In the beginning we floated the idea of a blog on our love of history, how much we enjoyed talking about history, and a desire to engage more with the twittersphere and #educhat. We wanted to compare and contrast our experiences in a more analytical, useful way for our own benefit, and anyone else that might come across it. It didn’t happen because we didn’t have the courage. However, then we discovered 10% Braver: Inspiring Women to Lead Education (Vivienne Porrit, Keziah Featherstone, ed. 2019).
The premise of the book is that women are underrepresented in education leadership and it theorises the reasons why at all levels of education, nationally and internationally, across cultures, and pay scales. It’s a fascinating book that we recommend you read right now, and has many complex conclusions and thought-provoking questions that you can grapple with. However, the book will say itself that every person – man or woman – will take away something different, something that is relevant to their own teaching career. As RQTs with little responsibility (comparatively) and no expectation of being a headteacher in the near future, we took one very simple thing from it: we needed to be 10% braver.
Chapter 2 by Sue Cowley is dedicated to feeling the fear and doing it anyway. It explains that one explanation for the gender gap in education is that, in many cases, women feel under-confident and do not go after what they want in the same way that a man might. It’s an inspirational and blunt chapter that makes you confront your own personality, and whilst it might not apply to some women, it did to us.
The book is built around the women that inspired these inspirational women, and Chapter Two ends with a personal role model of Cowley’s. We started to discuss the women that inspire us in our own lives, and, over a cup of tea and a jacket potato, we decided to be 10% braver.
In that spirit, we would like to begin our blog with just two of the (very many) women in and outside of education that inspire us to be 10% braver, 10% prouder, and 10% louder (p,9).
@MissHBHistory
Dr Rachel Rich is the course director for History at Leeds Beckett University where I studied for my BA and MA. She is an incredible woman who has done so much for me. When I first met Rachel, I was nowhere near as confident as I am now, I would sit in the back of seminars and pray no one asked me a question! Rachel was so encouraging, and never shut you down if you answered a question with an answer she wasn’t exactly looking for, that by the end of third year, I was offering up my contributions in seminars whether anyone had asked for them or not! Not only that, but she somehow got me to love the French Revolution – something never thought possible by first-year me. What makes Rachel so inspirational to me is the kindness and support she showed me after I had completed my time at Leeds Beckett. I was lost, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. Rachel met me for coffee, listened to me cry, and suggested things I could do to figure it out. This inspired me to try teaching experience, and I knew it was the career for me. When I decided to apply, Rachel took time out of her life to read and edit my personal statement. I wouldn’t be where I am today without her, and she serves as a role model for the kind of educator I want to be: supportive, encouraging, kind, engaging, and inspirational.
Charlotte Maclennan is my closest friend and ally. I can always count on her to listen to my troubles and boost me up afterwards. I met Charlotte in the first couple of weeks of university and we clicked. We are complete opposites but exactly the same person at the same time, and one things for sure, we both absolutely adore history (and talk about it at length, for hours…). What makes Charlotte so inspirational to me is her spirit. She has had many knocks in life, but continues to get up and keep moving forward. She never lets anybody mess her around, and doesn’t care what anyone thinks, and I try to be a little more like that every day. She always encourages me to be 10% braver, to not let anyone diminish my capabilities, and makes me want to show the world what I can do. I owe a lot of who I am to her, and I know we will both continue to encourage each other to shine.
Hope, vision, and collaboration encourage previously unknown strength
10% braver, foreword
@RidleyHistory
Kate Clarke is a Lieutenant-Colonel in the US Army and one of the strongest people I have had the privilege of learning from. We met doing a masters at Edinburgh and my first memory is watching her shake hands with a man in the department, who said “definitely military, a very strong grip” – which just says it all really. She’s always strong, she’s always bold, and I would eat my hat if she’s ever let anyone intimidate her or push her away from something she wanted, had worked for, and deserved, ever in her life. She inspires me to keep looking for new experiences, to keep working hard, and to never let fear stop me going somewhere new because even if the worst possible thing happens, there will be good on the other side.
Dr. Stella Moss was a lecturer I had during my undergraduate studies at Royal Holloway, UoL. She is the person I come back to when I’m reflecting on the kind of teacher I want to be and why I chose this career. She ran a ‘Modern Girls’ module on women in the 20th Century, packed with sources that I never would have seen otherwise, a dynamic and captivating teaching style, and analytical feedback that I only hope to emulate. She was kind, encouraging, and a source of confidence. More than that, though, she fostered my fascination in the social class system and the personalities of different social groups. It is this that motivates me to get back up, go back into the classroom when I feel like I could be doing anything else, and work with behaviour that does not come from the kids, but from the circumstances they live in.
Tea & Learning 
Wonderful initiative! With10% more each generation, gaps will close and ceilings will shatter.
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