard, some men feel invincible, unleashing scathing and judgmental remarks that are deeply concerning. Fortunately for every sexist comment, there are women who fight back and stand up. Ideally, I’d want us to have a world of social media that’s more positive and everyone was treated equally, but in the meantime, I want people to continue calling out the discrimination and standing up for women and diverse communities. It’s 2025 after all.
Rosie Chadwick, Social Media Manager, Blue Cross
Who inspires you?
The people who inspire me the most each day are those working tirelessly within the charities we support – especially the queer people, women, and people of colour who are dedicated to creating a more equal and liberated world. Their resilience, passion, and commitment to create change fuels my own drive to support them in whatever way I can.
What do you love about the work you do?
I love sharing opportunities and digital knowledge with charities and causes that might not normally have the access to training – and seeing it put into place and making a difference. There have been so many charities from the TikTok Charity Academy I’ve worked on that have been popping up on my For You Page spreading their message and reaching new people.
What’s your wish for women and girls of the future?
My wish for women and girls of the future is liberation. I hope to that there is a future where no girl feels weighed down by gender expectations, limited by societal restrictions or harmed by gendered violence. I want them to be free to shape their own lives, make their own choices and exist on their own terms.
Cassandra Buck, Project Manager, Media Trust
What’s your favourite piece of advice?
There’s enough space for all of us! Society often gives us the impression that success is limited for women, like there’s only room for a few of us at the top. But the truth is, there’s enough space for all of us to thrive. Be kind to each other, celebrate differences, and lift one another up.
What’s your wish for women and girls of the future?
My biggest wish for women and girls is simply that they have the freedom to choose. So often, the female experience is shaped by a lack of choices or control. I’m a firm believer that when women and girls have agency and control over their own lives, everyone benefits.
Jodie Hoskin, Marketing Manager, Media Trust
Who or what inspires you?
I am inspired by people who manage to achieve their creative dreams while also working full-time jobs and being there for their friends and families. Truly fulfilling success comes from balancing all the elements that make up a life – it’s not easy.
What do you love about the work you do?
The best work I’ve ever done has always involved building teams – hiring individuals who are talented and motivated, and then linking them together with others who feel the same. I love watching a team become more than the sum of its parts, because the people working together care about each other as well as the goal they’re working towards.
What’s your wish for women and girls of the future?
Everything I see Gen Z and Gen Alpha doing online gives me the conviction that the women and girls of future generations are going to be just fine. They’re loud, proud and inclusive, with the intelligence to question all that came before.
Scarlett Cayford has worked in tech for over a decade, leading teams across beauty, gaming and social in companies including SuperAwesome, Epic Games and Coty.
Who or what inspires you?
I’m inspired by writers and academics who go deep on an issue and find ways to change, optimise or make it better. My Kindle library is littered with books by the likes of Dan Heath, Charles Duhigg, Brene Brown, Adam Grant and Laura Vanderkam.
What do you love about the work you do?
There are numerous competing crises in the world today, but working in education is transformative. Education is a foundational force that can drive real, large-scale change, whether that’s in gender equality, climate action, or simply creating a safer, fairer world for all. And we have the results to prove it.
What’s your wish for women and girls of the future?
Working in and around the media for a couple of decades now, I still wish for a less toxic media landscape. Women and girls deserve to access information and entertainment without the burden of navigating content or individuals that make them feel afraid or less than. I include everything from mainstream media to digital environments in that.
Darika Ahrens, Director of Communications, Theirworld
What do you love about the work you do?
I think working in the charity sector just gives you a really strong internal feeling of purpose and drive. You know that you’re making a positive impact on the world and that your role goes deeper than just a social media post or just a newsletter introduction.
What’s your wish for women and girls of the future?
