Parliament Week Launch

At the House of Commons we heard from many Parliamentary supporters of Parliament Week, which is on track to deliver the biggest and best selection of events ever in 2013. 

As a Partner in both the Women & Democracy and Business & Enterprise categories, Pink Shoe Club has a number of events lined up for Parliament Week, both in the week itself which starts on November 15th, and during December.

We were welcomed by the Lord Speaker, Baroness D’Souza who stressed the importance of engaging with as many people as possible. 

Lady D’Souza said that welcoming young people into Parliament is one of the most enjoyable parts of her role. 

Then Mr Speaker addressed the crowd, enthusiastically praising this year’s topic of Women and Democracy. Mary Macleod MP spoke warmly of how glad she was to see so many partners present and that she looked forward to an exciting week. We were especially delighted to hear this as Mary will open our own international conference in December!

There was then an opportunity to mingle and meet other Partners, as well as time to enjoy a sumptuous array of homemade cakes!

Enterprise Forum with Enterprise Research Centre

The latest Enterprise Forum roundtable was held at the House of Lords in partnership with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Entrepreneurship and the Enterprise Research Centre. 'Turning fast growth into a habit – policy and finance reports'.

Delegates were welcomed by APPGE Chairman the Earl of Erroll.

Professor Stephen Roper and Professor Mark Hart then presented their research fndings and started discussion on one of the ERC ideas - a National Growth College. 

Sue Lawton then led the interactive and absorbing debate with many interesting points raised by delegates, especially Lorely Burt MP, and Anne Marie Morris MP who asked how this would impact on micro business. A full report is to be published by the APPGE.

At the reception afterwards the discussions and networking continued. 

Pink Shoe Ladies who Lunch

After the success of Pink Shoe's summer lunch programme, the intimate Founder’s lunches are proving very popular so will continue throughout the season. With numbers kept at no more than 8-10, all guests are able to get to know each other in the smaller group. 



Recently we spent a lovely Friday lunch sharing tasting platters at the Adjournment in the House of Commons with a great mix of long standing ambassadors and some fabulous potential new members.

Pink Shoe Foundation Inaugural Meeting

The first meeting of the proposed Pink Shoe Foundation was held at Westminster. The charity will aim to encourage and support the lifelong development of women via a range of activities.

The first three Trustees are all founder members of the Club. Vanda Green, Úna McBride and Ling Tyler-Bennett, along with PSC founder Helene Martin Gee and Senate Chairman Jill Pay, have identified the first project to help fulfil the club's maxim of 'Creating Positive Footprints'.

PSF kicks off with a role model reinforcement project: ‘Take a Walk in My Shoes’. This is the Pink Shoe Shadowing Scheme for Women in Public life. It will involve a practical shadowing experience, with women wishing to contribute to public life shadowing those already in such a role, especially Ministerial Public Appointments. The shadowing is then supported by a series of workshops providing training and development for participants. The scheme will be launched at the House of Commons in November as part of PSF’s partnership with Parliament Week.

Splendours of the Commonwealth Fashion Show

Pink Shoe Club members were thrilled to be invited to launch London Fashion Week at the MayFair Hotel with Splendours of the Commonwealth Fashion Show in aid of the Commonwealth Countries League Education Fund.

The event was brilliantly organized by Judith Fisher and Sue Lawton and the clothes were stunning!.

PSC Patron Tessa Sanderson White CBE was guest of honour along with Baroness Boothroyd, Ade Adepitan and Baroness Flather amongst others.





The evening started with a wow when we received a rousing traditional Maori welcome! 

Fashion was from hugely talented young Commonwealth designers Shipra Malhotra, Ekta Solanki, Duchess, Kitty Ferriera,  Tina Lobondi, Sika, Sunita Mukhi and the grande finale from Jenny Packham. 

All shown with great panache by an array of models from throughout the Commonwealth and compered by Russel Amerasekera. 

The evening was a huge success with a party atmosphere and super service from the hotel team. 








As we enjoyed the Champagne guests perused the silent auction with a range of art works contributed by many of the schools in the programme.  

We heard first hand just how important is the work of CCLEF. It sponsors bright girls to give them equal opportunities for secondary education in their own countries. So far over 3000 girls, have been helped and currently 397 girls across 25 Commonwealth countries are being supported. 

Pink Shoe Summer Soirée

The Summer Soirée was held at the House of Commons by kind invitation of Loraine Midda, PSC founder member and Officer of the House. 



The event was hosted by Helene Martin Gee and Jill Pay, with a wonderful group of Pink Shoe members and friends. 

Special welcome was given to Guest of Honour HH Princess Shahnaz Husain, as well as greeting many old friends plus some new faces whom we shall hope to see again. 

A balmy summer evening was enlivened by guests attired in their glamorous summer clothes to enjoy prosecco, Kent pear juice and a lavish buffet of seasonal goodies.




We were treated to an enthralling talk from House of Commons Librarian Melanie Unwin and Archivist Mari Takayanagi on sufragette Emily Wilding Davison whose centenary was in June.

Melanie outlined the suffragette movement itself and the many activities that suffragettes undertook to fight for the right to vote. 

We learned about the different areas of Parliament linked with these valiant suffragettes and were each given a useful map to plot these for ourselves. 

Mari then gave us an insight into just how much was done in this cause, with some amusing anecdotes such as hiding in a Parliamentary broom cupboard for the night of the official Census, to the horrific treatment of the women in prison when being force fed. 

Guests were able to view displays of historic documents, and had the option of taking a tour of Parliament afterwards to visit all the places mentioned.

The party then continued far later than planned, with guests captivated by fabulous food and fizz along with the great company of other members and friends.

Helene thanked the excellent speakers Melanie and Mari, and all the lovely guests, especially Princess Shahnaz who most generously gave each guest a special gift bag of her wonderful Auyervedic beauty products to take home.

We are delighted to announce that Princess Shahnaz will be sharing tips of her inspirational success. HH has agreed to give a special talk on her hugely successful international business exclusively to Pink Shoe members this autumn. 

Commonwealth Business Council Debrief

Helene Martin Gee and Jill Pay represented Pink Shoe Club along with Sue Lawton, Global Advisor to WEConnect International, at a Debriefing on the Women’s Affairs Ministerial Meeting, following the Women in Business roundtable at the Commonwealth’s 10th Women’s Affairs Ministerial Meeting in Dhaka, Bangladesh this June.

The International Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW International) and the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs (BAWE) are working together to create a roadmap for women’s economic empowerment which will be put to the Commonwealth summit meeting in Sri Lanka this November. 

The 3 key areas of focus, are i). women on boards and  executive positions; ii). women in trade and procurement; iii). women’s access to finance and skills.

A report has been published by the highly respected Dr Shaheena Janjuha-Jivraj of Henley Business School. 

Speakers included Nicky Morgan MP; Parliamentarian Rushanara Ali, and Arif Zaman, Adviser, South Asia and Corporate Governance and Chair of Commonwealth Businesswomen (CBW).

It was wholeheartedly agreed that women's economic empowerment is firmly on the

Commonwealth Ministerial agenda for the first time. 



As Nicky Morgan said ‘empowering women is a highly effective method of tackling deprivation and encouraging a strong economy’.

The Commonwealth theme for 2013 is Opportunity through Enterprise: unlocking potential with innovation and excellence. See:

http://www.commonwealththeme.org/2013/opportunity-through-enterprise/