Her Edit FOR THE INDEPENDENTLY MINDED WOMAN
Issue Eight November/December 2014 Her Editor Her Edit Issue Eight November/December 2014 The Work Issue
[email protected] www.heredit.com @her_edit Welcome to Her Edit editor: Jayne Phenton Ann Clark t has always seemed to me that there is something paradoxical about the issue Allison Lindsay of women and work. A century ago the opportunity to work outside of the home seemed to offer the possibility of independence and freedom, but the reality of inequal pay, discrimination and sexual harrassment in the workplace means it has contributors perhaps not quite delivered the emancipation we might have hoped for. Dame Margaret Anstee IAccording to the Office of National Statistics women now make up 46 per cent of the Evy Barry workforce, but one in four of us are on low pay. We’re working harder than ever, but it Shazia Mirza would take a woman an extra 14 years to earn the same amount as her male counterpart over a life time. Almuth McDowall The reality may be salutory, but for this issue we are all about celebrating the fabulous thank you careers women can and do have and the wonderful things they achieve. If the toad work squats on your life, then I hope the sheer joy and satisfaction these women derive from Sue Christoforou the work they do will be an inspiration. Arabella Dorman How did you get your dream job? Do tell us on our comment page on the website Neil Evans www.heredit.com Hannah Pearlman
Front cover picture ©Robert Michael Schuster
©Her Edit Her Issue Eight
2 The Editor
5 The War Artist Arabella Dorman finds humanity in Afghanistan 13 The Peace Keeper 23 Dame Margaret Anstee talks about her legendary and unique career
19 The Comedian Heard the one about the female Muslim @EvyBarry standup? The fabulous Shazia Mirza
23 The Film Maker Evy Barry sees the world through a lens
27 The Juggler Almuth McDowall on balancing work and life
29 The Change Maker Allison Lindsay on why a change of career can be a life change
33 The Engineer Young Woman Engineer of the Year nominee Hannah Pearlman 5 35 Her Agenda 19 @HerEdit @MartinTwomey
3 4 Arabella Dorman
@ArabellaDorman
5 6 Arabella Dorman
This is war baby Arabella Dorman has an international reputation as a portrait painter and a war artist. She spoke to Her Edit about the motivation behind her work and her extraordinary experiences. @ArabellaDorman
IMAGES Previous page: THE EXTRACTION, oil on canvas, 2013 Opposite: DISPLACED, oil on canvas, 2013
7 8 Arabella Dorman
he 18th century portrait philosophy and English instead. As a woman, she clearly feels a painter Henry Raeburn She went on to study a more responsibility to bring a different might not be the most traditional painting practice in perspective and much of her work obvious influence on a Florence, inspired by Raeburn and depicts girls, women, market contemporary woman the spirit of enlightenment. places and the realities of a artist, but the strength, nervous soldier having a cigarette dramaT and affection which What most obviously before a dangerous manoeuvre. characterise the Scottish artist’s distinguishes Dorman from the work, is evident in the paintings of conventional mediocrity of being ‘The adventure wasn’t so much Arabella Dorman. a ‘portrait painter’ is the large the thrill, as the fascination of body of work she has created as a seeing something from the A work by Raeburn dominates war artist in Iraq and Afghanistan inside. It re-kilters your whole a wall of her studio casting a and most particularly how she appreciation of life.’ paternal eye over the gloriously acknowledges and embraces archetypal tools and detritus the legacy of artists such as Lady The exhibition of the work she which populate her workspace Elizabeth Butler. made consequently was a sell- on the north side of the Thames, out success, but the mark of a short walk across the river from She was invited to Iraq in 2006, achievement for Dorman was a where she lives in South London. where she travelled for a month, little deeper. and then to join the same Dorman has sustained a regiment again in 2009. While She was overwhelmed by the successful career as a portrait appreciative of the risks attached, public response, receiving painter and admits that the paid- Arabella says she always felt thousands of appreciative emails for commissions have allowed drawn to conflict as a subject. from people connected with the her the freedom and means to forces or who had lost someone. continue her practice. However, ‘Nowhere is more compelling She was already planning her trip it is her belief that artists are than the subject and the theatre to Afghanistan. ‘story tellers’ and that the process [of war]. There is the whole range of painting someone’s likeness of what humans are capable of - It seems that Afghanistan was can extract the essence of their professionalism, heroism – and it not just the backdrop to the @ArabellaDorman history and personality, which had been in my psyche for a long theatre of war for Dorman, but gives substance to her images time. I jumped at the chance.’ she developed a genuine and beyond the self-aggrandisement profound love of the country IMAGES of those who can afford to be Clearly there are risks attached and its people. She connected immortalised. to being in an area of conflict, with local people by doing quick Above: PATROLLING, NAD-E-ALI, oil on canvas, 2013 but Arabella says her great fear portrait sketches to explain why Overleaf: ZAKIA, charcoal, 2013 Now in her thirties with a young was that she might ‘be a burden’, she was there and this was clearly family, Arabella Dorman began although she was described by a strategy that allowed her to her career as an artist rejecting the her military hosts as the ‘most un- develop meaningful experiences prevailing modernist principles needful guest’. and relationships. at art school and studying
9 10 Arabella Dorman
Is there a portrait commission she would refuse? ‘Tony Blair.’
