Women to Work announces women’s careers research project with Sheffield University Management School

Emma Shute and Jenny Pollock are delighted to be working on a research project with Professor Penny Dick from Sheffield University Management School to look at women’s careers.

Penny Dick is a Professor of Organizational Psychology and she has recently obtained some funding from the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Grants competition to conduct this research.

“I want to examine whether current understandings of “career” adequately reflect and capture the working and non-working experiences of adult women in the United Kingdom. To this end, I am working in collaboration with Jenny and Emma of Women to Work and will be attending three of their Work Life Discovery Coaching Workshops at Sheffield Central Library in order to observe the activities and conversations of the attendees and will work with Jenny and Emma to identify women who might be willing to take part in individual interviews” said Professor Dick.

The research study will take place during 2019 and once this is completed and the information has been analysed, the results will be shared in the form of scholarly articles and more accessible user-friendly articles which will be made publicly available via Professor Dick’s web page and Women to Work’s website.

“We also intend to run a one-day workshop at the end of the study intended to stimulate discussion of the policy implications of the study. We intend to invite local employers, government policy makers and other relevant stakeholders, as well as some of the women who participated in the study” added Professor Dick.

 

“We’re delighted to be working with Professor Dick on this project” said Jenny Pollock “it was an aspiration of ours when we first set up Women to Work that we’d like to be able to make a societal difference around supporting women to reach their personal and professional potential and be able to really make a difference to women in the workplace.”

 

“The women we work with tell us what they value most about work and how under-valued the role of stay-at-home mothers or non-working women is. We’ve felt for some time that there is a mismatch between the way traditional career success is viewed and the way women see personal and professional success” added Emma Shute

 

If you have attended one of Women to Work’s Work Life Discovery Coaching Workshops and would like to be involved in the research please contact Jenny and Emma via email info@womentowork.co.uk. Or if you’d like to attend a future workshop to contribute to the research that way, please visit our website for details and dates www.womentowork.co.uk.

 

Notes to editors:

Women to Work’s Work Life Discovery Coaching Workshops have been running approximately 5 times a year since 2014.

The workshop is run in groups of around 15 women and explores:

  • Your values and purpose – an understanding of what you value most and what motivates you in work and life
  • Your personal strengths profile – a summary of your key strengths and areas for development
  • Your definition of a realistic work life balance that suits your lifestyle needs
  • A vision of your future ideal work / life
  • The start of an action plan to achieve this vision

It provides an inspiring learning experience and the opportunity for women to meet others in a similar situation and Jenny and Emma aim for the women attending to leave the workshop feeling optimistic about the future with improved confidence and self-belief.

Here are some recent testimonials from the workshops:

 “Women to Work really underlined my confidence to venture into something new. I realised how fortunate my life is to allow me the luxury of choice. I thought it inspired many of us first to take that one small step that would make all the difference.”

“A highly participative, friendly and informative session. Lots of opportunity to reflect and discuss with fellow attendees. A very useful springboard for my next steps career wise.”

“I wish I had done this course sooner – it’s been brilliant to take the time to think about myself, my life & my values. It felt like a luxury but really it’s a necessity.”

“How wonderful to spend time with a room full of intelligent, engaged and supportive women to think, reflect, focus and plan our individual ways forward. I leave here today feeling energised and full of excitement for ‘what’s next’.”

 “Women to Work’s Work Life Discovery Workshop was exactly what I needed – it made me face up to myself and my current work life situation, it gave me back some of my confidence, and gave me some practical steps to take. I’m really glad I came!”

“Jenny and Emma are so knowledgeable and really want to help make a difference to women’s work/life balance.”

Emma Shute & Jenny Pollock are the founders & coaches of Women to Work. As well as designing and delivering Women’s Development Programmes, Emma & Jenny both offer one to one coaching sessions either face to face in Sheffield or Derby or by telephone or Skype. For more information contact Emma & Jenny at info@womentowork.co.uk