The message delivered to students attending the third Women’s Leadership Conference at St Joseph’s College was overwhelmingly positive. And although the impossibly idealistic hope of ‘having it all’ was not mentioned, students were left in no doubt that being fulfilled by a successful career could indeed be achieved alongside family life and personal interests.
Four highly successful women, whose careers spanned the law, entrepreneurship and mental health advocacy, gave inspiring and insightful talks to an audience made up of Sixth Formers and Year 11 students at St Joseph’s, together with visiting students and staff from St Alban’s RC High School and Northgate High School, Ipswich.
The speakers were Clare Jupp, mother of Head Boy, Henry, and MD of The School Fees Company; Amanda Hardy KC, leading taxation and trusts barrister and Deputy High Court Judge; Rae Warner, current parent and Director of STC Teamwear; and psychologist Fiona Hannah, Founder and Clinical Director of Teenage Mental Health.
The students asked penetrating questions ranging from coping with grief to the lessening but persistent overrepresentation of privately educated candidates among barristers and judges.
A powerful lesson was that paths to success are rarely without stumbling blocks; tenacity, a positive mindset and taking up the opportunities that presented themselves were key.
The conference, which was organised by St Jo’s Head of Sixth Form, Ms Simpson-Jacobs, and Director of Marketing, Mrs Edwards, and a special assembly marked International Women’s Day at the school.
Afterwards, Mrs Edwards reflected, ‘We designed this conference to create an environment where young people would feel they belong, not as students observing adulthood, but as participants shaping their futures. We wanted them to feel they have a seat at the table, to ask questions and to absorb the wisdom and insights of those who have blazed a professional trail. It was wonderful to see the students approach speakers with questions and comfortably stay in conversations longer.’
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