‘It is the most extraordinary country of contradiction She recalls attending a tribal elder’s meeting where – so gentle, cultured and beautiful, as it is savage about a third of the party were Taliban and she and wild.’ was the only woman present, but she continued sketching. She was so enchanted that she and her husband returned the following year as independent Is there a portrait commission she would refuse? travellers, staying with Afghan families. ‘Tony Blair.’ Last year she spent time with four or five different It seems to me that Arabella doesn’t seek to address regiments around Helmand and Lashkar Gah. These the politics of gender or religion or power, but is trips form the subject matter of her latest exhibition really interested in the strengths and vulnerabilities opening this month. of the human character. That may be heightened or accentuated by the extraordinary situation of In Lashkar Gah she met female Afghan police, war, but people’s fears and hopes are probably the women whose lives are threatened on a daily basis same and not so far removed from the characters on account of the patriarchal and religious mores observed by Raeburn. under which they live. Arabella told me that one woman, who she had sketched, had since been shot Arabella tells me she has always wanted to be an and killed. Dorman’s love of Afghanistan and its artist. people is palpable as she speaks, and is profoundly evident in her paintings. ‘I can’t imagine anything else. It gives me the greatest joy to stand on a mountain with a blank She recognises she is part of a lineage including canvas or in my studio. Every single human being Manet, Velasquez and Goya – perhaps most has their story. You unwrap and unpack the person particularly Lady Elizabeth Butler – and keenly feels and try to get below the surface. I can’t wait to wake a responsibility to tell the stories of the people she up every morning.’ feels privileged to encounter. Arabella’s latest exhibition, Before the Dawn, is at La ‘You’re one link in the chain and you build on that Galleria Pall Mall in London from with what you do. You’re staying with your subject 5-15 November. It is sponsored by Afghan and witness the consequences of conflict and the entrepreneur and patron, Mirwais Alizai, and ten human stories that lie underneath. I’m not a thrill- per cent of all painting sales will be donated to the seeker, but I’m motivated to represent something charities Walking With The Wounded and Afghanaid. contemporary. It’s a sense of duty.’ For more information visit Whilst she may not be a thrill seeker, Arabella’s www.arabelladorman.com career has put her in some very hostile situations. @ArabellaDorman
11 12 Margaret Anstee
DAME MARGARET JOAN ANSTEE by Julia Hedgecoe bromide print, 4 July 1988 ©JuliaHedgecoe/National Portrait Gallery, London with kind permission of the National Portrait Gallery, London @JuliaHedgecoe
13 14 Margaret Anstee Never learn to type
meant that I constantly charged less than male colleagues at the shorthand nor type. What else Dame Margaret Anstee served at the United Nations over fences, when it might have same level and had to resign on was a woman good for? Even for over four decades until 1993. She was the first been better to go around them, marriage, while an unwritten law when I was very senior, it was and often fell into the water on ensured that no woman diplomat often assumed that I was either woman to rise to the rank of Under-Secretary-General the other side. could be sent to Latin America. the secretary or the wife of one of the male members of my staff. and to head a UN peacekeeping mission. I went first to the village school, One of the most alarming things On two occasions I was publicly where we were told that, as was to find myself as the only mistaken for the wife of the then She was in Kuwait after the first Gulf War, headed country children, we were not as woman in an organisation staffed Secretary-General, errors that bright as our urban counterparts exclusively by men, all ready to were almost career threatening! peace talks in Angola and rescued people from nor, as girls, could we hope to pass judgment. In those early compete with boys. Yet I won days in the Foreign Office we, If you are a woman trying to break Pinochet’s brutal coup in Chile. scholarships to grammar school the first women to enter those through the glass ceiling you and to Cambridge University and august portals, were treated must be ready to take anything on She continues to write and lecture on the UN and has then, after an academic post and not expect to be offered at Queen’s University, Belfast, soft options because of your written about her adventures in her autobiography, I passed the examination to gender. I always adhered Never Learn to Type. join the Foreign Office and the to the oath I had sworn on Diplomatic Service as one of ‘We were paid less than joining the UN: that I would the first tiny group of women male colleagues at the accept any mission the who were at last permitted Secretary General wanted me to apply. I did so almost as a same level ....and had to to do. Consequently I served joke, thinking that success was in many remote places where out of my grasp. It was a good resign on marriage’ conditions