Many moons ago, when WomenEd was but a spark being kindled
into being by its founders, I wrote a
blog post that started with a plea to “the wonderful women involved in
Women Ed”:
I'd
love to be involved too. But let's get serious. Let's stop talking about
wearing heels to work. Let's stop using sassy pop references. Let's talk about
the fact that boys are underachieving as well as the appalling lack of female
Head teachers. Let's make this a real gender debate.
Fast forward two years and I’ve just spent my Saturday at my
second Women Ed event and I can happily report that – despite one Take That
reference – it’s a world away from the Union Jack dresses that I feared.
Instead, CEOs, Executive Headteachers, Company Directors, and
Doctors are the order of the day with a roster of workshop leaders and keynote
speakers that brings together truly inspirational female leaders from all sides
of the educational landscape. So, how has my response to Women Ed changed since
that first hesitant blog post?
Well I think I am pretty brave, but I know I can still be
10% braver by naming sexism when I see it. In my experience, there’s still a
pervasive attitude in schools that sexism is some kind of quirky male eccentricity.
I was once warned by several colleagues about an older male
Chair of Governors who ‘doesn’t respond well to women’. On reflection, my
retort should have been ‘So why is he still in post?’ rather than steeling
myself for the condescending tirades that followed. Similarly, it’s not OK when
male members of a senior leadership team refer to ‘the girls’ when they
actually mean their fellow senior leaders. Or, when members of a panel
interviewing a prospective female Headteacher say they’d ‘rather not work for a
woman’. And I think we all need to be less tolerant of female leaders being
talked down to in online debates, making more liberal use of block and mute for
persistent offenders.
I’ve valued the way Women Ed has foregrounded the
intersection of issues related to gender and ethnicity. I’m increasingly aware
of my own privilege as a white British woman, but not always, I’m sure, aware
of the insidious ways this impacts on my experiences. I am trying to shift my
thinking and will try to engage with BAME Ed in whatever ways I can to ensure
that diverse leadership in all its guises make strides forwards in the schools
in which I work.
In a similar vein, it’s only thanks to Women Ed that I now
fully recognise the privileged start in life I had. I was never aware of the
financial pinch many have been shaped by but, more than this, my family deeply
valued education and nurtured me as a leader throughout my childhood. Comment
on the many inspirational women in my family is for another blog post, but when
you’re surrounded by graduates and women who have led unorthodox lives you have
a life without limits modelled for you every single day. I was never scared to
make decisions or take risks growing up as my mum always told me everything was
reversible. Buying a house? You can sell it. Taking a promotion? You can quit.
Going travelling? You can come home. Even as recently as this weekend, on
talking to my Uncle about my goal of being Headteacher in what I thought was a
hugely ambitious timescale of 10 years, his reply was ‘Why not in five?’
But then it is Women Ed that has given me the confidence to
make that statement to my uncle in the first place. The sessions I’ve been to
and the women I have met have taught me that it’s OK to have a strong vision
for yourself as well as your school: not just ‘what is your story?’ but ‘what’s
your story going to be?’ This confidence has developed from hearing first-hand
the leadership stories of women like Dr Jill Berry. Jill once gave me a verbal nod
as a leader in a speech at a teaching event. That warm feeling sustained me
through many challenging months. On reflection, I now have no doubt that she knew
exactly the impact that would have on me and for that I am eternally grateful.
I agree with Hannah Wilsey on the powerful value of such connections
between female leaders and that it starts with ‘putting yourself out there’. Finding
your crew – or, as my students would term it, your squad - has transformational
power for women in all sectors of education. For me, Team English has become so
much more than a way of sharing resources. Rebecca Foster, Freya O’Dell, Sarah Barker, Amy
Forrester, Becky Wood, Charlie Pearson, Nikki Carlin, Fiona Ritson, Sana
Master, Grainne Hallahan, Lyndsey Dyer, Nat Masala, Kate McCabe, and… Chris
Curtis: when you have that lot behind you, you are not just 10% braver, but
ready for anyone and anything.
I did of course put in that final ellipsis for dramatic
effect, but it’s an important point that we must celebrate and seek out men who breathe Women Ed in their values and conduct, like Chris. It’s my opinion that
we should also celebrate when well intentioned men ‘get it wrong’ or when the
light bulb that has gone off is that women might actually be people after all.
Progress is progress, after all.
Dr Kay Fuller closed the event in Nottingham by emphasising Women
Ed is not just for us but, perhaps more importantly, for the next generation
and she’s so right. I made the mistake
two years ago of thinking Women Ed was about discussion of feminist issues in
education but that’s only partly true.
The women involved in the movement are living life as
feminist leaders (whether they’d use that label or not). They are loud. They
are tall. They don’t suffer fools. They ask outright for fair pay. They are
strong. They are individual. They are fun and they are free in ways that women
even 50 years could only dream of.
In the words of the awesome Charmaine Roche we must all seek
now to ‘live it, embody it’. She and so many others have created powerful footsteps
for women to use as a guide as they move forwards on their own leadership journeys. I
thank her and all involved with Women Ed for making me even more determined to
be the kind of leader that I would want the young women I see in my classroom
every single day to one day become.
