Carol Glover is Campaigns & Communications Manager at the Education and Employers Taskforce, which runs the Inspiring Women Campaign. She has previously worked for the Department for Health, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health and SANE, mental health charity. Prior to this she was Commissioning Editor at CIPD’s People Management magazine.
“…Positive female role models are vital for young girls to feel that anything is possible and that doors are not closed to them because of their sex… We need to bring about a significant culture change so that it becomes commonplace that girls, wherever they live and whatever their social background, get the chance to meet a wide range of people doing different jobs, from apprentices to CEO…”
My career to date
I’ve had a zig-zag and rather unconventional career path – starting off as an academic researcher doing hospital ward rounds with junior doctors to investigate their training, before doing a postgraduate journalism course in my mid-20s.
I was a journalist editing business and health magazines when I decided I wanted a career change of direction, so I took a chunky pay cut to move into the charity campaign and communications field – which I instantly knew that it was the right decision.
Joining a start up charity
My current role at the Education and Employers charity was advertised in The Guardian newspaper and what attracted me to the advert was that it was a start up charity, so there was the opportunity to create a communications department from scratch, which was very exciting.
That was six years ago and the charity has grown massively in terms in reach and impact. We have over 80% of secondary schools registered for our free programmes, over 2,000 primaries and increasing international interest in launching our programmes aboard to help young people in countries as diverse as; China, Australia and Spain. Every year has brought new campaign and programme launches so I have not yet got bored!
Background to the Inspiring Women Campaign
The Inspiring Women campaign is part of the Inspiring the Future programme for boys and girls in state schools. Inspiring Women seeks to break down job gender stereotypes, raise aspiration and broaden horizons for girls in state schools.
Since launching two years ago, we already have 18,500 women who have pledged ‘one hour a year’ to visit a school near home or work, to talk with girls about their job, career and life experiences. Teachers invite these volunteers in – often to do ‘career speed networking events’ or classroom talks with small groups of girls who can freely ask them questions.
I think a major reason the campaign has been so successful is that it an ‘easy ask’ of volunteers, you purely talk about your own career route and experiences. It’s also not getting up and doing a speech, which a surprising number of working women feel unconfident in doing. Our volunteer can be apprentices, graduate recruits or chief executives – girls in school want to hear their thoughts and experiences regardless of their career stage.
Support from Miriam Gonzalez Durantes
Our champion who helped to found the Inspiring Women campaign international lawyer Miriam Gonzalez Durantes got involved because she was an Inspiring the Future volunteer and enjoyed her visit to a state school in Tower Hamlets so much she approached us about doing a specific women’s campaign and within one month we had one up and running.
Miriam has worked really hard for the campaign on top of being a partner in an international law firm and mother of three, and she has enabled us to get many other high profile women involved from the Editor of British Vogue magazine, Alexandra Shulman, to Carolyn McCall, CEO of EasyJet.
Challenges of working in a charity, balanced by the positives
The challenges of working in a charity is the need for continuous fundraising and securing income to run programmes, especially because we do not charge schools. The other challenges are changes of government and ministers who’s priorities inevitably change. The positives are that it’s interesting work and you feel that it’s worthwhile.
Positive female role models are vital for young girls to feel that anything is possible and that doors are not closed to them because of their sex. The reason we have volunteers from all jobs, walks of life and career stages is that girls need to meet successful women who they can relate to. Not celebrities, not people born with silver spoons in their mouths. Normal women who are inspirational their own right.
We need to bring about a significant culture change so that it becomes commonplace that girls, wherever they live and whatever their social background, get the chance to meet a wide range of people doing different jobs, from apprentices to CEO.
Plans for 2016
In 2016 we are launching the Inspiring Women campaign in schools internationally with serious interest from China, Australia, Zambia, Spain and Italy to name a few.
Meanwhile in the UK we have reached over 300,000 girls in state schools and will be on course to have reached 400,000 by the end of 2016. Demand for Inspiring Women volunteers is literally growing daily as more state schools and colleges hear about our free programme and see the amazing diversity of volunteers available in their area. We reckon the success of Inspiring the Future / Inspiring Women is largely down to the fact that it is an ‘easy ask’ of our volunteers.
How you can get involved
The programme is entirely free – for state schools and employers – and is a simple way to volunteer for one hour a year and make a real difference to the aspirations of young women. It is all run through our safe, secure online system on the website.
http://www.inspiringthefuture.org/inspiring-women/
https://twitter.com/Edu_Employers
