The Old Women Club #EmbraceEquity #IWD2023

When I was younger and at the start of my career, I fought for myself and I fought for the kids. Having spent the vast majority of my career serving communities experiencing substantial and layered disadvantage, there was much to fight for. With regards to myself, I was a gobby working class young woman who did not really want to compromise.

My promotions were accidental. Usually I needed more money to cover gaps in spending caused by university debt and the need to go down the pub with mates. Always I looked at the people "above" me in the hierarchy and knew I could do better – so I did.

I did fight for colleagues too; often using the limited positional authority I had to effect changes for the better. I remember one colleague teaching in a leaking mobile classroom, black mould on every wall and literal ivy growing up around the light switch electrics. She had to turn the lights on with the tip of an umbrella and suffered a succession of chest infections, all post major breast cancer surgery. A few photos sent to the union, with the head copied in, got that classroom scrapped.

We all know of the Old Boys Club, of course.

That network of privileged men, mostly attending similar posh private schools, now pulling one another up and providing opportunities to each other that are not available to the rest of us. If you don't look like them, or sound like them, or think like them, you are not included. And very few people are included, on purpose: these people do not want to share the power, influence or money.

#WomenEd is the antithesis of this: We are an (Old) Women Club looking to bust open the world of opportunity to everyone. To do this, it's just not about knocking down the walls, showing everyone that they're down, and inviting people in; this provides an equal opportunity but does not guarantee equity, this year's International Women's Day theme.

Not everyone starts from the same place and many have additional barriers in the way: race, gender, sexuality, disability, neurodiversity, age, religion, education, accent, first language, nationality… there can be so many barriers and, when you face more than one, it's as if they are stacked up on top of each other. So why bother to start climbing?

Therefore, on this IWD, all of us have to recognise the barriers others may face and help to smash them down.

Personally, as a serving headteacher I know I have a responsibility to serve my staff as well as the children that attend my school. It ranges from tapping colleagues on the shoulder to remind them that we welcome their application for a promotion, to ensuring someone on maternity leave gets to see those opportunities for promotion, to calling out poor attitudes in meetings and deliberately shaping roles so they can be job-shared.

Most importantly it is living those values every day, keeping equity firmly in the centre of your mind all the time. It is not something to turn on and off, to only consider occasionally.

And like the Old Boys Club, the Old Women Club must be relentless.

Notice from #WomenEd:

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