My wish(es) for women, girls, trans-people and marginalised groups in the world: Equal opportunities in education and the workplace, the certainty of safety everywhere, the right to choose, more medical and scientific research into hormonal health and contraception, a world where people can look how they want to look without judgement or discrimination… The list could go on and on, but basically my wish is true equality and the eradication of violence against women and girls.
What’s your favourite piece of advice?
My favourite piece of advice for people in the charity sector is from our CEO Debra Allcock Tyler, a true leader and inspiration to the team at DSC, who says “If it feels hard, it’s because it is hard.” Working in the charity sector is difficult, if you find your role in comms hard to manage, it’s because it’s a difficult role, it’s got nothing to do with your capabilities. What you can do is make sure your bosses are doing everything they can to support you in your role, including providing you with personal development opportunities. You could even ask them to book you onto a DSC training course!
Gabriella Poznansky, Senior Digital Content and Communications Officer, Directory of Social Change
What do you love about the work you do?
Working in the charity sector is incredibly fulfilling. My colleagues are all hard-working, like-minded and just generally lovely people. Working in social media means I often hear from people first-hand about how they have been supported by the charity, which is so rewarding.
What’s your favourite piece of advice?
One of my favourite pieces of advice is to always write down all your small and big wins. I keep a folder on Outlook aptly named ‘nice emails’. Whenever I am complimented on my work by a colleague or manager, I save it in this folder. If I’m having a bad day, or imposter syndrome is rearing its ugly head, I look in the folder and am reminded of all my achievements. This helps my self-confidence immensely and to recognise my worth to the organisation.
Laura Mason, Social Media Manager, Dementia UK
What do you love about the work you do?
Supporting blind and partially sighted communities every single day. I take immense gratitude that my work allows me to be a voice for the community I’m so proud to be part of.
Getting up every morning and knowing that me and my team will be helping to break down barriers faced by blind and partially sighted people through our creative, accessible social media content is a real driving force, both personally and professionally. I love how my work aligns with everything I believe in, and helps me to live my passion of making the world a more accessible place.
What’s your wish for women and girls of the future?
Disabled women and girls are not the problem, the inaccessible society we live in is the problem. For them not to feel like a burden when asking for something to be made accessible, because accessibility should be the norm.
Holly Tuke, Acting Social Media Manager, RNIB
Check out the RNIB guide to how to make your social media accessible >
Who or what inspires you?
The woman who has been my main inspiration was my mother, Annie Tyler. She was a poorly lady, who was disabled and needed a liver transplant. I am the youngest of four and we were quite a handful as children! Despite my mother’s illness she was the strongest and most positive lady I have ever known. The things this woman could achieve with her body acting against her was other worldly. She put everyone first and was the epitome of an Earth Angel. She inspired me to be grateful for my agility and health, to be kind and empathic, and to find the humour in life whenever you can.
There are so many incredible women at IWF and I find inspiration from them. The women in our hotline see images and videos of children who are victims of sexual abuse and exploitation. There are scenes that we could not even imagine in our worst nightmares. Yet day in day out they spend their time searching for this content, assessing and categorising it, so they can have it removed swiftly to protect these victims. These women are exceptionally strong, dedicated and inspirational.
What do you love about the work you do?
I love our values and the sense of achievement I have working at IWF. It is so incredibly sad that such a mission of seeing an internet free from Child Sexual Abuse Material exists, but I am extremely proud of our work. I love that my work attracts people who genuinely care about children and want to make a difference in the world. I feel blessed that I have countless opportunities to meet and collaborate with exceptional humans, such as Heidi Kempster, COO of IWF for 13 years, Susie Hargreaves, CEO of IWF for 13 years, Emma Hardy our Communications director, Tamsin Mcnally our Hotline Manager, I could go on! There are so many incredible females at IWF who all share the same goal, to make the world a safer place for children and ensure they are protected.
Penny Tyler, Development Officer, Internet Watch Foundation
Remarkable women all. It’s a privilege to work with them to build a safer, more empowering digital space for women and girls everywhere.