We had some great feedback from our sessions last year

“Really worthwhile” ”The facilitator was lovely!”                     

“Thanks I really appreciate your effort to organise this”    “Excellent value for [...]]]>  Join Progressive Women for Leadership training workshops. We’ve got three new and unique sessions available in partnership with professional leadership coaches ANKLe 

We had some great feedback from our sessions last year

“Really worthwhile” ”The facilitator was lovely!”                     

“Thanks I really appreciate your effort to organise this”    “Excellent value for money” 

Find out more about our new sessions for February 2012 and how to reserve your place below. All tickets must be purchased in advance

Understanding Change and Transition

Weds 8 Feb, 6.30pm-8.30pm, Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, NW1 2BJ

Life these days is always changing – whether it’s a change in your career circumstances or a new personal relationship. It helps to understand the inner psychological transition that we humans need to make if we are to really realise the potential of the new change. Judy Oliver, founder of ANKLe, promises that her session will offer solutions – at home or at work it works!

Who is Judy Oliver? Judy Oliver (BA Hons Barrister, FIPD, FRSA) specialises in leadership development, strategic thinking, and transition planning. Judy is founder of A New Kind of Leadership (ANKLe). In addition to providing bespoke development programmes for Boards and Executive Teams, she has successfully designed and delivered key strategic development programmes for clinical leaders in the NHS, directors and senior managers which have contributed to more effective collaboration. Before setting up her own company JudyOliverandCo,Judy worked for 17 years with BP and 9 years in local government. Read feedback from Judy’s clients here

Reserve your place by purchasing your ticket here

Communication skills: Embracing the hidden potential of your voice

Weds 22nd Feb, Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, NW1 2BJ

Communication is the key to successful leadership and this workshop will focus on new tools and techniques to help you use your voice to the best of your ability.

Julia Williams will work with individual issues that hold us back, which everyone can find useful. This can be dealing with nerves, speaking too quickly, focusing a creative chaotic mind, not daring to speak, fearing to be too emotional – whatever you think is holding you back.

Julia has extensive experience of helping people working across all sectors to find their voice and maximise their impact. Many of us secretly don’t like something about our voice or speaking manner, especially if it occasionally lets us down. Julia has worked with a number of high profile UK and international companies such as Accenture, JP Morgan, Barclays, HSBC, Shell and BT, as well as government bodies such as the Ministry of Defence, TFL and HM Treasury. You can find out more about Julia’s success stories on her company website www.personalimpact.com

Reserve your place by purchasing your ticket for this event here

Designing Effective Events and Meetings

Weds 29th Feb, 6.30pm – 8.30pm, Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, NW1 2BJ

Key to successful leadership is effective time management. Do you want to optimise the effectiveness of your events and maximise the results from your meetings? If you’re fed up of spending too much time at work in ’talking shops’ this session will help you learn how to make the most from meetings and events.

Professional Leadership coach Judy Oliver will lead this workshop. She will apply the Nancy Kline method of developing a Thinking Environment where people can give their best, for constructive results.

You can reserve your place for this workshop by purchasing your ticket here

Join our mailing list for news on future Progressive Women events email progress@progressivewomen.org.uk follow us on twitter @sylviapankhurst

Following on from our mentoring events earlier this year we will be hosting a series of top quality training sessions with experienced professional trainers to help women develop their  leadership skills. This is a unique opportunity [...]]]> Progressive Women are delighted to announce a series of Leadership Development workshops in partnership with ANKLe (a New Kind of Leadership).

Following on from our mentoring events earlier this year we will be hosting a series of top quality training sessions with experienced professional trainers to help women develop their  leadership skills. This is a unique opportunity to experience top quality training (normally +£300!)  at a non-profit price.

The aim of the workshop series is for top quality, inspiring, women trainers to share practical tools and techniques to help you become a successful leader. This series is a unique opportunity to experience expert professional training in a small group tailored specifically for women at a non profit price.  

9 November Women’s Leadership – Why it’s different and how to sustain it with Isobel Gowan.

6.30pm-8.30pm, YWCA Central Club, 44 Portland Place, London, W1B 1NE. Tickets £20. Buy your ticket here.

Isobel will facilitate a workshop on women’s leadership where she will focus on what you want to achieve from leadership and how you can get there. Isobel is a highly skilled leadership coach with extensive experience in the NHS latterly as Chief Executive of a large acute and community  Trust. Isobel now runs her own company and works with Boards to develop their effectiveness.

Find out more and buy your ticket for this workshop here

30 November What makes me tick? -deepening awareness for planning your career with Lindsay Wittenberg.

6.30pm-8.30pm.  YWCA Central Club, 44 Portland Place, London, W1B 1NE. Tickets £20. Purchase your ticket here.

