Top 5 reasons for not standing

As I was considering stating in the general  elections 2015, I've spent a lot of time talking to women in Bristol about what is keeping them from being more engaged in the political process. Five main reasons have emerged, and although they are not the only ones, they kept on coming up again and again.

1. Lack of confidence came up in all conversations, and I can't say that I am unfamiliar with this feeling. As women, we are faced with confidence issues all the time - from our bodies and the way we parent our children, to the way we take care of the extended family and express ourselves at work. We often suffer from what is known as the "impostor syndrome" - a feeling that we are not as good as people think we are, and we are going to be found out any minute now.

Remember that time when you stood in a meeting and you had so much to say? But just before you came in you were unable to verify that data with a thousand sources, so you did not want to say anything for the fear of everybody discovering that you are not so clever? I do! But guess what - we are clever, we have a lot to contribute, so it's time to take off the cover up and step in the way we are!

Childcare: a working mum's problem or a human right?

I love my children. They make me laugh, they make me proud, and more often than not - they drive me insane (in a good sense, no need to reach for the phone and call social services! )! I equally love my job, I love meeting new women, talking to them about their lives, thinking about ways in which we can promote and support each other.

The two are often incompatible. No matter how many times I tried, taking a two year old into a meeting about the next issue of the Bristol Woman magazine does not make for a productive time.  At least not for me. Nor does taking a 5 year old to an interview with a potential volunteer. No matter how many gadgets you give them (the child, not the volunteer!), iPads, loom bands, pencils - the inevitable "mummy I'm bored" is bound to sound into your ears 15 minutes into the meeting.  I often have to take out the big guns - glitter and glitter glue, but then we all risk coming out of the meeting looking very sparkly.

Bristol can make a difference when it comes to women in technology

Don’t underestimate the power of a city with a difference to change politics and culture around women in technology.

This week we’ve heard that more IT firms are heading out to the West Country. Six digital firms are coming to Bristoland Bath.  The British Silicon Valley is set to be booming as Bristol and Bath have more high-tech digital firms than any other area of the UK, outside London.

As people get excited about the prospect of new jobs as firms announce plans to recruit in Bristol – is this good news for women in Bristol? Gender continues to be an issue for technology jobs. A recent meeting I’ve attended with a giant in the airspace industry revealed that under 10% of their jobs are taken up by women, and most of them are in female dominated roles such as HR, Communications, and admin. Technology insights report revels that of the 753,000 people working in the IT sector, just one in five (20%) are women.

Women have so much more to offer to the industry. We all hear about powerful women in IT, such as Facebook COO Cheryl Sandberg, or the CEO of IBM Virginia Rometty, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, or Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitma. The list can go on.

But we do not have to look so far in search of women who are transforming STEM (Science, technology, Engineering and Maths) industries. Some amazing Bristol women have shared their experiences of working in STEM in the new summer issue of BristolWoman. IT Expert Elena Hensinger urges all women to get geeky. She successfully runs local enterprise At Home with IT. Entrepreneur Angela Fumpson discusses with our readers the key to success for women in the Technology revolution. She has worked as an engineer all her life and is currently running her own company.

In one of our articles, local expert Catherine Dunford examines what the future holds for women in STEM – calling for a shift in politics and culture. Perhaps Bristol can take a lead on this. We live in a very special city. A city that likes to make a difference. As we are looking to expand our IT expertise, let’s fully engage women and make a difference.

On a practical level, Bristol Woman currently runs girls groups in several schools across the city. We would love to partner with IT companies and work wit the girls to embrace the industry.

Reaching Out to Women in Bristol

Can you help us reach out to and support women in Bristol?

Bristol Woman is a new social enterprise in Bristol. The main activity of the company is empowering women through wellbeing, leadership and enterprise.

As part of this, we produce a quarterly magazine for women in both print and digital format. The magazine focuses on women’s issues in Bristol and provides an opportunity for women across the city to discuss parenting issues, health and wellbeing concerns, business and enterprise, safety and violence, discrimination and empowerment alongside a wealth of other key issues vital to women in the Bristol community. Our current readership online and offline is currently at 15,000.

