Mentoring Women For Leadership: Breaking The Glass Ceiling

Why is it that in a predominately female profession, male teachers are almost twice as likely to hold leadership positions?

Research highlights various contributing factors – the most common reason cited being maternity care, the bias that accompanies it and women taking time off to start families. However there is a less well recognised issue relating to confidence and the ability to surmount bias and adversity – men often apply for positions for which they are not necessarily ready, whereas women need to feel ‘sure they can do it’ before they will put themselves forward.

Our response to this challenge was to establish a network of mentors from commerce, the public sector and the military – our focus was mentoring ‘leadership’ rather than ‘headship’. Some of the mentors were women who had excelled in male dominated professions such as Lt Col Lucy Giles, who back in 2016 was the first woman to be appointed as College Commander at the Royal Military Academy, others like John Cridland CBE, ex-Director General of the CBI, came from successful business backgrounds.

Why did we choose mentors with such diverse backgrounds and not educationalists? Partnering mentees with a colleague from a different sector ensured that the mentee gained a broader perspective on leadership. We purposefully did not recruit any educationalist in case the temptation to transfer education-based skills, rather than leadership skills prevailed.

Over 30 mentors worked with a cohort of more than 60 women in a pro bono programme. The response from mentees was universally positive, reflecting the needs of the sector to be more outward facing.

The programme was aimed at teachers in leadership positions who had been recognised as having the potential for headship in the next 5-7 years. There were 3 components:

1. Each mentee completed a detailed application form alongside the Insights Discovery questionnaire, based on the work of Carl Jung, which highlighted their preferred behaviours and distinguished between their conscious and less conscious personae. For some this difference was minor, for others there was a helpful signpost to the effort they had to put in to survive and prosper in school. It also provided a common language for mentors and mentees to use when reflecting on progress and challenges during the programme.

2. Each mentee was paired with a dedicated mentor and confidential meetings were scheduled each term over the school year. During the first session, as well as cementing the essential ‘chemistry” between mentor and mentee, goals were set for the programme as a whole. One mentee got in touch after her first meeting to say how motivational the session had been, and that she had never been so enthusiastic at the start of the school year. Subsequent sessions focused on a specific job application, or perhaps helping the mentee gain confidence in an area where they had little or no previous experience, such as school finances.

3. Where possible mentees in the same locality were paired together and state schools partnered with private schools, to work collaboratively on a community research project. Projects ranged from explorations into perfectionism in girls’ schools, a programme to encourage reading rather than spending time on social media and comparing approaches to mental health. The groups presented their findings to the other participants, visitors and mentors at our first annual conference in Sandhurst.

The power of the programme was not just measured in terms of promotions, but also the impact it had on the personal lives of mentees. For single mother Sharon Grant, “The mentoring programme was enlightening and life changing. The programme made me feel valued, supported, worthy and listened to. At a time of huge self-doubt, confusion and frustration it provided a forum for self-evaluation, it spurred me on to make small positive changes that subsequently created huge positive momentum. I owe so much to the programme and will always be indebted – it helped change my life professionally and personally. The changes have improved the quality of life with my children too.”

Another mentee, was keen to maintain her work/life balance. Initially she had been wary about being nominated by her head of school, and overawed by the fact that her mentor had an OBE, but by the end of the scheme she had been won over completely. “I now feel strongly that I have made the right choices, and as a consequence I’m a much more confident leader than I was at the outset.”

CASE STUDY 1 DAVINA KIRBY – a comfortable known environment holding back potential

Staying at one school for a prolonged period of time is comfortable, it’s reassuring to know the way your colleagues think and teach, however it can also prevent you from going further.

At the start of the programme, Dr Davina Kirby was Head of Science at Ricards Lodge School, a state school in Greater London. She moved there during her NQT year and had worked at the same school for 13 years.

“My school gave me lots of opportunities which were a testament to my own abilities and progression but I was not always able to articulate my strategic abilities with ease. I put this down to being too modest,” explained Davina, “I guess being in the same school had somehow narrowed my ability to be verbally open and confident about my skillset. When you progress at the speed I had within a single place of work, you often rely on others to fill in the blanks without realising.”

Davina’s CV was far from typical, by the end of her second year in teaching she had become Deputy Head of Science; an Advanced Skills Teacher for the borough of Merton; an Associate SLT member in charge of the NQT and PGCE programme, Head of Six Form Biology and a Specialist Leader in Education. She had also been responsible for developing the school’s policy on behaviour for learning.