Lindsay’s workshop will focus on the question ’how can I be productive at work and still be myself?’. The workshop will help you identify your strengths and values  and how you can use these to succeed in planning your career. 

Lindsay Wittenberg (BA Hons, MIBC, CMC, FRSA, MBTI Certified Practitioner) has been an executive coach and career coach since 2003. She is founder and Managing Director of her own leadership development and coaching company.

Find out more about this workshop and book your place here.

7 December The Key to Success: Getting to know yourself and others with Suzy Phillips.

6.30pm-8.30pm.  YWCA Central Club, 44 Portland Place, London, W1B 1NE. Tickets £20. Purchase your ticket here

The workshop will focus on using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator to help you to understand how you prefer to operate. Greater self-awareness can help you to be more effective in your professional and personal life and help you interact most effectively with others. The workshop aims to give you practical tools to help you be successul and influential in all aspects of your life.  

More details are available and to book your place click here 

Contact Progressive Women to be added to our mailing list caroline@progressivewomen.org.uk. Follow us on twitter @sylviapankhurst #WomenLead

Progressive Women are looking for 8 women to [...]]]> I’m afraid this workshop session is now full. If you want to register for the waiting list then do email Caroline at the address below or if you want to be updated about the mentoring scheme once it is up and running then please do get in touch.

Progressive Women are looking for 8 women to join us on Wednesday 2nd February for a free workshop with ANKLE (A New Kind of Leadership) Network. To be held at: RSA, John Adam St, London, WC2N 6EZ

The aim of the meeting is to

• Share what ANKLE have learned about the importance of creating a thinking environment which enables us to think well, based on the amazing work of Nancy Kline (www.timetothink.com)
• Learn some very practical techniques which can be directly applied at work and at home to help relationships and work processes be more effective;
• Look at a proposal for a co-mentoring system between our two networks which would enable us to set up a range of cross-generation mentoring partnerships in 2011, using Thinking Environment methods;
• Agree next steps.

If you want to participate in this workshop on 2nd February please email caroline@progressivewomen.org.uk by Wednesday 26th January.

“Virtually all feminist debate on body image and beauty imagery owes its existence to Susie Orbach” – Naomi Wolf.

Progressive Women’s year was officially kick started last night at our New Year’s Feminist Resolution Party. Professor Susie Orbach was our guest speaker and she [...]]]> Caroline Watson, Co-founder of Progressive Women, writes about the first Progressive Women event of 2011

“Virtually all feminist debate on body image and beauty imagery owes its existence to Susie Orbach” – Naomi Wolf.

Progressive Women’s year was officially kick started last night at our New Year’s Feminist Resolution Party. Professor Susie Orbach was our guest speaker and she certainly got us thinking, discussing, motivated and committed to some great new year’s resolutions (read on to find out what some of these are).

Although Susie started by saying she didn’t necessarily  believe in resolutions she said that we should all resolve to be comfortable with ourselves and support other women to be comfortable with their appearance and their bodies.  Constantly worrying about eating and dieting, and criticising ourselves for not being thin enough, or being the right size or shape is violence against ourselves. There is a culture of  a fear of food and much of this is pedalled by the diet industry which makes a profit from people failing. Diets are designed for people to fail to lose weight so they will then try the next diet and keep on abusing their bodies in this way while making the diet industry rich. Susie proclaimed the diet industry should be prosecuted!

Susie told us about her campaign Endangered Species.

“The woman who can walk, dress, talk, eat, swim, work, without losing energy and time over the anxiety of looking good enough, is an Endangered Species.” The Endangered Species campaign is a global initiative and the first summit will be held on 4th March at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Susie spoke of the need for a sustainable mind and sustainable body. We had a thought provoking discussion and then we asked everyone to commit to a resolution some of which are here – many inspired by Susie’s messsage.

“Get involved with more activism”

“Don’t let the bastards get you down”

“Don’t give up!”

“Do more stuff like this”

“Be kinder to myself”

“Join Twitter and use as a force for good to promote feminist issues”

“Be more proactive when ranting about the treatment of women in the media etc (ie write letter to the editor etc rather than ranting at friends”

“Be mindful”

“Boycott trashy gossip magazines or anything that has the word diet on the cover”

“To challenge pseudo-feminist to be actual feminists.”