were difficult and have had an adventurous life eventually becoming the first ‘Do what you think you cannot do’. example of Mrs. Roosevelt’s sometimes dangerous and and a very lucky one. Who female Under-Secretary-General, precept. either with patronising kindness where men were often reluctant would have thought that a then the post second to that of My mother brought me up on a and ill-disguised surprise that we to go. The advantage of this was girl growing up in a working- the Secretary-General, and later more earthy motto: There is still discrimination could actually do the work, or by that, if you did well, then your class family in a country the first woman to lead a UN today, but it is perhaps more outright hostility. abilities would be recognised and village would realise her military peacekeeping mission? ‘Never say your mother had a oblique than that faced by my further chances would open up. dreams of travelling all over jibber’. generation when we were young: When, as an international field the world, living and working I certainly needed luck to do that, then, for instance, women could officer of the UN, I first attended Through a series of unexpected in over a dozen countries but luck alone is not enough. You That is a saying from the Welsh not be members of Cambridge a conference of my colleagues events I found myself in charge of and visiting 140 more? Or that also have to work exceedingly Marches, where she was born, and University and received a titular in Latin America, the first one one of the UN’s largest operational she would be the first woman to hard and be ready to take on means ‘a recalcitrant horse that degree through the post rather I met immediately tried to programs in Latin America when I than the glamour of a graduation dictate a letter to me and looked I was still under 30. This was in occupy senior posts in the United new challenges and accept risks. jibs at a fence or refuses to carry Nations that had previously been Recently I came across a most apt a heavy load’. That message has ceremony at the Senate House. In exceedingly unimpressed Colombia, a very macho country an exclusively male domain, saying by Eleanor Roosevelt: remained with me all my life and the Foreign Office we were paid when I said I could neither take then, where women did not yet 15 16 Margaret Anstee
have the vote. The UN mission order to compete with men in worse. Fortunately there were no was composed almost entirely today’s world. There are many subsequent repercussions. of men much older and more disadvantages in being a woman, It is imperative to develop a thick experienced than me. I remember so we should make the most of skin, for your gender will always trembling all over as I went back the advantages – without going make you vulnerable and be used to the office after seeing off my to excess, obviously. Always try to against you in any criticism of departing boss at the airport. look your best. I found this to be your work. In Angola, the leader helpful, not simply because of the of the rebel movement used to I had to prove myself to be not impression given to the audience call me ‘mother’ in the run-up only as good as a man would have and to other colleagues, but also to the elections. When he lost been in the post, but probably because it gave a psychological his presidential bid, in elections better. Later in life, when in boost to my own self-confidence, that I had declared to be free charge of large UN departments, especially during public speaking and fair, he changed his tone, I did my best to increase the in the early days when I had little declaring that I was a smuggler of number of women in professional experience of performing to a diamonds and mercury, in receipt posts. Apart from the customary large audience. of bribes from the government bureaucratic obstacles, my major and, in addition, an ‘international frustration was the low opinion Sexual harassment has always prostitute’. In short order I went women had of themselves and been with us, but in my young from mother to prostitute. A @UNA-UK their potential. Many would go to days it was hushed up, and worse sting was in the tail for he great lengths to persuade me that there was no ombudsman added ‘and a stray bullet is going they were not qualified for the or official body to which one to find her’. At the same time post for which I was encouraging could complain. I suffered the government was spreading them to apply, whereas male many instances of unwanted rumours that I was the lover of staff members, whom I knew several leading figures on the to be less able, would readily rebel side of the conflict. On expatiate on their supposedly hearing this my personal assistant outstanding suitability for that ‘a military dictator, rolled her eyes and asked: ‘How position. flushed with the success do you find the time?’ I am not of course, suggesting Joke as one might, these that you should be excessively of his coup and too many calumnies can be hurtful but self-confident. I had a horror of libations, fell asleep on the only thing you can do is try the few women I encountered to ignore them. Over the long who insisted that they should my shoulder.’ haul, it is physical and moral be preferred for a job simply stamina, as well as unrelenting because of their gender. I perseverance, that will keep you always stressed that their approaches, but had to deal with afloat, despite the inevitable professional record must be the them on my own as best I could. setbacks that will sometimes deciding factor. The most dramatic, and perhaps block your way. the funniest, occurred when a Of course, being as good as a military dictator, flushed with the Does this sound too great a man professionally does not success of his coup and too many challenge? On the contrary, it is mean behaving as a man would celebratory libations, fell asleep the very challenge that makes the do. As women we should have on my shoulder, murmuring striving all worthwhile.And there IMAGES something different to contribute, sweet nothings, when we were can be no greater satisfaction especially as regards management inaugurating a new project in the than knowing that one has Above: Dame Margaret addresses UNA-UK’s style, or in areas such as mediation jungle. It was a worrying moment. planted another flag along the UN Forum in 2012 and diplomacy. It had been rumoured that the road to the full emancipation of Right: A tense moment during Angolan new government was about to women. elections in 1998 From this flows a comment that declare me persona non grata and @UN might seem superficial. There is suddenly I was persona too grata! no need to be less feminine in It was hard to know which was 17 18 Shazia Mirza
Not for comedians @MartinTwomey
19 20 Shazia Mirza
Shazia Mirza is an award-winning stand-up comedian. She tours internationally and will be familiar from her many television appearances including BBC’s Have I Got News for You. She was named as one of the most influential Muslim women in Britain in the inaugural Muslim Women Power List along with Baroness Warsi and news anchor Mishal Husain. Inexplicably she writes a weekly column in the Guardian, Diary of a Disappointing Daughter.
never planned to be a stand- I said, ‘Yes’. ‘You get paid for that? Full time?’ up comedian. I planned to go to space and make films with He said, ‘I’ve never seen a ‘Yes’ Robert De Niro, but I never comedienne as pretty as you Iplanned to tell jokes in public for before. You’re not fat, or a lesbian I ‘Oh so it’s your job. Can you do money. presume?’ that? I mean do women do that now?’ @MartinTwomey I used to be a science teacher in The week before I performed at a an East End comprehensive school medical school reunion. I sat next I have had many insults over the and that was my training for years from other comics, becoming a comedian. It was promoters, audiences, It is difficult, tiring, draining, and ‘I saw your daughter on TV doing ‘Oh you don’t look funny, you rough. No-one has ever stood reviewers and my parents. hard to keep going, but if you comedy.’ don’t do proper stand up do you? up since and shouted, ‘I’m so relieved when people really love it you’ll always find It’s more sketches. Do you get stop me in the street and I used to turn up to comedy ways to carry on. It is not the kind My mum would say, ‘Oh yes paid for that? What’s your proper ‘God this is boring, when are clubs and be refused entry of thing you can do to pass the that’s just a hobby, she’s really a job? Why do you do that?’ you leaving Miss?’ think I’m that news reader off because they didn’t believe time till you find a rich husband - biochemist you know. She’s got a Channel 4.’ I was a comedian - they you’d never last. degree and a masters’. None of it matters, as I love my I performed at a wedding last thought I was trying to get job and when it’s going well, week. I turned up and said into the club for free. Every comic faces challenges, My challenge is just to be everyone’s laughing, all the gags to the toastmaster, ‘I’m the but that’s part of the adventure. accepted as a comedian. I never are hitting, it feels like you’re flying comedian’. to a woman who said, ‘How come At one club the doorman showed My parents wanted me to be tell people what I do, unless they and nothing comes close to that you’re here tonight?’ me to the broom cupboard - he something respectable and to get recognise me, and even then I high, certainly no biochemistry He said, ‘What you? You’re the thought I was the cleaner. married. deny it’s me. I’m so relieved when degree and no masters. comedienne?’ I said, ‘I’m the comedian’ people stop me in the street and Although I didn’t plan to do stand They could never bring think I’m that newsreader off More about Shazia at www. I always get nervous when people ‘Is that your job?’ up, now that I’m doing it, I realise themselves to tell people what I Channel 4. shaziamirza.com, follow her on use the term ‘comedienne’; I just there is nothing else I’d rather be did. If someone stopped my mum twitter @shaziamirza1 or watch know they’re still in 1942. ‘Yes’ doing. in the street and said, I’ve always had people say to me, her on youtube 21 22 Evy Barry Adventures in motion pictures
Evy Barry is a film producer and director. Her company Evy Films has created award- nominated documentaries such as ‘Torso in the Thames’ for Channel 4 and ‘The Boy with a Tumour for a Face’ for Five. Evy shares with us the joy of her job and why she’s keen to try new things.
