As part of International Women’s Day, local businesswoman Amy Mellor was invited to share her story as an ‘inspirational female’.
Amy is well-known around Andover as co-owner of David Mellor Family Jewellers.
She was asked by the Company of Master Jewellers to talk about her career experiences and the jewellery and watch industry in general.
28-year old Amy has worked at the local business full-time for 10 years and says she’s had some sort of customer-facing’ job since she was 13:
Amy says, “From the age of eight, I was absolutely obsessed with horses, so much so that I basically forced the stables to give me a job when I turned 13 – I was in my element!
“This job developed as I got older and by sixteen I was a riding instructor, teaching up to intermediate level with no formal qualifications, and managing the yard of 20 stabled horses plus numerous that lived out.
“When I was studying for my A-levels, I swapped the stables for waiting tables at a local jazz club.
“These jobs, despite being comparatively short-lived and irrelevant to running a jewellery business, taught me so much about how to communicate with customers and how having a solid work ethic and being loyal to your employer is one of the best traits you can have in a workplace.”
Gender equality is important to Amy who shares her story in her article on the CMJ website today.
“Co-owning and running a business alongside my family (with two older brothers, I might add), there have without a doubt been times where I have been treated differently by suppliers/tradesmen/customers purely and simply because I am a woman.
“I have also heard female members of staff be spoken to differently (often in a condescending tone) by customers just because they’re women. It’s infuriating and something that we are taught just to “accept” but it’s 2021 and this shouldn’t still be happening, nor should we have to swallow it.
“I remember a few years ago, we’d hired a male trainee sales assistant, who was a few years younger than me, and despite being the one to greet the customer, I was completely looked through and the customer beelined straight to the male member of staff with his enquiry.
“This type of systemic sexism is so prevalent and needs to be looked at even from a grass roots level.
“As my brothers and I take our business forward, we intend to stamp out any sexism within the work environment – whoever it might be from – and we will continue to pay our staff fairly based on merit as opposed to their gender.
Read Amy’s full story here and more in this week’s edition of the free Love Andover Observer newspaper:
