#WomenEd Blogs
Deliberate Disruption
We are glad you've been enjoying the great blogs from our Global Unconference 2023 and we want to share some of the pledges that came from our Disruptions session at the end of that day. We will include as many of these as we can in our forthcoming book!
We need to #Disrupt in a deliberate way to speed up the time it is taking to achieve Gender Equity.
The United Nations reports that it will take '140 years for women to be represented equally in positions of power and leadership in the workplace'.
That's enough incentive for us!
Which of these disruptions will you contribute to?
We have sorted all the pledges made at the Unconference into group headings that you may find useful in thinking about how you can best use your skills to help.
| Organisation |
| #WomenEd representatives in clusters / groups /Trusts of schools /boroughs / counties /colleges / universities, all working in partnership. |
| #WomenEd reps in schools a la Union reps. |
| Peer Support Groups using video meets. |
| A #WomenEd mark for inclusive schools |
| Training / Learning |
| Make it clear how people can share their views. |
| Make it clear how people become part of / members of #WomenEd. |
|
More concise visuals about the key issues e.g. don't answer current salary question; CEO more likely to be called Stephen than be a woman. |
| More tool kits |
| Develop fact sheets / How to guides on key topics. |
| Communication |
| Communicate directly with decision makers in education. |
| Everyone share #WomenEd in their own communities and raise others up. |
| More women need microphones through video, podcasts, fireside chats, taking up space digitally and amplifying each other. |
| Target DEI leads in schools to share / forward pamphlets. |
| Contribute more to Teachers Talk radio / Chartered College Impact Journal. |
| More intentional use of LinkedIn. |
| More contact with ECTs / Scitts. |
| Full transparency about pay and rates when asked to speak – men and women should share rates when speaking as this certainly has affected many women who find out men were being paid or earn higher rates when women often speak for free. |
Regarding this last suggestion, one incredible woman shared how she had been #10%Braver recently and insisted on pay parity with other speakers at an event, thus claiming over double her original fee - because the organisers had to match the inflated pre-agreed fee of a male panel member.
That was incredibly inspirational to us all. We all so frequently underestimate our worth in the market place and this brought it home.
This point about pay is an issue at the heart of #WomenEd since we started. Back then we had to advise organisers of local events to be careful about accepting support / sponsorship of companies to help cover costs in case they were aligning with an organisation that did not share our values.So, in our newsletter last weekend we reminded everyone to ensure you #KnowYourWorth.
Check out our Negotiation video.
Staying true to our values
Sadly, we have learned that some organisations we have collaborated with do not always demonstrate our values as we had agreed. We will always stop collaboration on this basis. So, we have dissolved our partnership with The National College of Education as another staff restructure led to many women with reduced roles and salary and no link person for #WomenEd. Also, we wanted to be able to have more contact with the #WomenEd cohorts which has been difficult to achieve.
We stress that we do want to support the existing cohorts with the intake this November being our last formal #WomenEd cohort.
It's a real shame but we are very proud of the hundreds of women our collaboration supported and the many new leadership roles they achieved alongside their academic qualifications.
You are always part of #WomenEd forever.
| Events |
| Mid-week events and support for release time from organisations and funding to attend. Treat #WomenEd events as CPD! |
| Join together to amplify! Have a Kent #WomenEd book launch in 2024 with LLSE. |
| Themed events / posts around our values. |
| Encourage Chief Financial and Chief Operational Officers, HR, Central Trust teams to attend our events. |
| Sell #WomenEd Merchandise at events |
| Use LeadMeets more – a whole day of LeadMeets ? |
| Jump onto local events to promote #WomenEd even if for a few minutes. |
| Partnerships |
| Improve links with ITT providers especially around Diversity. |
| LLSE commit to ensure every one of their NPQH leaders know about #WomenEd and will host free webinars on our 4 campaigns. |
| Link up with equality strands of unions and work alongside branches. |
| The Four #WomenEd Campaigns |
| Each campaign has its own in-person event. |
| One annual campaign petition. |
| Networks |
| A new Research Network: to engage universities, up skill others, broaden understanding and disseminate existing research. |
| Enable many more #WomenEd groups within countries and regions – sub groups of regions. More informal / social activity such as a meal/ tea and cake. |
| More networking via our Diverse community. |
| Relaunch of regional networks, highlighting local women's journeys. |
Amazing!
So much energy and so many ideas for us all to work on!
We would love to know your thoughts on these ideas and the way forward to ensure that the #WomenEd community continues to bring about change and gender equity in education
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