A belated Happy New Year.  I am extremely excited about 2011. Progressive Women are about to kick off their year with our first ever feminist resolution party! The idea is that we wanted to have an event [...]]]> Caroline Watson, Co-founder of Progressive Women, writes about why she is excited about 2011 and what this means for Progressive Women

A belated Happy New Year.  I am extremely excited about 2011. Progressive Women are about to kick off their year with our first ever feminist resolution party! The idea is that we wanted to have an event where progressive women can come together and talk about our individual plans for the year ahead. What are we doing individually and what can we do collectively to empower ourselves and each other and make progress towards equality.

What makes the event so incredible is that we are lucky enough to have the legendary Susie Orbach as our guest speaker. Psycho-analyst and writer of seminal feminist text Fat is a Feminist Issue will be speaking about why her theories on body image that she first published in the ’70s are as relevant today as they were then. She will be sharing with us her AnyBody campaign.

Having Susie speak is perfect for the theme of our evening.  January is so often the time we are beating ourselves up about over-indulging in too much christmas pud, the temptation is great to try to start a fitness regime and healthy eating plan. But how much of this is focused on what we look like and trying to keep up with a media pressure to be a certain way and not about our own quality of life and good health? I know I can be guilty of this. The culture of beauty and physical perfection that we are constantly bombarded with on the cover of magazines only serves to suggest that what women look like and weigh is more important than their personality and what they do to contribute to their place of work, family, friends and community. I am starting to believe that all this attention of physical perfection is a distraction from the things that really matter, and the things we should really be taking notice of (let’s just start with lack of female leadership and representation in government). So let’s keep this in mind when thinking of our resolutions for the rest of the year. Let’s reject this notion of physical perfection and let’s celebrate who we are, what we believe to be our strongest assets (whatever these may be) and how we can use those to the betterment of ourselves and each other in 2011.

I look forward to hearing what your new year’s resolutions are at our New Year’s Party on  Wednesday 19th January, upstairs at the Old Star, 66 the Broadway, SW1H 0DB. Be there from 6.30 to make sure you don’t miss our amazing speaker. RSVP to caroline@progressivewomen.org.uk

The Feminist Resolution Party will be just the start of a line up of Progressive Women events in 2011, we are also working hard to pull together a mentoring event which we hope will bring inspirational women together to share knowledge, experience and encourage each other. Watch this space!

When Caroline and I sat down and thought about what we wanted for our ‘Inspiring Leaders’ event last month, we were faced with a conundrum.

Camden Speakers Club, which I run, is for women and men, and [...]]]> Laura Nelson, President of Camden Speakers, writer of Delilah blog, and co-organiser of our joint Inspiring Leaders event has reflected on what she learned from the day

When Caroline and I sat down and thought about what we wanted for our ‘Inspiring Leaders’ event last month, we were faced with a conundrum.

Camden Speakers Club, which I run, is for women and men, and helps members develop their public speaking skills. Progressive Women is aimed at women who want to network with other women who are interested in politics and the economy.

How would we marry up?

We decided we would hold an event for women and men on leadership, so that anyone could benefit. And there would be discussions about why there aren’t enough female leaders in all spheres of life – because this is very relevant to leadership issues in general. And, as a bonus, all the speakers and trainers would be female.

After all, most events feature mainly men, and the majority of society’s leaders are men, so it’s about time to turn the tables.

Our decision felt right, but seemed as though we were venturing into new territory. It was risky; bringing together different groups: from the feminism movement, the speakers club crowd and other interested people. These groups don’t often mix. Would it work?

This, perhaps, was why it did work. The event allowed discussions – about the barriers to women as well as issues of leadership that affect everyone – to come out into the open. As well as – thanks to our wonderful speakers and trainers – stimulating sessions and conversations which helped people to think about how they could develop their skills to become better leaders.

We were overjoyed to receive excellent feedback. Many people said they were inspired, and learned something, and want to do more.

Personally, I was more inspired than I could ever have imagined. And, as some people have asked me what my own thoughts were on event, I thought I would write some of them here.

Organising an event is an intense experience. Often there is so much happening and so many practical details that there isn’t much time for wallowing in the meaning of it all.

On the other hand, the meaning is the reason it’s being done in the first place. It’s the vision. And, during the run up to Inspiring Leaders, every now and then something happened which resonated with the vision, and made it all very real and worthwhile.

The first notable moment for me was when we asked attendees to fill out their choices for the training sessions. When it was all filled out, I saw the doodle poll in full – a mass of coloured boxes on the screen. At once, I realised that this was about people choosing to come to our event; people wanting to benefit from the wonderful top class trainers who were giving up their time and expertise for free.

I realised that people were coming.

A few days before the event, there was another high moment. The event was completely sold out and the tweets were rushing in.

