UK Public Schoolgirls

[TwilightDawn]

Are you a former UK public schoolgirl? What careers do MOST UK public schoolgirls go into and do MOST of them actually progress far on the career ladders? I am aware that the majority of people in top positions in the UK are former public schoolboys (old Etonians etc.) but what happens to former public schoolgirls? I don't mean the relative few who somehow get into top positions (they as women still have a fight on their hands) but what about the majority?

I went to a bog standard comprehensive school and university. I took a few years out working before uni to build up savings. During this time I worked for various govt. departments and found that some of the typists, secretaries and lower (entry) level administrators were women who had been public school educated and had been in these jobs for years if not the whole of their careers. Some of them went to top public schools. This came as a surprise to me. I hadn't imagined that women with this background would be working side by side with me and earning the same peanuts which the Civil Service refers to as a salary.

I now work for the NHS as a nurse. Back in my student nurse days, some of my cohort were former public schoolgirls also. The last I heard, most of them were still band 5 nurses whereas I have progressed to senior management level. AIBU to wonder whether the potential future benefits of a public school education actually manifest for the majority of former public schoolgirls?

Just to clarify, I am using the English definition of "public school" i.e. fee-paying, private, exclusive school.

Teacher

I think it has changed along with the resurgence of lad culture (seen in the recent expose of rape culture in these schools) and privilege reasserting itself in recruitment to professional jobs. I emerged into my career at a time when there was a real sense of wanting to open things up to all backgrounds, and genders, now sadly a few universities provide most successful candidates and it is a matter of statistics that private schools get more students into those universities.

I have school friends who not surprisingly, from one of the most academically successful schools in the country, went on to success in all sorts of fields but also with a strong sense of a service ethic a lot did become social workers, teachers and doctors and nurses. I am not sure it is valid to represent decisions to be SAHMs or caring professions as some sort of failure. In my experience those who wanted to get to the top did but the issue was that meant choices common to all of us about whether career or children came first. What did I get from that fee paying education, academic skills that have served me lifelong, and got me to Director level in a FTSE by my mid 30s with the assumption I would go further but then I chose to put my children first.

This generation is emerging into careers where the professions are definitely crowded out with girls (and boys ) from certain schools. The continuation of the lad culture they are finding there does not fill me with confidence. Especially if they are not white.

@BlackElephant that isn’t true, there were originally seven ‘public schools’ there are not still just seven.

Fee paying?
Of those I am in contact with: SAHMx2; midwife; riding instructor; PE teacher; 2 actors; art teacher; editor; librarian; pilot; carer; singer.

They seem to dominate acting and tv presenting?

I wouldn’t limit “public school” to the original seven nowadays, I’d say maybe HMC members?

I don’t know what it’s like today, but certainly when I was at school (in a private, rather than a public school) several of the girls’ public schools were rather more geared towards turning out nice young ladies who went off to university to find a rich man... not all of them, obviously, and I hope that none have that attitude any longer, but at some schools that definitely used to be the attitude.

My classmates - lawyers, accountants, medics, a dentist, MD of an arts centre, music teachers (several), civil servants, MP (well liked on here too), actress, potter, jewellery designer, music producer, military officers and a lot of teachers. No nurses probably because most of those with a medical background had a Dr father and a nurse mother and thought they were at least as good as Dad (and knew he earned a lot more).

I went to private school. My children attend a state school in quite a middle class area. I can't say that I see a great difference between my own classmates and the parents of my children's classmates

Some of my classmates sent their children to private school. I notice a whiff of self-assurance / arrogance in the children, but I think it disappears when they enter the workplace

Out of interest (I didn't go to school in England) - how can potential employers tell whether an applicant has been to a public school? I thought that you don't put primary and secondary schools on your CV?

Forgot - one of my classmates went on to be a Norland nanny and was working for my boss at my first job after college - small world!

One other advantage is that they can join the University Women's CLub in Mayfair at a really cheap rate until they are 25.

The majority of Old Etonians, Old Harrovians, Old Salopians, Old Wykehamists, and Old Amplefordians I know — and I’m already aware this is one of the weirdest-looking sentences I’ve ever written — are in entirely ordinary jobs. Off the top of my head, one works for a wildlife conservation charity, one is a SAHP, one is a sculptor, one is an antiques dealer, one is a historian. One acted for a while and then got into game show production. One is an estate manager, one writers YA novels. One trained as an Anglican priest and now runs a sort of halfway house for recovering addicts on his family estate.

