Our Mission Statement
#WomenEd is a global grassroots movement that connects aspiring and existing women leaders in education and gives women leaders a voice in education.
Even though women dominate the workforce across all sectors of education, there are still gender and racial inequalities in terms of the numbers of women in senior leadership, the large gender pay gap and the number of women who want to stay in education yet whose requests for flexible working are not met.
Our mission is to empower more women in education to have the choice to progress on their leadership journey
To achieve this, we work to remove systemic and organisational barriers to such progress and to elevate women to achieve their next leadership step.
Our Values
Clarity
When we learned about the disproportionate representation of women leaders across education, the lack of diversity, the awful gender pay gap and the Motherhood Penalty, that clarity propelled us into action globally.
We work to share such clarity.
Communication
We first created WomenEd because we saw that women educators and leaders were being silenced on Twitter.
We wanted to ensure women felt able to speak and that their voices were heard on social media.
It’s why we have a mic in our logo.
Confidence
Many women in education feel they lack confidence.
We encourage them to be #10%Braver and to share their concerns, ambitions and successes.
They know their worth.
Do you?
Collaboration
Collaboration at #WomenEd events has developed into learning between networks, including global groups and greater working with partners and other organisations.
This brings greater opportunities for women educators and leaders and enables us to reach more women.
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Community
Our global community supports women where they live and work through our networks.
Together we have a voice that is heard and respected and our community uses our voice to elevate women leaders in education and to disrupt the status quo.
Connection
Women thrive on being connected yet tend to avoid traditional workplace networking.
We built #WomenEd around networks of leaders supporting women where they live and work.
We now have a hive of 30+ global networks and 50,000 followers worldwide, all connected in wanting equity for women educators and leaders in education.
It’s amazing.
Challenge
The clarity of gender inequity in education led us to challenge all aspects of the under-representation of women leaders.
A significant challenge is to all aspects of the Recruitment process which results in white men being seen disproportionately in senior leadership. We challenge the lack of flexible working and remuneration decisions and disrupt the status quo in education.
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Change
This is the outcome we want from our combined values.
We want women leaders to insist on the changes needed to achieve gender equity in education.
We want male leaders to be allies in this drive to achieve greater diversity in leadership and for women’s voices to be heard.
We want systemic change.
Any income received by us, including royalties from our books, is used solely to run this website and other communication channels. No individuals or organisations directly profit from WomenEd.
Registered Charity 1201314
What People Are Saying About Us
'...this event last year was phenomenal and changed my life…it opened doors to connections and opportunities that I had never even thought about in my little corner of the world. I loved all the sessions and am so excited for this year’s event. BOOK NOW!'
'For me it was the single most important thing I did in the last 5 years.'
Our Global Strategic Leaders
Christalla Jamil
A CEO who combines extensive system leadership and school improvement experience with a passion for transforming lives by ensuring dignity and respect for all.
She is proud to represent women in education and to identify systemic failures, to support and challenge individuals who need our #WomenEd love and moral purpose.
Keziah Featherstone
Keziah is currently Executive Headteacher of Q3 Academy Tipton, a part of The Mercian Trust. Her large 11-19 school serves a diverse, multi-cultural community, many of whom experience socio-economic disadvantage.
Keziah is co-founder and a strategic lead of #WomenEd, as well as being a member of the Headteachers’ Roundtable. As well as writing articles for Tes and Schools Week, Keziah has co-edited the WomenEd books 10% Braver and Being 10% Braver.
She is currently writing her first solo book Punk Leadership, which will be published by Corwin in 2024.
She lives in Birmingham with a husband, daughter and various cats and pugs.
Liz Free
Liz Free is a co-founder of #WomenEd Nederlands and Strategic Leader for #WomenEd Europe. Liz has been a teacher and head teacher in some of the world’s leading schools and is now a globally recognised leader of education talent, continuing professional development and learning. Liz was the founding Director of the International Leadership Academy, the British School in the Netherlands and is now CEO and Director of the International School Rheintal in Switzerland.
Nancy Squicciarini
Nancy is Head of the Middle Leader Certificate for the Educational Collaborative for International Schools (ECIS).
With over 35 years of experience as an international school educator, she has held several leadership roles.
Nancy is a member of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF), which is a worldwide community promoting excellence in facilitation practices.
Vivienne Porritt
Joyously, Vivienne Porritt OBE is Co-founder and Global Strategic Leader of #WomenEd, a global charity which empowers aspiring and existing women leaders in education.
Vivienne supports school and trust leaders with vision, strategy, professional learning and development, impact evaluation and DEIJ. She is a Vice President of the Chartered College of Teaching and holds several governance roles.
Vivienne is a former secondary headteacher and Director for School Partnerships at University College London Institute of Education. She writes for practitioner and academic journals and is co-editor of 10%Braver: Inspiring Women to Lead Education (Sage, 2019) and Being 10%Braver (Corwin, 2021).