A Conversation with Women in Work
Interview by Isabella Cuervo-Lorens
Edited by Grace Kennedy
Isabella meets with Women in Work Director, Beth Robertson and Vice President, Seaf Hartley to discuss their upcoming event, Women in Entertainment this Thursday.
Rebranded in 2017, Women in Work provides women in St. Andrews with a head start in today’s competitive world. Aiming to reduce professional, ethnic and economic barriers in all professions. They have organised countless speaker and networking events to widespread acclaim. In anticipation of their first event of the year, we spoke with Beth Robertson and Seaf Hartley to discuss what to expect from their upcoming event, and the changing meaning of ‘success’ at St. Andrews.
Women in Work has grown rapidly in the past few years to the point that you don’t even need much of an introduction. What do you think enabled you to connect with the community so fast?
Beth Robertson (B): Before Women in Work, there wasn’t anything that occupied the exact same space that we do now. We fill a hole in the job-focused, networking kind of environment that St Andrews cultivates, but in a way that's female focused. Women in Work is for everybody, but mostly women attend our events. It’s nice to have a space where we can promote women, celebrate their achievements, and encourage them to continue learning.
Seaf Hartley (S): Something is successful when it addresses a gap that needs to be filled. We cater to people who don’t know what they want to do and provide forums for them to see what they like. We also try to emphasise different paths women have taken to reach the places they’re at now. Many of them aren’t particularly orthodox, and it’s quite inspiring for people at this age who might not know where to start.
Your upcoming event is ‘Women in Entertainment’. Tell us a little bit about that – what made you decide to feature the entertainment industry?
B: We ran the series of ‘Women in-’ events last year. Last year, we did ‘Women in Fashion,’ and many people attended more out of a personal interest than actually wanting to pursue a career in it. ‘Women in Entertainment’ is the same - everybody wants to hear from an actor about what their life has been like. Topics like these are engaging to a wide base of people, beyond just those who are interested in it as a career.
Do you feel that women relate differently to the entertainment industry than men? And if so, how?
B: We feel that entertainment is an industry where women are celebrated, but not appreciated, and if they are it’s for the wrong things, in the wrong way. This event is about celebrating women for their talents and achievements and letting them promote themselves in their own right.
S: When we chose our panellists, we did so solely based on skill; how they’ve been able to turn something they’re passionate about into a career.
B: People talk to women about how they ‘got discovered’, rather than what it was like to work incredibly hard, [such as getting] a masters in documentary filmmaking and other things that our panellists have done.
Unfortunately, the entertainment industry has recently come to light as something incredibly toxic and even dangerous for women. How will you address that in the event?
B: One of our panellists is Tina Sloan, a 76-year-old American actress, who’s been working in TV for many years. She’s someone who absolutely would have witnessed those dynamics first-hand and so we’re particularly excited to hear what she has to say.
S: Especially how those environments have changed over time, as you often only hear the voices of younger women in the industry. It'll be fascinating to hear what her realities were or are. And just to clarify, our panel is a very small representation of women in entertainment and if not all of them had those experiences, it's not to say that those things didn’t happen. At any rate, we’re sure that it will come up during the Q&A, as it’s a very topical issue.
Let’s talk about intersectionality and diversity – both core values of Women in Work. How will that be reflected in 'Women in Entertainment’?
B: It’s something that we’re very conscious of and always push for. It’s often said that St. Andrews is not the most diverse place and I would completely agree. However, the experiences, ages and backgrounds of our speakers represent a vast array of different paths to success.
S: We reached out to a wide variety of women but we of course can only have five and are dependent on scheduling. There are a great many conditions that create our panel but intersectionality and diversity are very present in our society as a whole.
What are your thoughts on the entertainment scene in St. Andrews? Is talking about entertainment something for which you see a growing demand?
B: I think there’s a very vibrant artistic scene in St Andrews. I’ve thought about working in TV and media production [myself], so an event acknowledging those interests is something I feel I would have benefitted from, as would many people I know. It’s not really something that’s been encouraged at St. Andrews and I think it's important to promote different career paths and ways of being successful.
S: I agree. We are a very academic university without any fully fledged arts programs. It often seems as if people don’t know how to go about being creative without feeling like they’re discrediting their academic background. Part of our objective is to show that you can come from such a background and still go into film, or TV, or anything like that.
You previously featured more traditional white-collar careers. Is ‘Women in Entertainment’ a sign that you’re expanding into less orthodox fields?
S: Approaching 2020, the university-to-career path has changed so much. It’s no longer going straight from school to university to a white-collar career. That path is still very popular but more widespread access to education is changing what it means to enter a career.
B: I think about this a lot. When I started here in first year, my first thought was ‘I’m going to be a lawyer because that’s just what I want to do and because it’s the career that I think that I should be doing.’ I’ve diverged so much from that now. I want to reassure first and second years, who are unsure of or unhappy with choices they’ve made.
S: I’m going into law but it’s not the only path. With our Network and events, you’re able to see that more than any other group at St Andrews. Conveying that wide range of ambition is very important to us. We try to facilitate that in whatever way we can, mainly getting women out to discuss things that matter to them and inspiring others to do the same.
What are you hoping that young women will learn from attending the event?
B: That there really isn’t any one element of pathway to success. Everybody does things at their own pace and success is something very unique to each person.
S: That attendance is definitely not exclusive to people who want to go into entertainment. The most inspired I’ve ever felt by a panel we’ve held was during ‘Women in STEM’, a field that doesn't interest me at all. I was so impressed with the diversity of our panellists and the adversity that they’d overcome. Neither of those things are exclusive to STEM, just as what you can learn this Thursday isn’t exclusive to entertainment. They're about journeys of personhood. At the end of the day, we bring in interesting women who just happen to be in a certain field or profession -
B: Who have interesting things to say about the world, rather than just their careers.
S: We’ve even had panellists tell us that they’ve learned so much from the people they were on stage with. It was incredible to hear of people learning from someone 20 or 30 years their junior that they met at one of our events. It’s that never-ending inspiration and dialogue that we want to bring to St. Andrews.
What would you say to someone who feels hesitant about getting involved in something that doesn’t necessarily relate to their career path?
S: Honestly, we host so many talks and people should just take advantage. They might inspire you more than you expect - maybe an anecdote a speaker shares will spark something within you. You really never know.
B: University is the time where you get to do this kind of thing. That’s why we keep everything reasonably cheap and accessible because we believe that people should use every available opportunity to expand their minds, whether it’s career-related or not.
S: This is a big part of how we try and tackle diversity and intersectionality. Especially as it’s something that’s struggled within the entertainment industry. You absolutely shouldn’t have to be of a certain socioeconomic group to receive opportunities.
Is there anything that you’d like the audience to know that we haven’t touched upon?
S: We want any readers to know that they’re welcome to join our Network (membership) if they’re interested in keeping the conversation going.
B: [The Network] is completely collaborative. We want to hear back from you - if you’ve been inspired by something you've heard at one of our events, or which ones you liked the most.
S: We’re a by-St-Andrews-for-St-Andrews community. That’s the main thing.
Women in Work Committee 2019-20
‘Women in Entertainment’ will take place this Thursday, 17th October, at Hotel Du Vin. Tickets are £4 for Members and £5 for Non-members, available on FIXR:
https://fixr.co/event/486155302?fbclid=IwAR0utxxAyK33P6s9FRraKLXy7b3q6d7bfeJyy14GrZ0s5jbEqrsMeRE6YCA