Sharing Good Practice
WOMEN IN EDUCATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA not just for women. Men are invited and encouraged to share their voices, experiences and questions too! Many men have attended our sessions and have also been a voice for championing and celebrating equality for women #heforshe being the hashtag for the movement where men can support women. WomenEdMENA aims to establish networks in each country, in both Arabic and English, to share ideas and introduce female educators in the MENA region. In addition, it seeks to provide solutions for the challenges that face women in these countries and beyond, particularly but not exclusive to leadership. Essentially, it provides a platform where we can share thoughts, issues and support each other.
W
omen Ed is a global grassroots movement that connects aspiring and existing women leaders in education and gives women leaders a voice. It initially began in 2015 with the aim to connect women leaders on Twitter. Over the five successful years that it has been operational, Women Ed has been able to; connect, support and empower women leaders in education; give women a voice in education policies and practices, and to work to improve the gender balance between women and men at senior level. Our values known as the 8 Cs: WomenEd MENA is based in the Middle East and North Africa. At the moment we have four Network Leads and are in the process of expanding further. Our aim is to embody the values of WomenEd through championing, encouraging and creating opportunities for networking, growing and developing others. The overall mission is for more women in education to have the choice to
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Term 1 Sep - Dec 2020
What we have achieved so far: progress their leadership journey and support them where possible. 10% braver is at the heart of our blueprint. Using each other’s stories and experiences to demonstrate successes and support followers with practical advice and examples through empowering and supporting their journey. Despite COVID-19 pausing some of our developments and plans of face to face conferences, we have still managed to connect with women across our area to share their stories and learn about different examples of success through webinars and Twitter chats. Some of these have included women struggling to find the position that fits them, having issues with imposter syndrome, needing practical advice with CVs/interviews and overcoming barriers such as childcare and marriage. We present profiles for each of our guest speakers which are shared on social media, creating excellent opportunities for connecting with other like-minded people across the globe - not just the immediate region. WomenEd is
Class Time
We have started to build a network with women in our region and have started hosting informal conversations with women to share their journeys. This has been hugely successful with alternate sessions in Arabic and English which cater to all. Participants have shared how they were motivated by hearing 10% braver chats which encourage them to lean in. These conversations helped to reflect on their practices and redefine leadership in their different contexts. “We don’t need to change the world in everything we do but these steps will change the world one day.”
Some examples of our conversations:
In our first live conversation Maha AlRemahi and Zainab Osama shared examples of how they further expanded their educational leadership practice by being 10% braver to achieve success. The second chat was with Reem Abu Harb and Natasha Hilton, they shared examples of how they utilised resources and networks in every country they worked in. They talked
