Medal of Honour Speech

On 17th May 2023 I became the 44th recipient of the Medal of Honour from 英国曼彻斯特大学 . It was awarded for passion, commitment and activism in the cause of equality for women, as shown throughout my professional career and my substantial voluntary work. This is my short acceptance speech.

Right now, the 10 richest people on the planet are all educated white men.?When Nicholas Hillman & I came to Manchester University in 1990, two-thirds of the millions of illiterate people across the world were women: two-thirds!?Now, we have Goal #5 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals which aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030.?And globally, we are so far off track that we’re going backwards.?Even here in the UK, at the current rate it will take us 100 years to close the gender pay gap.

Dame Margaret Beckett, educated in Manchester, was the first female deputy leader of the Labour party.?Rt Reverend Libby Lane, educated in Manchester, was the first female Church of England Bishop. Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell is not only the first female Vice-Chancellor of Manchester University, but in fact of any Russell Group University.?And of course, the iconic suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst was born here.?Manchester has always raised feminists and I am proud to be part of that tradition.

I wouldn’t say I have encountered much outright sexism (although I did once win an employment tribunal for equal pay). ?The more prevalent problem is what Caroline Criado Perez calls “default male bias”.?When we think of a Logistics Manager, everyone pictures a man, unless we are explicitly told not to.?This idea resonates with Simone de Beauvoir’s work, The Second Sex, which blames our oppression on femininity's historical and social construction as “the other”.

I’m sorry that my parents can’t be here today, although you can see their influence in my adventurous spirit, the courage of my convictions and most especially, my love of learning: I get that from both of them and I hope and believe I have passed it on to my son Alex .

Indeed, as I look around at my family & friends assembled here, I find it astonishing how many of my closest allies have dedicated their professional lives to education.?My beloved husband Alex is a teacher. Dan works for a University.?Both Alice Squires and Ruth Waring FCILT specialise in workplace training.? Anya Ahmed is a University Professor.?? Nicholas Hillman runs an Education think-tank and Cristina Taboada-Naya is the Headteacher of Northampton School for Girls , where it is my privilege to serve as Chair of Governors.

Our NSG students deserve a future where the richest people in the world will not all be white; and they will not all be men.?But I imagine they will always be literate.?That’s because reading and writing skills are more than symbolic, they are a practical route to freedom.?Philosophical and rhetorical expertise is the prerequisite of power.?So, if you have friends like mine and access to an education, such as I received right here in Manchester, then, like me, you are already blessed with riches.?Thank you.