IMAGES Left: Tsheppo who Evy filmed in South Africa Overleaf, page 30 Above: filming with AIDS orphans in South Africa Below: Evy editing
@JohnRoss 23 24 Evy Barry
‘I remember thinking how ridiculous I must have looked, but I got the shot!’
eing in film or television birth. There was the time I wanted Not that I’m planning on dropping isn’t a job, it’s a lifestyle. a shot while filming a joust so I off my mortal coil any time soon, You won’t find anyone galloped down the middle of the but that is how I want to have doing it because they arena with my camera in front of lived my life – to have seen things think they are going to a crowd of a good few hundred you people wouldn’t believe. I’ve earn a fortune; the hours people. I remember thinking how always said I don’t want to get to Bare long, you can be away from ridiculous I must have looked, but 70 and say I wish I had done that. home for long stretches and the I got the shot! So far so good! pay is never going to buy you that mansion in the country. No – you I went to Nigeria and saw hawkers Just recently I started writing do it because you love it. selling dead rats on a string by short dramas. It’s something I the roadside – don’t ask me why. I never thought I would be able to @JohnRoss It’s a great privilege in many ways guess you cook them. do, but the process of creating a because it’s the kind of job where world rather than pursuing the you get to meet people you I’ve filmed AIDS orphans in the most interesting parts of the real would never ordinarily meet and remotest of villages in Limpopo one rather appeals. go to places you would never go. Province in South Africa. It broke my heart when I watched a boy I am just finishing Winged I’ve been making documentaries of ten wash his little brother Warriors now. They do say never for ten years and during that with water from a rusting bowl work with children or animals; time I have found myself in some and then dress him in his school well - I’m not sure what possessed strange places. For instance, I uniform. There are so many me, but I did. The story is about found myself once standing in moments like that I could mention the remnants of a British Army a muti market in Johannesburg - and I do feel so lucky to have platoon which reaches the enemy looking at a pair of monkey hands experienced them. trenches in World War One and for sale (I wasn’t buying). Or on are then forced to rely on their another occasion I watched a The scene in Blade Runner when messenger pigeons to survive. juju priest chanting so wildly he replicant, Roy Batty, played by made the candles flicker as he Rutger Hauer, dies, is playing And what after that? I’ll let you supposedly summoned some through my head. He says to know, but I am currently writing a capricious spirit from the other Harrison Ford: feature film. world. ‘I've seen things you people I’ve been in the modest living wouldn't believe. Attack ships Follow @evyfilms or visit room of a special needs teacher as on fire off the shoulder of Orion. www.evyfilms.co.uk she collapsed on the floor when I watched C-beams glitter in the her son was arrested for murder. dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. Read more about Winged I spent hours once desperate for All those moments will be lost in Warriors on www.facebook.com/ @JohnRoss the loo, but unable to leave a barn time, like tears in rain.’ Warriorwingsofwar or follow because I was filming a cow giving @WarriorsWings
25 26 Almuth McDowall Balancing act Almuth McDowall knows a thing or two about the juggling act, combining academic posts at City University and Birkbeck University of London with directing her own consultancy Work-Life Consulting Ltd. She regularly publishes in the academic and practitioner press. She lives in London with her husband and three daughters.
