Top level speakers representing areas as diverse as technology, banking, safeguarding and the law gave a series of insightful and inspiring messages to the girls and women assembled at St Joseph’s College in Ipswich for a Women’s Leadership Conference.
Organised by the school’s Director of Performing Arts, Mrs Georgie Ross, the event marked International Women’s Day. She said it was a passion project driven by her desire to ‘celebrate female voices and their ability to change, inspire, encourage and support communities.’
The audience included St Joseph’s College girls of 16 and above, visiting students from Felsted and St Alban’s Catholic High Schools, staff, parents and governors. Whilst the audience was overwhelmingly female, some men also attended.
Mrs Ross, who has overseen the introduction of Oracy across St Joseph’s said, ‘As a mother of daughters and having taught many incredible young women, during my career, I believe this is an important moment in time for girls to understand the power and importance of using their voice.’
There were seven speakers – all women in leadership roles – who had demonstrated that glass ceilings could be broken and perceived stumbling blocks to career progression, such as pregnancy, a natural tendency to avoid stress and conflict, and female medical issues, could be successfully navigated. The resulting inclusion of a fair representation of women on boards, working in technology and in the upper echelons of companies only strengthened those firms and significantly improved their reach and outcomes.
Many of the speakers urged the young women present to be kind to one another and to remember that imperative once they themselves had attained positions in leadership. They urged them to avoid the empty jealousy social media could arouse and to begin networking now. A large percentage of the girls in the audience already had LinkedIn profiles.
Networking was another goal of the Conference and during breaks and at the close, the speakers generously made themselves available to young women still in education but formulating career plans.
The speakers were Samantha Rope, Senior Vice President HR, NEEMEA at the Adecco Group; Serena Fordham, Founder and CEO of ProspHER; Carrie Wootten, Co-founder of the Global Media and Entertainment Manifesto; Julie Henkel, MD, Global Head, Operational Client Relationship Management for BNP Paribas, and St Joseph’s College Governor; Nicola Weldon, Head of Private Client, Ellisons Solicitors; Charlotte Burtle, Talent Acquisition Lead at Google DeepMind; and Sadie Barber, Partnership Manager at Suffolk Safeguarding Partnership.
The conference, which was sponsored by Ellisons Solicitors and Source One Consulting, was closed by another woman in a leadership role, Mrs Clarke, Principal of St Joseph’s College.
She reflected on the long march forward in the independent schools’ sector since her first Society of Head’s meeting in 2014, when she had arrived to find she was the only female present. One other joined her, and they made a beeline for one another.
Girls were indeed a force to be reckoned with at St Joseph’s, she said, as typified by their national successes since the introduction of girls’ football the same year the England women won the Euros, the highly successful switch from rounders to cricket, and the excellent uptake by girls as well as boys of Engineering.
Mrs Clarke finished by quoting Coco Chanel, ‘A girl should be two things: Who and what she wants.’
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