In conversation with the team behind Women+ in Leadership
- Written byKat Smith
- Published date 25 November 2021
Research shows that only 33% of Managers and 17% of Creative Directors in the cultural industries are women, while about 75% of UAL students identify as female.
UAL’s Women+ in Leadership programme aim to address this imbalance, by teaching new skills, working with industry experts, and empowering women (inclusive of non-binary, agender, trans women and assigned female at birth) students and graduates across UAL to pursue a living doing what they love.
We sat down with Tessa Read, Sat Sehmbey and Charline Springer (Careers and Employability), who have developed and facilitated the programmes since its conception in 2019.
Hi Tessa, Sat and Charline! First of all, what is Women+ in Leadership? How would you describe it?
Charline: Women+ in Leadership is a programme run by staff within UAL Careers and Employability to support students and graduates, who identify as female or nonbinary.
Through the programme we organise a range of events and activities to address the barriers that women face accessing leadership positions in the creative and cultural sectors. As well as to inspire and empower UAL students and graduates who identify as women (including non-binary, agender, trans women and assigned female at birth) to prepare for leadership positions. We also develop resources and build a network of likeminded female+ individuals who can support each other.
Sat: It’s a community of students and industry partners who come together to share the same passion and the same cause within UAL, within higher education and the wider creative industries.
It's getting all those people together and giving the opportunity for students to recognize the leaders within themselves. And developing it going forward through collaborative projects and leadership coaching and having the chance to work with some amazing industry partners.
We get some incredible people from industry interested in the programme who come and do talks for us or help us with networking events. Some of them heavily invest in long term projects.
For example, within the programme Charline and I run an 8-10 week leadership project for women+ of colour. And companies offer their time and support to provide a live brief for the students to get real industry experience and make connections while developing their skills.
Charline and I both work for a team within Careers and Employability called Creative Shift. Creative Shift is all about supporting students from underrepresented groups to access and progress within the creative industries through either employment or self-employment. So, our Women+ of Colour live brief project is relevant both to Women+ in Leadership and Creative Shift.
Charline: Yes, and this project covers a really important part of the work we want to do in the programme, addressing the double barrier of the gender glass ceiling and racial discrimination.
Tessa: We are interested in exploring the leader within. Students don’t come with no leadership experience - many already have a side hustle - how do we leverage this and recognise what you bring to the table through a facilitated space. This offers an alternative paradigm of leadership that moves beyond more traditional business approaches and disrupts traditional views of leadership. Thus, includes building relational resilience through peer support which moves beyond the notion of the leader as the individual - and creates a mutual system.
Alongside the work that Creative Shift does, why did you set up something specifically for Women+ in Leadership?
Sat: Tessa Read, the Deputy Head of Careers and Employability has always been devoted to working to address underrepresentation in the creative industries. You can see this in her work within Creative Shift but with 75% of UAL students identifying as female she knew there was something important to address here.
Tessa: Just to give a bit of background to the project - just under 2 years ago we ran an event to bring awareness to the lack of women leaders in the creative industries and the continued pay gap between men and women.
This kickstarted a programme of events intended to Inspire UAL students to become creative leaders and celebrate the success of key women in leadership roles across the creative sector
Unfortunately, the narrative of leadership is often presented in a certain way that conjures up the image of the white male - Richard Branson, Alan Sugar. We wanted to flip the script, reframe what leadership means and give students the opportunity to bring to the fore their existing leadership qualities and potential, in an authentic way - the world is changing, the narratives of effective leadership and who occupies that space is changing. And this programme is all about shaping the future face of leadership.
This year we wanted to work specifically with Women of Colour in acknowledgement of:
- intersectional discrimination
- the lack of Black women representation in senior roles
- and that Women of Colour are not necessarily given the same opportunities or visibility.
The programme was informed by sector-wide stats - the Gender and Race Benchmark in 2014 found that Black women are the least likely group to hold executive or non-executive directorship positions.
