Women in Leadership: Joy Rowley

We champion women’s development and leadership at Community, and want to empower more women to come forward and become active in their union. As part of our Women in Leadership series, we are shining a spotlight on some of our members who are making a difference in their workplace. The first profile in our series is Joy Rowley, who sits on our NEC as an Education and Early Years sector representative.

I have been a union member since 1996 when I began my teacher training. I have had various roles during that time ranging from rep to President of my union to currently Women’s seat holder on the NEC of my present union, Community.

I was originally with a quite militant union which sought to strike at every opportunity. I quickly moved to the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) which had a no strike policy except if staff or children were at risk.

I was persuaded to join the Council at PAT and initially felt rather intimidated by the other members who were predominately male and older than me. We also had a male General Secretary when I first joined Council. I spent my first couple of years listening and learning before starting to make contributions. During this time, a female General Secretary was appointed.

When it came to re-electing a Vice-President for the Council, I was nominated against two long-standing male members of the Council. I had a year working with a male President and learnt a lot from him, before beginning my year as President and having the opportunity to mentor a female colleague who had been elected as my Vice President.

PAT rebranded as Voice and by then female members of the Council outnumbered male members. Our General Secretary took every opportunity to encourage and involve the younger female members of the Council, helping them develop their skills and knowledge.

When we merged with Community, I was Immediate Past President after completing my second term as President and took a seat on Community NEC as an education sector representative. Again, the make up of the NEC was predominantly male and older, reflecting the industries where Community was most active.

Two years after the merger, a Women’s seat became vacant on NEC and, following nominations, I was elected to the seat. My union career has now taken a whole different direction. I am involved with the Equality Committee of NEC, meeting regularly with other representatives from other sub-sections of NEC. I have attended two Women’s TUC Conferences and been inspired to look at organisation, including my employers and our union, from a different viewpoint.

I will always have my education background to fall back on as I am still working full-time in Higher Education. I recognise the disproportionate number of men in school leadership positions, despite the high proportion of women employed in the sector. I believe that by nurturing female members through our union structure, we will ultimately give them the skills and tools they need to succeed in leadership.

On a more personal note, I was recently elected as Vice-President of my Rotary Club. In July, I will become President-Elect before becoming President the next year. I have been lucky in the few months since my election, that the current President-Elect (male) has been supporting me to understand the role I will shortly take up and the Club Secretary (male) has also been very supportive in providing me with the information I need. I have only just found out that I am only the second female to take up the Vice President role since the Club admitted women in the 1980s.

I have been very lucky as I have progressed through my various roles to have the support of fellow union colleagues and my fellow Rotarians. However, I still frequently find myself faced with men at events and meetings who look to male colleagues before being redirected to myself. It is this kind of attitude which we are working against all the time, whatever role we have.

I believe that things will change over time as the older generations move aside. Women need to be supported to have the right skills knowledge and confidence to step up to Leadership roles. To enable this, they need opportunities to develop and learn through effective mentoring and support from those around them.