How care work fuels leadership in female-dominated events sector

Retention, performance and inclusion start with supporting women in events - Stephanie Murray, Head of Marketing and Communications

The conference and events industry is notably female dominated, with an estimated 70/30 gender balance. It’s also a space that involves international travel, long anti-social hours, it’s stressful and demanding. For all of these reasons, finding work-life balance for women who are also juggling parenting or caring responsibilities can be challenging. It’s also no surprise then, that the number of men in senior positions in the events industry increases higher up the career ladder.

Last month, Stephanie Murray, ICC Belfast’s Head of Marketing and Communications, attended IMEX Frankfurt and took part in a panel discussion on the challenges and opportunities of combining a leadership role in the events industry with being a mum.

Stephanie previously spent 3 years at ICC Belfast before a 2-year stint at PCMA, the strategic membership body for the global events industry. Here, she developed network relationships and partnerships across the EMEA region, including plenty of international travel.

With the arrival of her first child in the spring of 2023, Stephanie, who was born and raised in Northern Ireland, felt the pull of home and family. The leadership role in ICC Belfast’s marketing team was a perfect fit for her “homecoming”.

Stephanie is now navigating a new balance as she juggles a high-pressure marketing job, with the unmissable moments of being mum to her son Jonah (now 2). At IMEX Frankfurt, she discussed the struggles – and the benefits – of combining caring responsibilities with a career in large-scale international events.

From Caregiver to Changemaker

The panel discussion, entitled From Caregiver to Changemaker – how care work fuels leadership potential was introduced by Katharina Path of Frankfurt Convention Centre, who said,

“Gender equality can only be achieved if professional development and family responsibilities go hand in hand. Reconciling work and family life is not just a personal challenge – it is a structural necessity. Care work plays a crucial role in this conversation, as it fosters key leadership skills like empathy, resilience, and adaptability. It’s time we recognise and value these skills as powerful assets in the workplace.”

Reflecting on the session, Stephanie said,

“Navigating life as a working mum is far from plain sailing, mainly because I feel so conflicted. Up until having Jonah, I have been really driven and career focused – and I still am! I had the most amazing role model in my own mum, who was at home as I grew up. This influenced a view that, in order to be the best mum, I would also have to stay at home with my son."

“But then I was filled with thoughts about my career: what about all the ambitions I had? Does my career have to take a backseat? Am I a rubbish mum if I pursue a role I really love? So I was really determined to find a way to make it work."

For me, the turning point came in realising that, try as I might, I can’t “do it all". But what you must do is figure out the balance that works best for you – and it’s very individual.

The importance of culture in the workplace

“A lot depends on the support you have around you, and that includes the culture of your workplace and your colleagues. I’m lucky to have the support of my amazing husband, my mum and my in-laws to give me some flexibility to allow me to keep doing what I love. I know I am also very fortunate to have a supportive CEO and team of executive leaders."

“I have found one of the most important tools is boundary setting. For example, I insist on dropping my son off and collecting him at least twice a week (and for non-working parents I realise how ridiculous this might sound). I put this very clearly in my shared work diary, I’ve named it, and as a team we work around it. I’ll admit, though, it did feel quite vulnerable to do this in the first place."

"On the upside, in this industry, while we often need to be physically present on site, it’s also possible to do more task-oriented work outside of regular office hours and working remotely. This gives me the flexibility to continue doing a great job and to be as good a mum to Jonah as I can, during these rapidly disappearing early years of his life."

This is not the model my mum practiced, but I firmly believe that the resilience, grit and drive she has given me are exactly the same ingredients that have allowed me to make this work for me and pursue a career in an industry I love. 

"And yes, it’s a crazy busy juggle, but it’s everything I want and more."

The panel reflected on the advantages of having caregivers as leaders. Stephanie said,

“As I have navigated early parenthood, it has made me realise that none of us truly know what anyone is bringing to work with them that day. As a leader, that brings empathy, understanding and keeps us all human, not just a bank of productive machines. We all have stuff going on in life and at a very basic level, we should be kind to each other. That probably extends to self-care too - the juggle is stressful and making it work means we develop new strategies for managing stress and getting the job done."

“The greatest skills I have developed from being a working mum are the ability to prioritise and to delegate. When you have an exceptional team who you trust, it makes the realisation that you can’t “do it all” much easier. It nudges you to empower your team to do their best work.”

Being part of the global events industry brings the opportunity to reflect on different approaches and cultural norms in other parts of the world, particularly in terms of equality and maternity rights. Stephanie continued,

“Listening to the experiences of women from other parts of the world was quite eye-opening. Maternity rights vary so dramatically from nation to nation in terms of both the amount of time off and how women are paid. One industry peer from the US described having only 3 weeks off after a C-Section birth… we’re not even allowed to drive here until 6 weeks after a C-section! Whereas German women have 6 weeks of compulsory leave before their due date and up to a year of leave!"

“Equally, the rights for women and men taking on caring responsibilities for elderly family members are pretty unsupportive. We know that women in particular drop out of the workforce at that stage in life and never return, which leads to a significant loss of knowledge and experience from our female-heavy industry. I’d really like to see universal standards when it comes to maternity leave benefits and carers’ leave."

Making up half of the population and almost two thirds of the events sector, women should have frameworks in place to support their unique care-giving roles while allowing them to keep their career on track. 

"The benefits of supporting female workers come in high performance and productivity, and in retaining happy fulfilled team members who feel valued and respected as individuals. This shouldn’t be so hard to achieve.”