grew up with parents who due to severe bleeding, meaning be a fundamental right for every half a year. We do know, however, both worked fulltime as they that my maternity leave had to human being. I do remember that men are less likely to avail ran their own business, my start early. tricky, and sometimes funny themselves of such options than dad coming up with ever-new situations, such as giving a women, so there is still writing on business ventures and my I vividly remember giving a lecture to a huge group of the wall that such options are a mother helping him to make telephone interview to the BBC undergraduates with a baby on ‘women’s issue’ alone. Ithem happen. just after having given birth my arm, as the childminder had in the hospital, as a piece of called in sick. These notions have to change So when we had our three girls research I had done was all over and we have to fundamentally over a period of five years, it never the media. As little Annalia had As my baby was desperately cute, rethink work-life balance if we once occurred to me that I would to be delivered early due to the all hair and eyes (look, I can say want to make it work. Any policies stay at home and ‘just be a mum’ complications, she would not feed this, I am her mum!), this was a should be equitable and uptake for a while. properly for months to come. This great ice breaker. So bringing in monitored and encouraged. But @AlmuthMcDowall meant I often had to sneak off a baby was an acceptable thing employers and policy makers can There is of course no denying early from work, and then put in to do in my context, but would only do so much; we also have to that my choices brought their a late night shift, in order to help it be just as acceptable to rush take responsibility for our own challenges. When I had my first feed her. off home to look after an elderly actions. daughter, Nimue, I was still parent with dementia? studying for my PhD, and my So, am I a work-life balance It is all too tempting to work very meagre bursary paid for the researcher because I have Many of us are part of the anytime and anywhere and as a our ‘self experiment’, and we had On the one hand, this is a good childminder, but not for much issues with work-life balance? ‘sandwich generation’, with dual result we neglect to ‘switch off’ a very lively discussion. How is thing as they learn and connect more. There is no doubt that being a caring responsibilities and the and have down time. it that we are all ‘nomophobics’ with others differently. working mother has given me voices of relatives as carers often who prefer to continue working Daughter number two was deep insight into how tricky the remain unheard on the topic. In preparation for a recent seminar than taking breaks and doing On the other hand, I can also see easier to juggle, as by then my juggling act is on some days, but which I organised with my friend, something different. the dangers – you try having a income had increased and I had a equally just how rewarding it can One way of facilitating work-life senior colleague and mentor, Gail, nice conversation over dinner with wonderful boss who understood be - of course the rewards were balance for working individuals we asked all delegates to do a This, I believe, is a work-life a twelve year old who is texting all about flexible working. emotional rather than financial. is through more flexible work ‘digital detox’ where they would challenge which we have not yet under the kitchen table! So, where options such as working part abstain from using their tablets, fully grasped as technology is do you stand – are you a digital When I was pregnant with Hence I don’t regret my decisions, time, flexitime, job sharing, hour- phones, laptops for just one day affecting our lives. Watching my detoxer, or a nomophobic? daughter number three I moved as they were also about ‘holding banking and so on. a week. Oh, the incredulity! “No, I three daughters not only at play, jobs and now had a lengthy a job open’, and quite frankly can’t do that”, “oh, I just had some but also at homework time, they commute by train and bicycle. keeping me sane. Since June 2014, all employees sneaky peeks”, “who is giving me are now such regular users of Things were not all plain sailing, as have a right to request flexible the rules for how to do this?” technology that the mere concept I suffered from pre-eclampsia and But work-life balance is not just for working if they have been with of switching off seems alien to spent twelve weeks in hospital working parents, it should the same employer for at least Very few people actually managed them. Follow Almuth @almuth.mcdowall 27 28 Allison Lindsay Changing tracks
Five years ago, Her Edit co-founder Allison Lindsay was a successful conference director running events for organisations in the energy and financial industries. Frustrated in her career, she left her job and did a masters degree in psychology. She is now a business psychologist for an international public relations company. Allison tells us how she made her change and shares what she learned.
