Turning heads? Why appearances shouldn’t matter


Working for The Future Leaders Trust, I’m more used to mixing with the education twitterati than the TV-presenting celeberati. So, one of the more unusual things that happened to me in 2014 was being told by BBC sports presenter Gabby Logan (on twitter) to “loosen up”. This after I questioned whether commenting on what the World Cup-winning England women’s rugby team were wearing on BBC Sports Personality of the Year was an appropriate response to their incredible sporting success.

For me – and presumably for the judging panel who awarded them team of year – the fact that they were in identical outfits was not the thing that made captain Katy McLean and her team-mates stand out. What made them amazing was winning the rugby World Cup for the first time in 20 years, while also holding down jobs in a range of professions, including teaching. That was what they should have been complimented on; not their wardrobe selection. Yet we know that in education also, too many governors who meet a potentially great headteacher are unable to see past the fact they are wearing a frock.
Of course, Gabby Logan’s comment on the dresses may have been no more than a throw-away line, designed to put the team at their ease in front of a live audience of hundreds and a TV audience of millions. Maybe I should just loosen up. The reason I can’t is that we still live in a world where too often women are judged on their appearance and not on their achievements.  This is a world in which Angela Merkel, probably the most powerful leader in Europe, has been criticised for the terrible failing of wearing the same outfit twice, while male Australian TV anchor Karl Stefanovic wore the same blue suit for a year and no one noticed.
Closer to home, one of our successful female Future Leader headteachers was subject to a string of abuse and lewd suggestions on an online education discussion forum:
This unpleasant example is by no means the worst comment posted, but gives a (bitter) flavour. The thread was subsequently removed, but only after we raised concerns about the content. And sadly this isn’t an isolated case.
I have heard it said that most people asked to draw a headteacher draw a middle-aged, white man, often with a beard. This was starkly illustrated in some online governor training I did recently, which stamped “approved” over just such an image to remind maintained school governors about the need to recommend their preferred headship candidate to the local authority.

To be fair, the designers had clearly very carefully selected a range of images representing the diversity of our society to use throughout the course materials. It was perhaps just an unfortunate coincidence that it was this one they used to illustrate a candidate who might be approved.
As with Gabby Logan’s comment to the England women’s rugby team, given there was probably no malicious intent, perhaps I should just let it go. The problem is, intentional or not, such comments and images continually reinforce stereotypes about “the right man for the job”, which can make it difficult for candidates and post-holders not conforming to such stereotypes to succeed.  Until we live in a society where people are judged equally and fairly on their capabilities and potential, you can expect me to continue to pick up the casual prejudice that holds back under-represented groups and belittles their achievements.

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