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.

Think it does help as it's not all about exams or it wasnt when I went. I think what i love most about my school friends is they are pursuing their dreams ie have come out ,travelled the world, been published, working in their dream jobs. Alas I have done none of those things but I work in a corporate role in the financial sector but I am hoping to branch out out to a sector I love! My sister went to grammar school and there seems to be less of that more of I did it because I wanted to however that could be a generational thing as she is younger (they all drink less too!)

One trained as an Anglican priest and now runs a sort of halfway house for recovering addicts on his family estate.

Family estate being the most important words in this sentence. I actually work with someone who has run out of rich relatives to die and leave an inheritance and they are honestly bewildered. Getting to grips with the idea that there isn't a pot of money somewhere with their name on it, is really tough for them. I have no expectation of any inheritance, which they used to think was very odd, bless them !

Agree with the comment above that the divide within the private sector is really academic schools and not.

Just as with comprehensives private schools cater for the very bright indeed to those who are extremely intellectually challenged. The outcomes of the two groups will differ hugely as will outcomes from comps between those two groups. Adding to that mix that some women still choose not to work and if you or your husband is rich then there is more chance you do not have to - in fact if you are both very rich then neither will ever need to work although that is fairly rare even in fee paying schools.

My post on page 1 explained what are regarded as public schools these days - HMC schools and for girls it is GSA schools sp North London Coll. where my daughter went but not Haberdashers where the other went.

The original poster got the description wrong and really meant UK private or UK fee paying schools for girls rather than "public schools".

It’s what you’d expect

• Girls get advantages from attending public schools the same as boys do, but, because they are girls they get less of them

• The main thing you seem not to understand is that there are different types of public school - a boy at Harrow or Westminster or a girl at Wycombe Abbey or St Paul’s is going to end up with an amazing network, schools a bit lower down the ladder less so, and when it comes to local private schools, you aren’t really paying for a network so much as self confidence, high expectations and some individualised teaching.

• Overall girls and boys benefit from a private education (Sutton Trust) - so your friends parents were wrong

If you’d been a lawyer you would have said the same.

This. I haven’t kept up with all the girls from school but there are far more doctors and lawyers in the mix than from the state school I did my final year at.

[quote TwilightDawn]@FTM1

So they basically go into careers that are open to most people ...... so are there any actual career advantages of a public school education for girls?[/quote]
Ah so basically this is going to turn into a private education bashing thread - again

@MintyMabel that makes sense. More girls from public sector end up with professional qualifications or in high flying jobs. I think more also go on to be SAHP. Perhaps there less in the middle.

I went to public school. I’ve worked as a lecturer and now as a solicitor. But I had an extremely traumatic time in my teenage years and have had years of counselling so who knows if that hadn’t happened.

I went to a v well known and v academic private school, however in quite a few cases in my year the school actually held us back and we did not get the opportunities we should have.
I was a high achiever (3 As at A level) and was keen to do law. One teacher said I wasn't bright enough and there were other girls in the year more suited to it.
It knocked my confidence completely and I spent the next 10 years doing nothing great as a result...however I've pulled myself together and am now a surveyor. Plus I'm starting my law degree next year simply to prove that actually yes I can do it.

They have a variety of jobs/ non jobs but almost always marry rich men.

Almost non were unmarried mothers.

@Pinetreesfall my friend got kept back a year it completely destroyed her confidence. And there were awful comments about performance if you were achieving As in certain subjects. All about the league tables
I heard comments like ‘you’ll end up stacking shelves in Tesco’s’. What is wrong with that?society needs all different roles to function.

[quote TwilightDawn]@FTM1

So they basically go into careers that are open to most people ...... so are there any actual career advantages of a public school education for girls?[/quote]
Prime minister's wife or Guardian columnist?
I doubt it would matter anywhere else.

@Pinetreesfall hope you enjoy your law degree x

I have one friend who was privately educated (independent ex grammar school), she runs the family business she inherited, is in local politics ( county council cabinet member) and a mum of primary school age kids. But I'd put her success down to her incredible energy, ability to multitask and her inheritance than her education.