bout five years ago I decided I wanted to that I wanted to. I barely saw my family and my change, not just my job, but my whole friends thought I was permanently ‘in China’. career. It’s a common enough aspiration, but not one everybody achieves. I’m When I was back in the UK, I spent the entire time glad I am one of those who managed it rushing around trying to ‘catch up’ with people and Asuccessfully. my house felt more like a hotel than a home because I was there so seldom. I am now in a different role, in a different field and finally feel as though I am doing something Since changing jobs I have changed so many other worthwhile and learning something new every day. aspects of my life. Now I have the time and energy to make a commitment to something other than work, Plenty of people change careers for various reasons I’ve taken up running, become a Samaritan and and there is a growing trend of people being co-founded Her Edit - all those things that I simply motivated by wanting to get something more never had the time or opportunity to do whilst I was meaningful from their nine to five. Certainly for me, constantly on the road. it was about getting my life back. I also enjoy coaching others who are questioning On the surface it sounded glamorous, organising their own careers – whether they are looking to @WarrenJohnson large-scale conferences around the world which make a complete change, or simply to get more involved lots of travel and staying in five-star hotels. satisfaction out of doing something they already love. IMAGES In reality, it meant I spent a lot of time working in Above: An early Her Edit meeting with Sue Christoforou airport lounges, often alone and, although I went to Here are a few of the things I’ve learned along the places I would never otherwise have had the chance the way which might help if you’re thinking of a to see and met some incredibly interesting people change in direction. along the way, I had no time to do things at home 29 30 Allison Lindsay IT’S HARDER AND TAKES LONGER THAN YOU THINK found it much harder to make the choice between But I promise it is completely worth it. Inevitably them without the insight this gave me. you’re likely to be moving from a senior job in one industry to a more junior role in your now chosen It also allowed me to ‘weed out’ the weaker courses field. I’ve had my fair share of frustration in jobs – if a tutor will not give you a straight answer to shortly after I’d qualified, when I felt my considerable a question then you know you are on to a loser. experience and broad range of skills were not being On one occasion I had to ask the same question recognised. four times before I got an answer. It was a simple question, ‘how many people are there on the It’s a challenge to retrain and yet bring with you the course?’ It turned out there were three, which I skills and interests from your original career. It takes am guessing is why it was so hard to a get a direct some time and effort to move back up the ladder answer! again (hopefully more quickly the second time around!), but I’d spent far too many hours sitting on MAKE IT A CALCULATED RISK You can never have planes repeating the mantra, ‘I have to get out of this 100% of the answers and trusting your instinct job’ not to have followed it through. is critical, but weigh up all your options, and get yourself a back-up plan - or even two. Mine was GET A COACH Being able to talk through your to rent out the spare rooms to lodgers to help pay options with an independent third party is the mortgage, and if I had to, then to take on some invaluable. It may not change the outcome of your freelance work in my old industry. I only did this decision but, in my case at least, once, for two weeks, whilst I was it meant that I was so much more writing up my dissertation – and confident in pressing ahead, ‘Since changing then only because the job fell knowing that I was really sure into my lap - but I knew I always about the choice of new direction I jobs I have had that option. This way you are had made. giving yourself all the chances you changed so many can to succeed. TELL PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR PLANS Once I started talking to people other aspects of LEAVE YOUR OLD JOB/INDUSTRY about what I wanted to do, it ON GOOD TERMS My current was extraordinary how many my life.’ boss’s sister works at my old people casually said to me, ‘Oh I company and he got her to use think I know someone who does her network there to get an something like that’. I got at least six introductions additional off-the-record reference for me. I didn’t in that way and yet when I started thinking about find out about this until my first day in the job! You business psychology as a career option I didn’t know simply never know how connections will work. anyone who worked in the field at all. Going off in a dramatic flurry of ‘I never have to work in this industry again so let me tell you exactly what I Once you have been introduced, talk to your new think of you’, may be satisfying at the time, but could connections. It was so useful to get a picture of what have untold consequences further down the line. my new career might entail from people already doing it. And it is surprising how willing people I think that one of the best things about my career are to give up their time and talk to you, I never change though, apart from doing something that expected that! I love every day, is how empowering it is. Knowing that I have successfully made one major change, I CHOOSE YOUR COURSE CAREFULLY If you are realise how much easier it would be to do it again. going for an academic qualification to help you It could be making the move to a new country or move into your chosen new field, then remember finding a new specialist niche within my chosen you are interviewing them too. Once I had decided industry, but I now have the confidence of knowing IMAGES I was going to do a masters, I narrowed down my I’ve done it once, so if I find something else I think Above: Allison graduates from Surrey University possible options in terms of geography and then might keep me fascinated, interested and employed Below: Allison, centre, celebrating completing her first 5k run called up each university and arranged to go and for the next 20 years, I can pursue it. It really is never meet the person running each course. It was a great too late. investment of time and energy as I would have 31 32 Hannah Pearlman Non-genetic engineering Only six per cent of engineers in the UK are women. Hannah Pearlman has been nominated for the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award. She told Her Edit what she loves about her career and why there’s no oil or overalls involved.
