My only problem with writing something this month was the phrase ‘ONE THING’ . How can I be so cross about so many things – especially when I look out of the window and see the highest March temperatures Scotland has (almost) ever seen? I was in Glasgow yesterday and saw a youth driving a [...]

I recently attended The Ambition Debate, the second in a series of debates supported by Independent Women, hosted in Edinburgh by Tods Murray. Clare Logie, who introduced the debate, says “It was a really lively and engaging debate, but it is important that it is seen as a step towards doing something practical, as well [...]

Clare Logie is Strategic Director at Independent Women, Scotland’s first IFA firm dedicated to offering friendly, professional financial advice for women which has been operating since 1997. Clare is well known and well-respected as a powerful and intelligent advocate for women in business. Her regular column here at the3rdimagazine is a must read piece for [...]

I spent weeks trying to think of who to write about as an inspirational female figure and I was struggling. I could think of lots of women who I think are amazing, brilliant, brave, lovely etc etc and started scribing – but I couldn’t think of what to write past the first paragraph and I [...]

I’m not a fan of business books, generally. I clearly am a fan of pretty sweeping statements, though. Like coffee shops, counsellors and canvassing politicians, there are so many poor ones out there in danger of tarring brilliance with the same brush that it can make you loathe to try another one. So, when you [...]

Independent Women hosted an inspiring and stimulating debate at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane at the start of November. “With all the great work being done to get more women onto UK Boards, we started to think about AMBITION in its broadest sense – what does it mean for women, especially post 2008 [...]

When I saw Karen’s note about the November theme , my first response was ‘brilliant – I’ll do that.’ But when I sat in front of my computer screen, I wondered where on earth to start? As Karen says, we seem to have been talking about aspects of gender equality and diversity for so many [...]

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a b***h. You’ve got to go out and kick a*s”. MAYA ANGELOU Well, never a woman to say it any other way than it is; the astonishing Maya Angelou, hailed as a ‘global Renaissance woman’, has lived a [...]

A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him. General Douglas MacArthur We all know there are so many examples of those considered to be great leaders – from Elizabeth 1, to Jack Welch, from Alex Ferguson to Mhatma Gandhi (now there’s a leap…), from Bill [...]

There will be people in this issue who are far better qualified than me to tell you how and why you should be building your company brand. What I thought I would throw in to the ring is how we, at Independent Women, use our brand, what we think brand really means for us and [...]

“Women will be the greatest single force for economic recovery”. So said by a (male) partner in a major consulting firm in 2009. We all know that the statistics are staggering – that women own or co-own 40% of US businesses and that women-owned businesses are growing at twice the rate of all US companies; [...]

Traditionally, New Year is the time for resolutions, new dreams, new plans – or at the very least, sweeping away a pile of stuff you’d rather forget about. Given that Christmas is invariably a pretty expensive time, with presents, nights out and the often-insane Food Fest to which we all seem to subscribe, it really [...]

We all start off young and get older, but what we choose to do in between is ever more flexible; we may move in and out of education or employment, even marriages, childrearing and geographies. Each change impacts psychologically, emotionally and, crucially, economically. The more flexibility and control you have over your finances, the more [...]

“I don’t like money, actually, but it quiets my nerves” so said Joe Louis. I think we probably all kind of know what he means. It’s not money itself that has virtue, it’s the freedom, choices, security and solutions that it can provide, that has the real currency. And having those things in your life [...]

Clare Logie is Strategic Director at Independent Women, a company providing straightforward, independent financial advice that is tailored towards the nuanced needs and preferences of women. Clare developed and ran the HBOS Women in Business programme for 6 years and was also Head of Corporate Sponsorship & Events at Bank of Scotland Corporate, having previously [...]