The 150 women (and what the Financial Times report on her speech called ‘a few brave men’) who attended CWN’s gala 30th Anniversary Dinner at Stationers’ Hall in the City on Thursday November 13 were treated to great food in a sumptuous ambiance, and a rousing speech from guest of honour Cherie Booth, QC.

A great sense of occasion and festivity was manifested in participants’ formal dress and evident delight in the event, graced with champagne and fine wine, a superb meal, a generous raffle to support the 30th Anniversary Challenge project in Laos, lovely Ralph Lauren gift diaries, and excellent speakers. We were delighted to be joined by the Presidents of EPWN Madrid and Amsterdam (Marijo Bos and Rieke Smakman) and their fellow members.

Past CWN presidents Mei Sim Lai, Diane Morris, and Nicola Stevens were present at the Dinner, sponsored by BT. Following introductions by Janet Gaymer, the Commissioner for Public Appointments and Patron of City Women’s Network, and CWN President Clare Dobie, Cherie Booth congratulated the members of CWN on their achievement in helping to get women’s networks up and running and regaled her attentive audience with tales of her own experiences in the City. For example, she related that “I am sadly old enough that I could have been one of those [CWN] founder members. I started my legal career just over 30 years ago as well. So much has changed in the past three decades, it seems hard to remember that back then there was still a widespread view that women could not get to the top no matter how talented they were or how hard they worked.”

She told a revealing story about her own training as a lawyer. “One of the main legal textbooks I studied – and this was the 1972, not the 1872, edition – advised women against becoming barristers because ‘a woman’s voice doesn’t carry as well as a man’s.’  This would now be a law suit rather than a legal textbook.”