“Around this time I also completed an MA in Science Education, renovated two houses, got married, and completed a PhD in Education whilst on maternity leave. I was often referred to as ‘Superwoman’, but having returned to work as a mother, I felt I really had to prove I could still move on up. I was now Head of Science, but my whole-school responsibilities had been allocated to other staff, so I sought an external network to reignite my leadership skills once again.”

Davina’s mentor knew her leadership profile and CV inside-out, and was acutely aware of decisions she would have to make if faced with particular questions or problems at work in a leadership position.

“My mentor made me aware of myself as a leader, and also reaffirmed my strengths as an educator – I had skills, traits and abilities that any school would want. I had to become more astute at understanding how to compartmentalise these traits to target my skills directly to specific roles. For instance, a role as a teaching and learning lead would require me putting forward my knowledge of teacher pedagogy and practice. I understood that for whatever type of role I applied for, I would need to demonstrate consistent approaches, good communication skills, clear vision, be assertive and also approachable.”

In February 2019, Davina began a position in a new school designing a tracking system for the school as it embarked on an exciting new expansion plan. She was also part of the project development team. “It is not only strategic ideas I will be implementing, but I will be involved in designing and leading change,” she explained. “I am excited about the opportunities ahead of me; the programme refuelled my ambitions once again.”

CASE STUDY TWO: GOHAR KHAN – enabling a more effective balance between professional development and family commitments

Gohar’s first degree, was from the University of Karachi, where she gained a first in English. She then went on to successfully complete a Master’s Degree in Canada and a PhD at Warwick University. Gohan’s CV suggested someone whose career path was likely to be atypical. Her PhD had focused on postcolonial and diaspora literature about terrorism, with particular reference to 9/11.

At the outset of the programme, Gohar was Head of Ethos at Didcot Girls’ School, a highly regarded state school in Oxfordshire. Rachael Warwick, the headteacher and 2019-20 President of the Association of School and College Leaders, described her as “aspirational, ambitious and clever”. Rachael said that although Gohar was “a strong communicator, she could improve on her management of whole-school change and time management, with a young family and a busy developing career to balance.”

Gohar’s mentor was Colonel Amanda Hassell. Amanda, semi-retired from the British Army, was keen to apply her mentoring skills in a new context. The partnership between Gohar and Amanda worked extremely well, and has continued informally beyond the duration of the programme. It would be wrong to claim that every pairing has worked as smoothly as this one.

As part of her community project, Gohar organised a leadership conference for the schools on International Women’s Day. She attracted speakers including Amanda, Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE, neuroscientist and Member of the House of Lords, and Suzie de Rohan Wilner, CEO of Toast, an ethical clothing brand.

Amanda commented, “I have found working with Gohar particularly useful for gaining a deeper insight into how leadership can be introduced and taught to younger and particularly state school audiences, how it can be used to inspire young people to develop the qualities of good leaders and to recognise these qualities in others – teachers, public figures and successful businesswomen.”

By May 2019, Gohar had been promoted to Associate Senior Leader and Director of Ethos across the Trust’s three schools and 2,500 students.

Rachael Warwick observed, “Gohar has moved from strength to strength since joining the mentoring programme. Her openness to new experiences and her seemingly irrepressible appetite for learning means that she has made the most of every opportunity. I remember my challenge was for Gohar to ensure meticulous planning of whole school events – she now has a plan B, C, & D for every eventuality! Twinned with Gohar’s intuitive creativity this makes for a powerful combination.”

The pool of female talent in schools is extraordinary. In responding to the challenge originally set we have endeavoured, in conjunction with our mentors, to break the glass ceiling and change the climate in those schools with which we have worked. Building the vital attributes of confidence and self-belief must be supported and developed in women, to begin to address the gender imbalance in senior leadership in education. There is more work to do, and we are just getting started.

To date nearly a hundred women have taken part in the programme and of these – nearly 50% – have achieved promotion. The success of the scheme, described by The Times as “unique”, drew the attention of girls’ school groups in the US and Australia, who have now joined the programme, renamed as the Global Mentoring Network for Aspiring Leaders.

To find out more about ‘The Magic in the Space Between’ by Ian Wigston, published by John Catt Educational, please click here.

About the Author

Ian Wigston has been an independent consultant and coach for more than 25 years. He specialises in coaching, innovation and leadership development. He has undertaken projects for organisations as diverse as Barclaycard, Boeing, Boots Healthcare International, Santander and the Church of England. He has also been an advisor to the UK Government on Education Policy.

Ian and his wife Hilary established Bright Field Consulting in 2013 and presently work with state and independent schools in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia.