As we recognise International Women’s Day, Sheldon Bosley Knight celebrates all those women who have helped shape the business over the years and those who are shining a light now.
This year marks SBK’s 180th anniversary. Back in 1843 when we started, women weren’t much in evidence within the business itself. In those days men were the breadwinners, businessmen, lawmakers and entrepreneurs. Indeed it was one William Bull who established the business in Shipston-on-Stour focusing on farm sales and auctions.
However, SBK’s history isn’t an exclusively male narrative. Research undertaken by James Mackintosh Architects has shown women at various points throughout our 180 years, helping shape the business, including at one stage in terms of the merging of the Sheldon and Bosley names when Agnes Sheldon married John Frederic Bosley in 1901.
From our origins in 1843 to the present day, what is striking is the family structure of the business with fathers, sons, nephews, assistants and partners supported by the women in their lives who kept house, were farmers, innkeepers and landladies.
Since those early days of course, much has changed in the world of work. Women are represented in more professions, workplaces and in leading roles and there is more equality of opportunity, including within the land and property agency sector.
Women within SBK now make up a significant percentage of the workforce and are represented within all our departments, many in senior roles including heading up our finance, HR and planning departments.
This International Women’s Day, we are particularly proud to shout about two of our employees who are finalists in the Ladies First Business Awards.
This celebration of women and their achievements and talent across the business world is an annual competition featuring 25 categories including Business Entrepreneur, Networking, Career from Home and Achieves in Business.
Kath Cleary, our HR director and copywriter Kate Gould, have been nominated in these latter two categories respectively.
It is a testament to their hard work they were nominated by their teams and following an interview process with the competition’s organisers, made it through to the finals, of which the winner of each category will be announced at a ceremony at Coombe Abbey on March 23.
We wish them both every success.