“Can’t get to #InspiringLeaders, really disappointed. Will book earlier next year,” one said. Next year? That person had the idea before we did.

The third euphoric moment was during the event itself. In the first panel session, I sat in the front row and listened to the brilliant speakers talking about working harder than everyone else, having passion and sticking to values and being terrified. And taking the shit – but doing it anyway.

It was such a beautiful and powerful truth, so honest and simple. It humbled me too. The speakers – regardless of their prestigiousness – made us all feel as though we are all on a similar journey, whether we are aiming to be in politics, pursue other artistic or professional goals, or simply to inspire and motivate others.

And that’s what hit me most. The truth of leadership. That we just need to keep on going; work hard, keep at it, deal with the shit.

That leadership is about being genuine.

That leadership is about passion.

That leadership is about being supportive to others, and recognising that others support us.

That there will always be barriers, but the key is finding a way over them. We have to take risks, knowing there will be a struggle.

That I have learned how to deal with some shit, but there are some barriers I may be still using as an excuse not to do things.

That this, in itself, can be my biggest barrier.

I want to do more of this; get these debates out into the open. I believe this an important part of starting to think about and plan change. Awareness of issues, acknowledgement of problems and sharing of ideas.

And I want to do other things, which is perhaps a subject for another blog post.

What I learned from the event is that I just have to get on and do them.

After Laura wrote a draft of this post, she saw that Kristie West, trainer at the Inspiring Leaders event, had written an article on a similar topic. She blogs over here. Progressive Women is holding an event in January on New Year’s Resolutions. See here.

Join us for the Feminist New Year’s Resolution party!

Wednesday 19th January 2011 6.30pm for 7pm upstairs at the Old Star, 66 Broadway, Victoria, SW1H ODB

We are delighted to announce that the phenomenal leading feminist Professor Susie Orbach, psychoanalyst, psychotherapist, social critic, and author of ‘Fat is a Feminist Issue’ and [...]]]> Progressive Women are having a party…

Join us for the Feminist New Year’s Resolution party!

Wednesday 19th January 2011
6.30pm for 7pm upstairs at the Old Star, 66 Broadway, Victoria, SW1H ODB

We are delighted to announce that the phenomenal leading feminist Professor Susie Orbach, psychoanalyst, psychotherapist, social critic, and author of ‘Fat is a Feminist Issue’ and ‘Bodies’ will be our guest speaker.

We can’t wait to see you and hear what your new year’s feminist resolution will be!

Please RSVP to caroline@progressivewomen.org.uk.

As nearly one hundred women and a sprinkling of men gathered in a function room in North London on Saturday for a day of talks and workshops under the banner Inspiring Leaders, one question in particular burned [...]]]> Emma-Louise Hardman attended the Progressive Women and Camden Speakers first ever ‘Inspiring Leaders’ event this Saturday 6th November.

As nearly one hundred women and a sprinkling of men gathered in a function room in North London on Saturday for a day of talks and workshops under the banner Inspiring Leaders, one question in particular burned in my mind: what exactly is women’s leadership?

The most memorable quote of the day surely goes to Labour MP Fiona Mactaggart, who in her rousing keynote speech asked the assembled aspiring leaders “are you prepared to take the shit?” She is, of course, referring to how people, and women in particular, are treated in public life. After a brief consideration of the question I realise that my honest answer is no, I am not. Oh dear, this doesn’t bode well for my future as a great leader.

The following panel discussion where Fiona was joined by leadership coach Lee Chalmers, writer Louise Doughty and Labour party activist Kathryn Perera helped to offer some powerful potential solutions though. They spoke about authentic leadership, the value of self-doubt, supporting other women and the need to be brave. It was Lee who, for me, made one of the most striking points of the discussion by questioning why people ask what women want? The implication being that the answer to this is less complex than what men want.

Straddling lunch were two sets of workshops in which some of the skills of leadership were imparted by a set of very talented leaders and coaches. My first session was run by public speaking guru Pia Henderson and hypnotherapist Nicola Preston Bell. We discussed the significance of first impressions, using the power of stories and even attempted to define leadership itself (although we soon decided this was impossible). We then all floated away into a wonderfully relaxing visualisation, which could be used to prepare ourselves for public speaking.

My afternoon workshop was run by Lee Chalmers and to my delight the first question she asked the group was ‘what is women’s leadership?’ She argued that women’s leadership is no different from men’s and that it’s only our perceptions that the differences truly exist. She encouraged us all instead to consider the particular mix of influencing styles we choose.

