12pm Pacific, 2pm Central, 3pm Eastern, 8pm UK, 5am Australia

Participants may find it useful to have a pen and paper or computer for making notes.

Please send your questions on this topic to karin@gateway-women.com and she will take them with her into the webinar and answer as many questions as possible with the other speakers.

You can register for this webinar here

As a childless person in any workplace, you may be feeling left out and excluded from the “Diversity & Inclusion”policies your employer has. Whilst we see an increase in the awareness and embracing of other “diversity groups”, when it comes to the childless staff member, there is still so much to learn.

More often than not we are expected to “suck it up”, “take it on the chin” or “just get on with it” when colleagues announce their pregnancies, when a donation is being asked for a mutual gift for that colleague or when they come to the workplace and show their offspring once it’s been born. 

And then there is the poor misunderstanding for the needs and support of the childless employee or those still trying to to conceive, who are struggling with the physical and emotional strain of every failed attempt and who are coming to terms with letting go of that hope.

It’s time for this to change and some great examples are being made, want to learn more and get inspired to talk to your HR manager? 

Then join our session!

This will be an informative and interactive workshop in which Karin Enfield will be joined by Lindsay Bishop, Katy Schnitzler and Les Finnemore during which we will;

• Share some personal stories and experiences

• Present an example of a great success story

• Talk about the research that is ongoing on this topic

• Look at the questions you have on this topic

• Practice fitting your response to the situation

We hope to have some fun along the way.  There’s no perfect answer, but we can support each other to navigate our social worlds a bit more easily.

We look forward to seeing you in the workshop.

Big hugs,

Karin, Lindsay, Les & Katy

PLEASE NOTE: This workshop may touch on some sore spots and bring up emotions so you might prefer to be in a quiet, private place. Consider what support you might need before, during and after the workshop. Is there someone you could touch base with after the session?  Perhaps you could arrange this beforehand or you could do the workshop with some CNBC friends.

You can register for this webinar here

Karin Enfield De Vries is the operations director of Gateway Women, facilitates the Reignite Weekend Workshop, hosts the Online Bee Mentorship program and heads up the Benelux Branche for Gateway Women too. With nearly 20 year of experience in change management, systemic work with a strong focus on the human side of change in various organisations as well as her own personal experience of dealing with life changing events which left her to fight for her life and build up a complete new future.  She is now combining all this is in her work to support women who are childless not by choice. 

A lover of life, with a passion for human interaction, she is currently doing a post-bachelor degree in the psychology of grief. She is a strong advocate on the topic of childlessness and does not shy away from speaking up about this in public. Karin is in her early 40’s, originally from the Netherlands, married to an Englishman and lives in Belgium.

Lindsay Bishop lives in Bristol with her husband and her cat. Loves gardening, ballroom dancing and walking in ancient woodland. In her mid forties, she has been on the journey of dealing with childlessness for around 5 years. One thing that is for certain, she is determined not to let it define who she is. Lindsay has been a member of Gateway women for about 3 years and now co-hosts the Bristol meet-up group, where she loves to organise social activities and is keen to promote the group and the support we offer in our local community. 

Lindsay has worked for the University of Bristol for nearly 20 years, as a microbiologist and now works in science outreach, with a key focus on student equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Combining her experiences and personal interests in EDI, and words of wisdom from her fellow Gateway women, Lindsay now co-hosts the Bristol University Childless staff network with Les. Her key aim is to raise awareness and provide support for those men and women dealing with their own journey in the workplace.

Les Finnemore is joint Chair of the University of Bristol Childless Staff Network, his career journey has taken him from leading major change projects; running cabaret shows on a lightship; installing traffic enforcement cameras across the UK and US; stage managing at the 2012 Olympics; developing inclusion policy; managing the Glastonbury Festival Recycling Centre to his current role as a lead in University Human Resource diversity analysis.  His childless journey has been similarly one of adventure, highs and lows.

Katy Schnitzler is an academic and training specialist on the topics of pregnancy loss and childlessness within the workplace. Katy runs MIST Workshops, a training provider specialising in policy writing and training sessions for management, HR and teams on these prevalent, yet overlooked areas. This consultancy is research-informed by her PhD, which she is currently conducting with the Open University.

You can register for this webinar here