NCI Blog

Editor's Note:

Alongside our two-part series about NCI’s role in women’s education, this International Women’s Day, Dr Josephine Bleach, Director of NCI’s Early Learning Initiative, shares a personal reflection on societal changes, how the workplace has evolved during her career, and her hopes for the future.

Acknowledging Generational Change: Admiring the Women Before  Me

On this International Women’s Day, as my career reaches its final stages and I become a newly minted girl grandmother, I would like, as Director of the Early Learning Initiative, to thank all the amazing women in my life: those who have come before me, those who have journeyed with me, and those who will come after me.

As I look back, I think of my grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and neighbours, whose lives were so restricted and for whom a career was not an option. My grandmothers were the first generation of Irish women to vote; their property rights were limited, and women’s work was centered around the home. In fact, I believe the reason so many became nuns was that it offered one of the few alternatives to marriage and servitude. My mother’s generation had to give up their careers when they married - how they envied my generation’s ability to earn their own money and build careers. Without an income of their own, apart from the children’s allowance, many women kept "running away money" stashed safely where their husbands could not get to it. I still remember my grandmother’s joy when women became legally entitled to a share of the family home.

"Women’s lib" was a new phrase in the 1960s. Many women supported it, while also feeling wary about the changes it might bring. It was risky to challenge the system, especially when you had no power.

I was the first generation to benefit from these changes and combine motherhood and career. It wasn’t easy and there was a lot of discrimination, both conscious and unconscious. Career options were limited or frowned upon. Someone pointing out, “that’s not a job for a woman” was considered career guidance in those days.

Once you got married, you no longer had your own PRSI number; you took your husband’s number, with an M at the end. Your husband got all the tax breaks, you paid all the tax, and everyone said that it was not worth your while working for so little money. Even today, I look at letters from Revenue with gratitude that we have come so far. I have got my old PRSI number back, an important symbol for my identity as a person, and we each pay our fair share of tax based on our income. Thank God for the EU and the European Courts.

While girls were educated in my day, once you had children, everyone encouraged you to stay home, to be a “good” mother and mind them. I was lucky in the sense that my husband was happy for his career to take a back seat to mine. We were an anomaly. He was one of the few Daddies at the school gate collecting their children, and often described him as a saint for "letting" his wife work. Blessed was he among women.

Learning From the Past to Continue Improving the Future

Today I look at my colleagues, and I see how different life is for them and rejoice. Things might not be easy, but at least you have more choice and flexibility with lots of options for continuing work such as longer maternity leave, career breaks, job sharing, parental leave, and working from home. Their partners are great also, taking an active role in being there for their children and sharing the workload so both can pursue their career.

My one takeaway from a life well-lived is the importance of supporting the next generation by paying it backwards. Acknowledging the support I received from so many people, I have tried, as a leader, to encourage the women around me to follow their dreams but also to mind themselves. When asked, I tell them they need to decide what is right for them and do that. This is what women have fought for, the right to make our own decisions and be the people we want to be.

By living life on my terms and not conforming to the norms, I hope I model how to be yourself in a world that is constantly telling you what to do.

Openly sharing my experiences, successes, failures, and lessons, I try to give them examples of what they might do, healthy warnings about what not to do, how to navigate the various challenges and roadblocks strategically and diplomatically, but also knowing when to stand and fight your corner.

As ELI Director, I pay it backwards by being as understanding and flexible as possible, so that the ELI team, most of whom are women, can balance professional, caring, and personal responsibilities. I have also challenged them to do more, take on new projects, gain qualifications, move out of their comfort zones, thereby building their leadership and professional capacities. Seeing them under stress, especially when sick children compete with work tasks, I have said to slow down, do what you can, and I will help as much as I can. Managing your work and parenting responsibilities is always going to be challenging. Having a line manager who is empathetic and supportive makes a world of difference. In my experience, it creates a wonderful, supportive culture, while also ensuring that your talented team remains enthusiastic and motivated while getting the job done.

Moving Forward Fondly

Integral to paying it backwards are informal chats, quick words of encouragement, and effective performance management practices. Providing an objective confidential sounding board for your team to discuss, vent, and explore their thoughts and feelings is so important. Beginning with induction, followed by regular check-ins and performance reviews, conversations about how they are doing, what is going well, and what is challenging, are critical. It’s also important to focus on the individual as much as the role. How are they? What are their career goals? Where do they see themselves in five years' time? How can we support them getting there? It always amazes me how challenging women find this. They are so focused on everyone else that they forget themselves. This bit of “me time” at work to think, reflect, and plan is so valuable. As a woman in leadership, it provides a useful roadmap for me to support my team to achieve their dreams and ambitions.

As I watched my team grow and develop, live their full lives, give their best at work and at home, I was like a proud Irish mammy – delighting in their achievements and encouraging their plans and ambitions. As I move into the granny sunset phase of my life, I wish them the very best future for themselves, their families, and ELI. Like the Irish Granny, I will be watching from afar, always ready for a cup of tea, a chat, and a good laugh.