Leighton Park’s students were invited to rub shoulders with some of the UK’s leading female STEM figures at an event designed to inspire female leadership last month.
Organised by educational charity, The Female Lead, 49 Leighton Park girls attended ‘Inspiring Careers of the Future’ in London on Thursday 21 March.
Speakers included the first woman to hold the role of Director GCHQ, as well as leading figures from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), including Google, Electronic Arts and The Institute of Digital Fashion.
The event comes at a time where women make up just 29% of the STEM workforce, yet 70% of future careers are STEM-focused.
Year 9 student Georgia said: “I took away from the event the fact that life won’t be handed to you, but that when you work hard and enjoy what you do, you can do anything you dream of, no matter what anyone says.”
Five Year 9 students were delighted to be selected to join the group interviewing Anne Keast-Butle, Director of GCHQ, the UK’s intelligence, security and cyber agency.
Alongside BBC Newsround presenter, Ricky Boleto, the girls quizzed Anne on the difficulties of being a female leader in a male-dominated sector, the difficulties she faced in reaching the top and who her own role models are.
“It was incredibly inspiring for them, and got them fired up for more female-lead empowerment,” said the school’s Senior Assistant Head: Co-Curricular Tash Coccia, who signed Leighton Park up to The Female Lead’s School Ambassador Network last summer.
“Anne emphasised that girls do not need to be a maths genius to be a spy! It’s important to know what your passions are and what motivates you and not allow other people’s perceptions of what you should be to cloud your vision of yourself.”
Leighton Park students were invited to attend as the school is one of ten Female Lead Ambassador Schools, where its commitment to building female empowerment is reflected through a fortnightly student-led co-curricular club, The Female Lead Society.’
Lower Sixth pupil Kemianna said: “I enjoyed being able to see strong women in careers, have role models to look up to and hear how they’ve been able to push themselves in their own individual fields and climb up. It has really inspired me to look for internships and work experience and to research into what I want to do in the future, to really explore my post-18 options.”
This careers-focused networking event was the first of many aspirations The Female Lead has to offer access to a network of experts wanting to inspire the next generation of female STEM figures.