Thanks @Lurcherloves
Who knows it might lead to some super duper career haha!

Yes I went to one of the UKs leading all girls public schools. I became a barrister, in a top chamber in London . Got married, had children, now live in the south and work in marketing at a private school!

@whattodo2019 why did you give up your career?

I and to a private school and my career has been ok. I don’t think sending your kids to private or public school is all about academic achievement or high flying jobs though. It’s as much about general attitude and access to networks that it gives you/social cache even though not everyone would admit that. Some have mentioned already the fact that it enabled them to attract a husband with a well paid job.
I think you’ll find more of a mixed bag in terms of girls’ public schools for two reasons:

1. It’s still harder for women to get on in many workplaces whether mothers or not. Men are expected to have decent careers and be wage earners and the old boys’ network is stronger than anything women can provide.
2. Some/many women prefer - and it’s still very socially acceptable in a way it isn’t for men - to have a man provide for them. But often it helps to attract the right sort of man to provide if you’re from a certain background. A bit like finishing school.

So the dynamics are quite different. I have several friends/female relatives who don’t earn loads but their male partners do. They would never have been with those partners had they not been to private school. And even with private school those women who either wanted to get on for their own satisfaction or had to get on to support themselves as no partner to earn for them have had a harder ride perhaps as it’s a tougher world for many women and private girls’ schools don’t set you up as well as you get mixed messages about your role in life. Certainly in my generation you did (1970s/80s).

So it probably helps generally but I also sometimes think I’d have been more rounded had I been to a comprehensive school.

I went to state school and then Oxford, where my group of 7 female friends included only one who had been to state school and the others privately educated. Of the group, the girls who were privately educated worked in either the city or law, while the two of us who went to state school went into education and publishing. University seemed like a leveler at the time but twenty years later the salary gap has widened hugely.

Did a physics degree + postgraduate, now work in quant trading.
I can honestly say that going to a private school had little (if any) impact on my job prospects.

[quote TwilightDawn]@BlibBlabBlob

Yes, the joys of motherhood. My children definitely came first and my career at the time (read "job") had to fit around them .

My best friend from school days came from a relatively privileged background but went to the same bog standard comprehensive school as me. Her brothers were sent to a public school and have done immensely well for themselves. My friend however, was sent to the "comp" because her parents thought it wasteful to send a girl to public school unless you are loaded. We thought this was outrageous at the time (we were budding feminists) but I am starting to wonder if they had a fair point. Her brothers have influential connections which they made at school. Do you have any influential connections made at school which could help you if you did decided to pursue a career in the future i.e. its not just what you know but "who" you know?[/quote]
Crikey no, not at all. But then I didn't like most of the people I was at school with, and am only in touch with one of them now.

I went to a rather small girls only private school. Only 10 of us in my year group. Most sailed through uni more easily than my friends from state school but things seemed to stall out there. 3 are stay at home mothers now. One owns a small hair salon. Two became primary school teachers, one died, one moved to another country and was never heard from again and the last is middle management in the NHS.

I dropped out of uni after becoming disabled and have spent my entire adult life on ESA/PIP and have been told I will probably never be able to work properly.

I didn't go to a private school, but I've worked with a large number of female colleagues that did. I work in PR.

It’s funny... I went to a GDST and am doing a career where I would say privately educated people are in the minority and it certainly hasn’t helped me get to where I am.

But I’ve ended up marrying someone who earns a lot so we have a nice lifestyle.
I met him at university when he was still doing his PhD. It was a Russell group university and my private education did probably help me get to that university (to read a creative/arty subject).

So although I feel like my education didn’t ‘do me any good’ I suspect that it has affected how things have turned out for me.

Conversely many of my peers from school have not gone on to ‘achieve great things’ although there are a good number of doctors, lawyers, civil servants etc there are lots in careers where having a private education would not be expected

GDST schools aren't public schools, are they?