#WomenEd Blogs

by Vivienne Porritt @ViviennePorritt

We started WomenEd because women's voices on twitter were often silenced, harrassed or our views were not valued. It's one of the reasons we included a mic in our logo. So we encouraged women to tweet and to write blogs to tell our stories and share our lived experience. 

One of the reasons we wrote 10%braver: Inspiring Women to Lead Education was to ensure the voices of our community reached women who are not on twitter. And over 30 voices are included in Being 10% Braver which, joyously, is published this December - you can pre-order and it's a great Christmas present! And we are delighted to share more opportunities for our community to write and to be heard.

By Neelam Parmar @neelamaparmar1 LinkedIN Welcome to the first of SEVEN blogs from attendees of our inaugural #WomenEdDigiMeet held last week, which we will publish over the coming days. First up, we have Neelam, who asks what makes a #EdTech Leader? I have had this question posed to me many times. For anyone interested in a #EdTech leadership...

by Beccy Fox     @WomenEdTH Three things have happened recently that got me thinking about women in leadership, in particular, women in leadership in international schools. The first was some 'smack you in the face' data: out of nearly seventy applicants for a recent head of school search, only eleven were from women. Eleven out of sevent...

by Punam Mohandas  @PunamMohandas Two years ago, I had a female student who was just so contrary and sly. She complained about me to her father for no reason, who then complained to the Director of my Faculty. A few days later, the student sent me a message saying she's always mentally and emotionally disturbed around the days leading to her m...

By Punam Mohandas  @PunamMohandas Of late, I've been coming across some interesting discussions on Twitter among UK-based female teachers, on the subject of menopause. Clearly, it's an issue that deserves serious consideration in the workplace, among employers. Whilst pregnancy is seen as a naturally occurring condition where women deserv...

By Punam Mohandas @PunamMohandas The mind connection that people make between gender and the teaching profession makes for some fascinating research; in many countries, the ratio of female to male teachers is much higher. While undertaking some reading for this article, I came across several illuminating reasons on why there is a definite skew...

by  Jacqui Brelsford @BrcounsellorJ

Asking someone to nominate me for an award is probably one of the most uncomfortable things I could do. Putting myself out there is not something that comes naturally. My education was one of criticism and abiding by the archaic, strict rules of jaded teachers who didn’t know any better, and the shame of getting something wrong or being judged has stayed with me my whole life.

by Punam Mohandas @PunamMohandas

One of the most common scenarios the unexpected COVID-19 situation created globally was to propel students into cyber classrooms, as online learning became the new order of the day. Although e-learning is certainly not new, it has become a more sought-after and viable proposition in recent years as students combine higher studies with simultaneously holding down jobs. However, apart from throwing up several unpalatable prospects such as the lack of face-to-face interaction with teachers and peers and lack of student engagement and motivation, e-learning also highlights unethical student behavior like cheating, plagiarism, or taking help from parents or friends in order to complete assignments.

by  Jacqui Brelsford @BrcounsellorJ

On Saturday 23rd October, WomenEd Thailand hosted its first ever international career clinic! Women from around the world shared their expertise, advice, cheerleading, and general awesomeness with aspiring leaders in education. As one of the WomenEd Thailand Network Leaders, it was my responsibility to live-tweet the event and my fingers could not keep up with all the brilliant things being said. Here are my top takeaways in short bitesize tweets:

Dr Sadie Hollins @_WISEducation

‘How you are seen may affect how you are heard.’  This was one of many lines in Prof. Jennifer Eberhardt’s book ‘Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do’ that resonated with me. In this context Eberhardt was talking about the gender bias in the historic hiring of female classical musicians for orchestras. Mounting criticism over the lack of female musicians during the 1970s led to many orchestras adopting ‘blind auditions’ so as to not reveal the identity of the auditionee, and therefore avoid any bias that may unfairly affect the outcome.

by Anna Zyla

I used to teach at a school that had 55 minute blocks. My prep periods were bundled together in the morning leaving me with an afternoon of four back-to-back classes. Any woman around 13-55 can likely spot the potential issue here. Forget about peeing. When was I supposed to change my tampon? I taught seventh grade so while many of the students knew about periods I definitely didn’t want them knowing anything about mine! The thought alone was horrifying.

By Punam Mohandas @PunamMohandas

We cannot ignore the fact that ‘Whiteness’ has fast become a contentious issue when it comes to discussing an ideal English teacher in Asia. Do educational institutions tend to ignore a teacher’s competency over ethnicity/nationality? This is one of the questions that I sought an answer to from the students themselves.