Anne Cooper, the founder of our Minerva leadership development programme, looks at the challenges still facing women in the workplace and how Minerva is developing to support them.
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The Minerva cohort for 2023-24 has just completed its final module and, with that, comes all the emotion of another group of women who have had the opportunity to explore their personal strengths and work with expert coaches to look at what the future holds for them.
Since 2018, Minerva has been quietly delivering expert and often life-changing development opportunities for women in health tech, and this year marks a milestone of almost 50 women completing the programme. It feels amazing to see how a little idea I once had about how I could help women has grown so much.
Ongoing challenges for women in tech
Sadly, however, after six years, the Minerva programme is still set against a backdrop of gender disparity in the technology sector. Information from the World Health Economic Forum points at a reversal of previously positive global trends towards improved gender parity. Impacts likely to have affected this are the global pandemic, an increasingly complex political environment that includes conflict, and an economic context that makes it much harder for women.
While women are often positively represented in the NHS, there is still some way to go to gain parity in the number of women in leadership roles. In the technology sector in general, a stark report by Accenture and Girls who Code points at culture as a key feature of attracting and retaining women into tech roles, something we are not getting this right at present.
Creating space for women to lead
It continues to amaze me that throughout all the Minerva programme modules I have delivered and, in working with all the talented women in the room, some of the themes and stories haven’t changed.
The way power plays out for women in the workforce, how they are not accommodated with flexible working, the persistence of often-male dominated cultures, and how women sometimes feel the need to out-perform their male colleagues to succeed. These are all issues that women currently face – even after decades of progress.
It continues to make me sad and fuels my drive to continue to support women. Minerva has been a great way to do that. It creates a space for new learning, fostering great conversations and building new networks; all delivered in a way that tries hard to be women friendly.
A new era for Minerva
But the story isn’t over yet and, at Ethical Healthcare, we remain committed to working to support women in tech.
This year, Minerva will mix it up a little by welcoming women from other sectors to share their experiences and learning.
In the final module of Minerva – my personal favourite of all the modules – we bring together women to tell personal stories of their career highlights and sometimes low-lights, too. Storytelling is a powerful medium for learning. Stories stay with us in a way that other fact-based learning fails to, and I think this is particularly the case for many women. Stories have the power to harness imagination, use humour, and engage people by fostering dialogue and breaking silence around issues that matter to women.
A personal highlight at the end of the 2024-25 programme was bringing back one of the very first women to complete Minerva to hand on her story to the next cohort. A beautiful full-circle moment.
This year, I am handing over the reins of Minerva to two powerful women – Dr Amanda Thornton and Zoe Nicholl – who will lead the programme with its new diverse collection of participants and continue to provide life-changing leadership opportunities.
Many of the facets of the programme will remain the same with its strong focus on strengths-based leadership, modules that focus on key issues for women and excellent support by personal coaches.
I look forward to hearing the success stories of the women from all sectors who take part in the next cohort.
Get in touch
Click here to learn more about the Minerva programme or contact us at minerva@ethicalhealthcare.org.uk.