We must not be a barrier to each other: Sam Booth

As part of International Women’s Day 2026, leaders in Greater Birmingham share their thoughts on the power of reciprocity and support following this year’s theme of ‘Give to Gain’.

Women face a number of barriers to success in the workplace, as Sam Booth, CEO of domestic abuse charity Pathway Project Staffordshire, explains.

However, Sam believes women supporting each other is a crucial starting point to achieving progress.

What changes would you like to see for women in business in Greater Birmingham?

I would genuinely like to see more women supporting women in every workplace.

I have worked in several organisations, private sector, public sector and third sector and in all of those have seen first-hand where women have sabotaged other women - Queen Bee syndrome is very real in many industries and many women know it happens but choose to ignore it and engage in this behaviour.

Women have many barriers to success - other women should not be one of them.

I champion coaching and mentoring other women, supporting and influencing people around them to see the real skills that women have.

If every women was kind to other women and made a vow to support and raise up other women the successes we can collectively achieve would be much greater and the collective workforce more rounded and skilled for it.

What is one action you could take to challenge gender bias or stereotypes?

My name is Samantha - I found that when I applied for jobs using my full name Samantha my success rate dipped.

So now I use Sam on every email, business card and for every job application.

Blind shortlisting for roles is a brilliant way to remove all stereotyping and bias when appointing staff, I would want to see this used more in industry.

What is the biggest challenge you have faced as a woman in business and how did you overcome it?

I have worked in mainly male dominated organisations. The biggest challenge I faced was the discomfort of going through the menopause and working with colleagues who did not understand the symptoms.

Particularly having poor memory, being unable to locate the words I needed in presentations I found incredibly difficult, particularly when those adults around me were not understanding of the issues that I was facing.

I found some great resources, sought advice and implemented strategies to support my memory loss and articulation and overcame it that way, thankfully my employer at the time then implemented Menopause awareness resources.

The saddest part was the person who was most unkind about my symptoms at the time was a woman.

This year’s IWD theme is Give to Gain. How will you give back to either your organisation or community to help drive more change?

I am the CEO of a domestic abuse charity. We ‘Give to Gain’ all the time and every part of our ethos is entwined with giving to others so we all gain and it’s not always about hard cash.

This year we are specifically offering free domestic abuse workshops to any company that is interested. The more awareness we raise the more likely people will seek help.

We believe it takes a community to stand up to violence against women and girls, nothing will change otherwise, so we are asking organisations, community groups and businesses to sign up to our Anti Domestic Abuse Charter.

The charter asks companies to acknowledge   abuse, to display posters and have a domestic abuse policy within the workplace to support staff, to educate staff and be a safe haven for any employee or client who needs help. 

By doing this we can work together and bring about change while supporting other organisations to Give to Gain and we are happy to support companies with writing policies or guidelines.

Everyone has a skill to share and we have many clients that need to learn skills, so we are asking companies to ‘Give to Gain’ by sharing skills that our clients may need in small workshops, 121 mentoring or coaching or offering work experience. 

We already work with a global company Wesco Anixter who offer coaching and mentoring opportunities for my staff team using their vast staff team.

This has had a mutual benefit to both of us. We would welcome discussions about how other businesses can support us with skills swaps or coaching and mentoring.
 

What’s one piece of advice you would give to women looking to succeed in your industry?

I have had a varied career. The one piece of advice I would offer to any woman, in any career path is always believe in yourself, take on the promotion, apply for the job!   

Some statistics say men apply for a job if they meet 70 per cent of the role profile person spec, while women will only apply if they meet 99 per cent of that person spec. 

Women need to believe more in their ability to flex their skills and see where they are transferable and what they can evidence would be growth within a role.

If you think you cannot do it you probably can, if you think you may be able to do it then you can probably ace it. If you think you can achieve it then people need to step out of your way because you'll absolutely smash it.    

Imposter syndrome is real for many women. Often we don't realise that we doubt ourselves because of it.

If you can recognise it for what it is and manage your imposter syndrome, you can actually use it to sharpen your work and reflect on what you do and how you do it in a positive way to change and improve your growth and performance.

How has being part of GBCC helped support your business or career? 

We are really new to GBCC. I hope that we will meet lots of companies and businesses and that we have time to explain how we can collaborate and work together for the collective good of the community locally,

I hope to make some really strong connections and build networks that will be mutually beneficial.

I hope it leads to:

Partnerships - the chance to partner with companies to support victims

Support - the chance to support companies to understand domestic abuse better

Education - the chance to educate all about domestic abuse