annah Pearlman says at She wanted to do something of working for a high-end brand. schoold she loved the practical and make something subjects known as STEM tangible. Hannah was encouraged ‘Because it’s a small company - Science, Technology, by the Smallpeice Trust which - probably only about 300 Engineering and runs residential engineering taster engineers - you get to do a bit of HMathematics. courses for young women. everything, not in great detail, but good experience. I did some Her fascination with making ‘For me the whole thing is that the brand and marketing which things may have originated from engineer is part of the process of was great. It’s a luxury sports time spent in her architect father’s making something happen either car costing about ten times the office at home. She and her older from a design, an idea or to meet amount of the cars I’m working on @TheIET brother wandered in and out and a need.’ now.’ her father’s old technical drawings became their scribble pads. It Having graduated form Warwick Hannah now works for Ford, go back and give something in think the best teams are mixed, so I wonder who has been an certainly influenced her career leading an international team return.’ we definitely need more women. inspiration to Hannah. choice. ‘If you’re a woman and you working on the cooling system It’s not going to happen naturally for the next generation Fiesta. She is a great advocate for the and there need to be more ‘Not one big name - lots of people ‘I didn’t want to do civil just turn up and say ‘I’m an benefits of an engineering degree. women at senior management have bee incredibly supportive - engineering or anything to do engineer’, you’ve done half ‘It’s the opposite end of the The kind of analytical skills you level.’ but if I had to pick one, it would with buildings.’ market from Aston, but the gain clearly make graduates be the design and technology the job already.’ same techniques apply to both. appealing to employers from For Hannah, part of the teacher who, when I said I wanted Hannah attended a girls’ school I’m working in much more banks to Tesco. motivation to join a big to be an engineer, didn’t say, ‘are and, without resorting to detail now though.’ company like Ford is the greater you sure, it’s not what girls do’, but clichés, says she was a tomboy. University in 2010 with an And how about bumping up that opportunity it can offer to balance just ‘what type?’ She loved Formula One as a very honours degree in Mechanical Hannah is passionate about her six percent figure? work and family life, but for the small child, got up early especially Engineering with Automotive, subject and particularly about moment she’s focused on her The Smallpeice Trust is an to watch it, and was fascinated by the car industry seemed a natural sharing with others the support ‘I’m not only focused on women career. educational charity which runs the technical explanations at the home and Hannah went to work she’s had from mentors. She is a because I think if you’re a woman, STEM activities and courses for beginning. for Aston Martin. STEM ambassador. and you just turn up and say ‘I’m ‘No two days are the same. I work pupils in years 6-12. Read more at an engineer’, you’ve done half the with a fantastic international team www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk Hannah moved school so she The appeal of working for the ‘I try to encourage young people job already. which means I’ve made friends could study design technology company that makes cars for to pursue STEM subjects, visit all over the world and learnt The winner of the IET Young ignoring the advice of her head James Bond is clearly not lost on schools and work with the ‘Men and women bring different about those cultures, even if we’re Woman Engineer of the Year teacher who said, ‘You could do Hannah, but the experience was Smallpeice Trust. The charity qualities to engineering and I meeting on Skype.’ Awards will be announced on 10 art. It’s almost the same.’ more valuable than the glamour helped me, so it’s great you can December.
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A word to the WISE City limits Buy the board The annual WISE Awards Women in Business - This site started life in celebrate female talent Generating Exposure for 2011 as a blog by Amanda in science, technology your Start-up Business Bolt, keen to share her Her Edit experience of being a first- and engineering - from FOR THE INDEPENDENTLY MINDED WOMAN classroom to boardroom. How to make the most of PR time mum, running a career opportunities on a budget. and starting a business. A useful website whether you’re a mum or not.
13 November 25 November www.boardroommum.com Issue Nine www.wisecampaign.org.uk/ Visit www.wearethecity.com about-us/wise-awards/2014- out January 2015 wise-awards
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