Today marks International Women’s Day, an event celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and is very much a focal point for the promotion of women’s rights.

An annual event, the day marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

The role of women has changed greatly in recent generations, putting such a huge strain on women as they balance looking after family with work commitments.

This does not go unnoticed by us at DictateNow, as so many of our workforce are women and to mark this important day, we have asked all of our typists to share their life stories with us, with the reward of gift vouchers for the most inspiring tale.

Remote working has in many ways liberated women, especially mums working part time school hours to accommodate their young children, while trying to provide an income for their family. Equally, at the other end, there are women caring for their elderly parents.

Our aim is to raise awareness of their achievements and challenge stereotypes, such as homeworkers cannot get work elsewhere!

After all, remote working was started by women and has now been adopted countrywide.

The tale of our co-founder, Maxine Park lends testament to homeworking. A qualified solicitor, she was given the opportunity 30 years ago to set up a remote office from home with a landline phone link from the office.

In those pre-internet days, a courier travelled to her home each morning with client files and tapes for dictations, and returned later in the day to collect the files and dictated tapes for a secretary to transcribe. It seems almost archaic now.

DictateNow was set up in part to offer other women a similar opportunity to the one Maxine had as a solicitor, looking to balance work with a young family.

This knowledge means we offer flexible working hours to suit woman and also time off for family emergencies, appointments etc.

Heartwarming stories from our workforce includes a lady, who works from her canal boat, who teamed up with us after the politics at the law firm she worked for changed for the worse.

She said: “Gone are the days where I had to sit on a bus for over two hours a day. I can switch my PC off at 4pm and I’m already home!”

To add to this, instead of the gossip of work politics she said she has peace and quiet, with ducks quacking outside her window.

Another female colleague told us how she no longer out of the house for 12 hours a day and comes home in a bad mood, but instead found time to give her daughter a hot meal every day and guide her through her education. She said it has made her so much happier.

What homeworking, a huge part of our business, has done is give women time and freedom.

We at DictateNow are glad to be playing a part in the battle for equality. There’s a long way to go, but let’s hope by International Women’s Day next year more strides are made.

Contact us if you would like to know more about working at DictateNow or for more information on any of our services.