Achieving equitable disruption

I was privileged to join the #WomenEd South East England network in Brighton last week to celebrate our new book #DisruptiveWomen. It was an uplifting evening with 50 women joining us to network, learn, and be #10percentBraver.

It was brilliantly organised by Ruth Astley and Bianca Greenhalgh and hosted by Patcham High School. Bianca and Ruth introduced WomenEd to the small number of women who didn't know us. It's so good that those numbers are small!

I was delighted to share some key messages from the book on behalf of the editors:

1. Lisa Hannay – 'Disruptive women refuse to accept the notion that women should stay in their place. These women disrupt this notion entirely.'
   
   
2. Natasha Hilton – 'It's perplexing – the educational sector, traditionally seen as a bastion of enlightenment and progress, can be ensnared by its own biases.'
   
   
3. Vivienne – 'We see the gender pay gap in the lower salaries women leaders earn, in the lack of respect shown to them and the bias demonstrated when the colour of a woman's skin or her background means she is paid less for the exact same role as other men.' 
   
   
4. Kerry Jordan-Daus and Wendy Cobb - 'The education section needs a complete culture change regarding flexible working, thinking and leadership.' 
   

Ruth explored the issue of Flexible Working and how she had changed the culture in her school by involving her colleagues, especially mothers, in developing policies and new practices.

Bianca talked about the chapter Powerful Stories and supporting colleagues to tell their stories so they are represented.

Sue Prickett shared her powerful take on the #GenderPayGap asking everyone to ask their organisations 'Why isn't the GenderPayGap improving?'

Caroline Barlow closed the evening with her talk on Disruption and Representation - 'How we represent is as important as where we represent'.

The pledges that followed showed the issues women wanted to tackle to achieve greater equity across education. Here are some of them:

Flexibility

'I am going to speak to my Headteacher about more flexible options because it will be good for my mental health.'

'Commit to improving our flexible working practices as part of our new 3 year SIP

'Carry out work with part-time mothers at my school like Ruth did.'

'Support women around me with flexible working.'

Gender Pay Gap

'Look into the Gender Pay Gap in my school.'

I have already stopped adding final salary on people's references but I am now going to email WHY!'

Support Women

'Encourage other women to have difficult conversations with me and others as heads.'

'I'm going to ask the difficult questions and ensure I support my female colleagues – not take them down.'

'To continue championing my fellow, incredible women leaders, giving encouragement and challenging us all to do more and be more.'

Personal

'Focus on changes I can make today.'

Focus on feeling confident in my new role and looking for the right role for me.'

'To make sure that women are aware of their power in the workforce.'

'Speak up.'

'I will channel my inner Vivienne.' (I had to add this!)

Finally,

'I will create a more equitable culture in my new role.'

Please, as we see women's rights being rolled back across the globe, let's all do this.