I went to a very posh school (a name that would be recognised by most) absolutely hated it and thought it was very toxic, I’m a quantity surveyor.

Girls I went to school with are now
Weve a lot of bankers, including some who have done very well and will be on 200/300k + easily
The vast majority are lawyers
A few academics
A couple of doctors/dentists
A journalist
Someone owns a small but fairly successful clothing brand
A very successful chemist

Almost without fail they are incredibly successful women, if I want to be depressed I LinkedIn stalk them

@ichundich

Out of interest (I didn't go to school in England) - how can potential employers tell whether an applicant has been to a public school? I thought that you don't put primary and secondary schools on your CV?

You do if it's a posh school!

The one I went to certainly isn't erecting any statues to me! But it's a useful f-you when (men) under estimate me or presume I'm stupid. (Many, many years later too)

Some of my peers have done amazingly well - top business women, lawyers, top journalist, a famous consultant etc etc. Others are physios, teachers, nurses, artists, office workers. I'm not sure our school did anything at all to help, these people might have gone those amazing things anyway, unless it gave them the drive & ambition. There were certainly no "old girl" connections made or anything like that.

I went to private school (not a top one).

I don’t know anyone who is a top earner. We’re all teachers, nurses, social workers, SAHMs, a couple of insurance brokers, PAs.

IME single sex private schools in the 90s and 00s were doing nothing to address gender inequality or teach girls to aim outside of traditional gender roles. And I’m only in my early thirties.

I'm in male dominated field but it's changing with the younger ones coming through. The women are potentially better at the job.

My private school education gave me the confidence to pursue what I wanted.

I was incredibly academic, no common sense. Peers that weren't as academic but had more common sense have done just as well if not better than me. We're mostly all in the 100k+ bracket.

It depends on so much than just education or educational institution attended. Some people just aren’t very ambitious and are really happy with a nice pick up and put down role and that’s up to them.

I don’t think it brings the same advantages as it does to men, but I’ll be honest out of all the women I know who have very successful careers and are high earners all bar three (and I’m thinking of 10 women here) went to private school. This hardly a representative sample though.

I’m also friendly with a few women who went to public school and who have ‘good jobs’ but they’re within their families/parents successful businesses.

@BinocularVision

The majority of Old Etonians, Old Harrovians, Old Salopians, Old Wykehamists, and Old Amplefordians I know — and I’m already aware this is one of the weirdest-looking sentences I’ve ever written — are in entirely ordinary jobs. Off the top of my head, one works for a wildlife conservation charity, one is a SAHP, one is a sculptor, one is an antiques dealer, one is a historian. One acted for a while and then got into game show production. One is an estate manager, one writers YA novels. One trained as an Anglican priest and now runs a sort of halfway house for recovering addicts on his family estate.

You need money behind you to make sculptor, historian etc a liveable career from the get go though. Someone from the local comp probably isn't going to succeed that way without an actual 'job'.

I went to an academically top rated independent school - most of my school friends have good careers / professional roles.

I think you are perhaps asking more about the "posher" side of the independent sector though. A few friends have been to these schools: one has just been made an equity partner in her firm, one has a very successful PR career, one is an accountant, but others have chosen different paths - artists, musicians, SAHMs .... I don't think there is any single path that MOST have taken

Uni professor and head of department.

PR, travel, magazines, marketing, lots of personal assistant type roles in posh companies. These are from the really really posh public boarding schools. Not particularly high flying or intellectual, more lifestyle roles in the right sort of company. The girls I know who went to the more academic, London private schools are the ones who are lawyers and doctors etc

Great question! I’m not a public school girl but my daughter is and I see the merits and pitfalls of both systems.

Looking across her school however, when wealth is on a like for like basis (ie the husbands are in similar jobs thereby taking income out of the equation), a far higher proportion of SAHMs are ex public school girls than those who went through the state system. So many of these mums push their daughters into every club, instrument, sport, tutor session... whatever it takes for them to be seen to be winning and achieving, yet don’t seem to be able to model why they want them to be doing that. Most of the working parents are not privately educated, and nor do many of them need to be working.

Not a judgement, just an observation, but one that I’m really conscious of when I think of my daughter. I love my work and I like that she sees that work can bring something positive to your life and isn’t just about the income. I recognise I’m privileged to say that because DH is the main breadwinner.

'there are 9 public schools'

Only if you do not accept any of the changes of definition since 1864, and ignore other schools which have their own Act.

@idontlikealdi what a fascinating group, do you still keep in touch?

Sorry @idontlikealdi I should have directed that @BinocularVision