To the First Women Awards last night at the Marriott in Grosvenor Square, hosted by Mishal Husain. The Radio 4 presenter said “much was made of me being the second woman on the Today programme” but she “was glad the First Women still accepted her”.
She said she’d interviewed Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, the second woman to hold the job, who said she liked being second because it meant the first wasn’t a one-off.
Among the award-winners was Susie Hewson, who founded Natracare, which makes environmentally friendly tampons and sanitary towels. In her acceptance speech, she recalled she was once asked by a man in a meeting if she was a secretary. She responded: “No, I make the thing that goes into that place that you spend most of your time thinking about.”
As Husain put it: “It was an acceptance speech in a million”.