In the second discussion panel Linguist Deborah Cameron outlined her view that women are just as capable of leadership roles as men but that they are excluded by a structural problem based on what she calls myths of gender. Political journalist Boni Sones OBE described the exclusive culture of parliament as childish and silly, rather than specifically sexist. This view was reinforced by Liberal Democrat diversity officer Vicky Booth, who called for adapting the system not just to suit women but to include all normal people.

So what is women’s leadership? Did I find an answer to my question? Not exactly. I came away from the event armed with a more complex view of what women’s leadership is and can be. I had assumed that the concept could be much more easily defined than it really is. Women’s leadership is as diverse as women themselves and in diversity there’s great strength.

Of course women are just as capable of leadership as men. However, society’s view of leadership includes, but goes beyond gender, and opening up leadership roles to everyone involves breaking down many collective assumptions about what a leader is. If 60% of the impression a person makes is based on how they look, we have to believe this is possible.

I still don’t want to have to “deal with the shit” but I don’t want anyone else to have to either. I do want things to change and know that they won’t without some effort. I’m not sure if I’m ready to be a public leader but I know that I can lead by example, challenge gender stereotypes and, perhaps most importantly, support other women. It was impossible not to be inspired by the amazing leaders at this event and I left promising myself to be little braver.

Laura Nelson, co-organiser of Inspiring Leaders writes on who inspired her at the event on her Delilah blog.

Progressive Women would like to say a massive thank you to all the trainers, speakers, and volunteers who contributed to the Inspiring Leaders event on Saturday and made it a great success! For a full line up of speakers and trainers you can see here.

You may have noticed that very few films have a female dominated cast, although it’s only too normal to see films with a [...]]]> Free next Tuesday evening? Following on from their very successful Women in Power and Politics season, the Tricycle threatre will present a special screening of MADE IN DAGENHAM (Tues 12th October 8.15pm).

You may have noticed that very few films have a female dominated cast, although it’s only too normal to see films with a pretty much all male ensemble, save for the token female love interest ofcourse. This is a great chance to see some talented British actresses (and some male actors) in a fantastic new film. MADE IN DAGENHAM tells the true story of one group of women’s ground-breaking fight for equal pay.

It’s 1968 and Ford factory sewing machinists in Dagenham, Essex, down tools when they are reclassified as ‘unskilled’. The film stars an all British cast of Miranda Richardson, Geraldine James, Rosamund Pike and Bob Hoskins.

You can join in a post-screening Q&A with Director Nigel Cole (Calendar Girls), alongside Producers Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley (The Crying Game, Interview With the Vampire, Michael Collins). The Q&A will be hosted by Kate Kinninmont (Chief Executive – Women in Film and Television).

Tickets £12
Box Office: 020 7 328 1000
www.tricycle.co.uk
269 Kilburn High Road, London, NW6 (Nearest Tube: Kilburn)

And let us know what you think of the film!

Join Progressive Women on Saturday 6th November for a day of INSPIRING LEADERS. Develop your leadership skills through our training workshops and be inspired by our guest speakers. For more information see here.

Do you want to learn from women who made it to the top? Explore the obstacles and gender imbalance of leadership and discuss [...]]]> Inspiring Leaders, a partnership event between Camden Speakers Club and Progressive Women, is a day of leadership training, discussions and debate. We are working together to ask questions, spark dialogue and find solutions.

Do you want to learn from women who made it to the top? Explore the obstacles and gender imbalance of leadership and discuss what needs to be done? Be inspired to pursue your own ambitions?

Keynote speaker announced! Fiona Mactaggart MP newly elected Shadow Junior Minister for Equality will share with us her experience and lessons on leadership.

Panel Speakers include:
Kathryn Perera (writer, barrister and Labour Women’s Network), Professor Deborah Cameron (Oxford University linguist and author), Louise Doughty (novelist), Boni Sones (Executive Producer, Women’s Parliamentary Radio), Vicky Booth (Lib Dem Campaign for Gender Balance), Lee Chalmers (leadership coach).

Training sessions: public speaking with Gilly Hollis, debating with Ellie Cumbo, self-empowerment with Kristie West, assertiveness with Christine Kerrison, leadership skills with Lee Chalmers, and communications with Pia Henderson and Nicola Preston Bell.

The event is open to women and men of any age and any background, and is wheelchair accessible.

Cost: £12.50
Saturday 6 November, 10:00 – 16:00
London Irish Centre, 50-52 Camden Square, London, NW1 9XB

Book on eventbrite here

Hope to see you there!

Caroline

Please contact me if you have any questions caroline@progressivewomen.org.uk

Progressive Women aims to support women through discussion and networking events for women interested in politics and the economy.