#SheMatters Conference: What’s Next? - Resilience isn’t about bouncing back, it’s about RISING.
We had the delightful opportunity to interview one of our keynote speakers at this year’s #SheMatters Women’s Justice Conference, Claire Feasey who is a Partner at IBM Consulting UK, to hear more about why employment after prison is important to her.
“Hi Claire, can you share a little about yourself and your work as an introduction to those who don’t yet know you?”
I’m Claire Feasey, a Partner at IBM Consulting, leading our UK Public Sector justice practice. For three years I’ve had the privilege of working alongside the Ministry of Justice, the courts, prisons, and probation services: people who care deeply about getting this right. Outside my day job, I volunteer in men’s prisons, including partnering with Saracens Rugby Club’s Get Onside program at HMP The Mount and HMP Feltham, where I bring a team of IBM volunteers to spend an afternoon with the cohort, helping them navigate skills, opportunities, and life beyond release. I also attend recruitment fairs inside prisons, helping people find a route into work as they prepare for their next chapter. The #SheMatters Conference marks an important new phase for me, stepping more intentionally into women’s justice, and I’m genuinely glad to be here.
“We know employment after prison is something you are particularly passionate about. Can you tell us a little more about this?”
Employment is one of the most powerful things that can anchor someone’s life after prison. It’s about income, yes, but it’s also about so much more than that. It’s a reason to get up, a place where you contribute, a new paragraph in the story you’re writing about yourself.
What drives me is a belief that the talent and determination I see in people who have been through the justice system is extraordinary, and that with the right support and opportunity, it can take them anywhere. The barriers that exist aren’t about what women can do. They’re about access: access to skills that are genuinely valued in today’s workplace, access to employers who are willing to look past a gap on a CV, access to someone who believes in them.
Through IBM SkillsBuild and our partnership with Breakthrough, we want to be part of building that access. Free digital skills training, mock interviews with real IBM colleagues, and recruitment fairs designed to create real conversations with real employers. I’m proud of what that collaboration is making possible.
And I want to be clear about what I mean by digital skills, because it’s not about steering anyone into a career in tech. Digital skills are life skills now. They help someone set up their own small business, build a website, manage their social media presence, write a business plan, and navigate the systems and services that so much of daily life depends on. These are tools for independence and self-sufficiency, and every woman, whatever path she wants to take after prison, deserves to have them.
I’m also a mum. And that is part of why these matters to me in a way that goes beyond the professional. When a mother goes to prison, it isn’t just her life that is disrupted. Research suggests that around 17,000 children a year are affected by maternal imprisonment in England and Wales, and the ripple effects on families can last for years. I know how central a mother is to a family’s stability, and I feel strongly that helping women find secure employment and build independent lives after prison is one of the most powerful things we can do to support those children and families too.
“Do you have one particular story or encounter of supporting a woman after prison that you hold onto and propels you to continue your work?”
I want to be honest here: my direct work has been in men’s prisons. Women’s justice is newer territory for me, which is partly why this conference matters so much.
But there is a moment I keep coming back to. I was in a session with a group of men at a rehabilitation program, talking about life after release: jobs, identity, starting again. One man said, quietly, that his daughter had been in prison too, and that she’d had nobody. No program. No preparation. Just a gate and a bus fare.
That sentence stayed with me for a long time. It still does. Because his daughter, and every woman like her, deserved what that room was offering. They just weren’t in the room.
That’s why I’m here.
And finally, how did you start working with women in prison? What was the motivation?
My route into women’s justice has been a gradual and evolving one, and I want to be honest about that.
It was through my volunteer work that I began to understand, more clearly over time, how different the picture can be for women. Women represent a small proportion of the prison population, which can mean their specific needs receive less visibility, fewer dedicated resources, and fewer of the kinds of programs that can really change the trajectory of someone’s life. I don’t say that to criticise the people who work incredibly hard in this space: many of them are doing extraordinary things with very limited support. But it gave me a real sense of where I might be able to contribute.
I work in technology. I think a lot about digital skills: what they’re worth, where the economy is heading, how AI is reshaping the world of work. And when I came across IBM SkillsBuild, I could see it had something genuinely valuable to offer. Free, accessible, high-quality digital training with no barriers to entry. No qualifications needed. Works on any device.
The question that started to feel important to me was simply: how do we make sure women in and beyond the justice system know this exists and feel that it’s for them?
That question led me to the partnership with Breakthrough, and it led me here, to this conference. I’m not coming with all the answers. I’m coming with a real desire to listen, to collaborate, and to use the resources and platform I have to support the brilliant organisations and individuals already doing this work. The SheMatters community clearly has so much knowledge and passion. I’d love to be part of it.