Power of Women: Beccy joins local campaign to help raise the aspirations of women across Teesside

Our founder, Beccy Owen, joined the panel at February’s ‘Power Of Women’ event to talk about what it’s like to be a woman in business, how female relationships have shaped her career path and what advice she’d give to anyone wanting to start their own venture.

Alongside business coach, Sandra Rowell, and founders of ‘The Open Book Club’, we also heard from the brilliant Michelle Minnikin, author of ‘Good Girl Deprogramming’. The event aimed to spark insightful conversations that celebrate empowerment, female friendships and the diverse paths that women can take in their personal and professional lives.

Power Of Women is a local campaign aiming to raise the aspirations of women and young girls across Teesside. Spearheaded by the late Professor Jane Turner OBE DL, their mission is to improve the lives of young people in the Tees Valley and beyond by elevating aspirations, ensuring equal opportunities and challenging gender stereotypes.

A report by Plan UK back in 2020 explored the state of women’s rights in the UK and looked into a number of key measures including child poverty, life expectancy, educational attainment, child obesity, teenage conception rates and NEET status. It set out a picture of inequality facing girls across the UK. In the report, Hartlepool features in the bottom 10, and in the previous report Middlesbrough ranked last overall. The report reveals that there is a sharp difference between what the girls feel people perceive them to be and their lived realities. 

When asked, girls in Middlesbrough felt “assumptions are made about the way they dress or behave and that they are not academically able and have no ambitions. Furthermore, that Middlesbrough is perceived as a white working class, male dominated town lacking in opportunities for girls and young women. In stark contrast, a determined ambition was at the heart of conversations with the girls, who expressed the importance of a working and professional identity and a commitment to education.” 

The purpose of The Power of Women campaign is to give Tees Valley girls a ‘voice’ to deliver on their ambitions. 

The event was organised in collaboration with Nichola Watson of Little Victories Marketing and held at the brilliant venue, Talking Tides Brew Co, in Marske. Thank you to Claire Preston and Sophie McKenna from POW for the opportunity to speak at such an important event - we can’t wait for the next one!