In the creative industries and more specifically Advertising - white men are almost three times as likely to be in a senior position as women of colour, and almost six times as likely as black women. The rationale for the programme was also informed by UAL datasets and the marked differentials in graduate-level employment for BAME females
Charline: It’s really crazy to think such a large percentage of our students identify as female and yet we're constantly being reminded by industry data, and our own experiences, of the disproportionate numbers in female leadership in the creative industries, not to mention the gender pay gap. So, we really wanted to respond to that.
‘Women earn on average £10,400 less than men and £44 less in freelance day rates in the creative sector, according to a newly published study.’
2021, McCulloch, A. Personnel Today.
‘Black females earned the lowest average salary within the sector at £38,000 as opposed to the £58,000 earned by white males.’ -
2021, McCulloch, A. Personnel Today.
What do you hope students will get out of Women+ and Women+ of Colour in Leadership?
Sat: The programme allows those students who identify as female or non-binary to belong to a community where they can have those conversations with other students, and other people from the industry. It’s important to be open to learn from each other and that’s one of the key assets of this programme - it's bringing people together to support each other. For the long-term projects, we’re bringing students and peers together that would never normally connect. We've seen fabulous bonds between the students who have gone through the programme. Some of which have said they’ve made friends for life.
Charline: We have already seen such an inspirational growth from the students we’ve worked with on our longer-term projects which is also due to the support we have from our leadership coach Jannett Morgan.
But in terms of the wider programme ultimately, we want to inspire and empower our students and graduates to realise their full potential and give them the tools to become the leaders they want to be. And that includes understanding the broadness of what leadership means to each individual. Whether it’s through entrepreneurship, senior positions or simply understanding what you want for yourself and taking charge of it.
What is the goal of Women+ for you?
Charline: We’ve mentioned wanting to inspire and motivate our students and for them to realise their leadership potential. As well as wanting to create a supportive network for our students, grads, alumni, staff and likeminded women+ in industry. And that really does describe a lot of our goals, but we would also really like to influence industry as well. We’re thinking big and for real long term change companies, the industry, needs to look at themselves and make some structural change. We have started to see that in some of the companies we’re working with and that’s really exciting.
Sat: It would be incredible to have bigger companies in the creative sector who want to come in and support this programme, whether that’s through live briefs, talks or mentoring etc. And it’s also about making a lot more noise and creating awareness around Women+ in leadership. Creative Shift’s strapline is all about diversifying a more creative industry, so it’s about asking, how do we do that and how can we work with industries to keep on doing that?
In the long term, the goal is to do more within the higher education sector, to publish more articles and giving talks at conferences around the UK and beyond. It would also be amazing if we could gain financial support from industry, this would really help us to develop the programme and create more opportunities.
I think this programme can be much, much bigger!
So how can students get involved and what can they get involved in?
Sat: We have our next Women+ of Colour in Leadership live brief project coming up. It starts in January, but applications are open now and close mid-December 2021. We’re really excited about our new industry partners for this project. We’re working with PR company Hope&Glory and their client LinkedIn. Students can apply here.
Charline: We’re also organising a networking event, which will be held in real life! Booking isn’t available yet, but it’ll be on during the week of International Women’s Day – so watch this space!
Stay updated on Women+ in Leadership
To keep up to date about upcoming Women+ in Leadership, and Women+ of Colour in Leadership, events:
If you have any questions, please contact creativeshift@arts.ac.uk.
If you’re an industry leader looking to work with Tessa, Sat and Charline on Women+ in Leadership, please contact creativeshift@arts.ac.uk.
Eligibility
Women+ in Leadership
- Anyone who identifies as a woman (including agender, trans women and assigned female at birth) or as non-binary
Women+ of Colour in Leadership (Live brief projects)
- Undergraduate
- Home students
- Identify as a woman (including agender, trans women and assigned female at birth) or non-binary person of colour