As we are looking at this year’s issue #3, we would like to open the opportunity for 5 Bristol based organisations to advertise in the magazine. The selected companies will have to adhere to our equalities ethos.   Advertising slots include prime slots such as inside and outside back cover and key pages adjacent to Editorial welcome.

Both issues 1 and 2 of the magazine can be downloaded free of charge on http://www.bristolwoman.org.uk, and have been made freely available in 28 libraries in Bristol, 90 GP surgeries in Bristol and SouthGloucestershire. The magazine is also available in some schools, local businesses, cafes and other public buildings across Bristol. Your advertisement will help us reach out to even more women across the city.

If you would like to propose article submissions for our Nov 2014 issue, please do let us know. We would love to hear your ideas!

To register your interest, please email editor [at] bristolwoman.org.uk.

#100Kin100days

Bristol Woman: Inspiring Enterprise

At Bristol Woman, we are focusing on 3 major strands: well being, leadership and enterprise. Last week, I have put in a bid to RBS – Inspiring Women in Enterprise to set up Bristol Woman Enterprise Zone. RBS is offering grants to help build the capacity of organisations that encourage and support women, who are not yet in business, to explore enterprise. It is an inspirational opportunity!

It was an exciting process as it allowed us to consolidate all the work we do around confidence building for business. The funding will help us to lay the foundation for some exciting work and within a year support at least 50 women to start their business and at least another 50 to develop their existing business further.

Research shows that women lack confidence in enterprise, but when it comes to business, confidence is as important as competence! The funding will allow us to work with hundreds of women in Bristol and boost enterprise confidence. If you want to find out more about this project, get in touch with us: ask-at-bristolwoman.org.uk.

#100Kin100days; #inspiringchange

Why a Community Interest Company

Damien Hirst's 22ft Charity statue was displayed in Bristol. 

When looking to incorporate Bristol Woman, there was the route of making it a Charity. Instead I decided a Community Interest Company (CIC) status is more suitable. It has nothing to do with our objectives, because they are very much social and for the benefit of the wider community. It has nothing to do with the opportunities for funding, because if anything it is easier to get funding as a charity. It has nothing to do with the public perception of a charity, because a charity is currently easier to understand than a CIC.

But it has everything to do with the individual woman and her agency. Bristol Woman was set up because we believe in the power of individual women to change the world. In our work with women, this is about the constant battle between agency and victim in the non-profit sector. “Charity” as a word is very much associated with helplessness, the need for some kind of an intervention to change somebody else’s life. The word itself is the embodiment of white middle class thought. It can at times be patronising.

I was wondering if it is an issue of English Language. I think it’s more about British culture. When I first came to the UK and became familiar with this word in it’s organisational context, I was somewhat surprised. In the US I was used to “non-profit organisation”. The latter somehow offers stakeholders the freedom to decide if they want to be a victim or an agent.

Over the past decade I’ve work with women across continents. Women who have been trafficked, women seeking to balance work and caring responsibilities, women’s rights activities, or women struggling with mental health issues – they all deserve the choice of being agents of their own destinies. This was the foundation for my decision to register the company as a CIC. In the context of my 100 day challenge to raise 100K, this is more of a problem then an asset. But supporting women by giving them the choice to be agents of their own change much outweighs that.

Photo: The statue, called Charity, is of a collection box of a girl with teddy bear and her leg in callipers.

#100Kin100days

One of those 100 day challenges

This week, I embark on a new journey. As I leave my job at Platform 51 (YWCA England and Wales, now Young Women’s Trust), I will be focusing on building and growing Bristol Woman - a community interest company. We have been in operation since November 2013, but I have not had time to focus on the company because of my job.

I’ve set up the company because I strongly believe that individual women can make a difference and inspire – in Bristol, but also all over the world. Three amazing women have joined me on this journey. Together we can change Bristol by providing creative avenues for women to share their stories, running workshops and mentoring schemes which allow women to process, adapt and embody confidence, and supporting women as they unlock their individual leadership potential.