Asking important people questions
as the camera moves closer to their face.
>> What does gender equality mean to you?
>> Gender equality is absolutely fundamental to
how I sort of think about myself and my students,
because it just means regardless of gender,
we all have an equal playing field.
It's the ultimate
in leveling the playing field. That's what it means to me.
>> Have you experienced imposter syndrome
in life or in your career?
>> And how have you tackled that?
Imposter syndrome is something I experience every single day.
And it's and something I think I've learned to live with,
because what I've accepted about imposter syndrome is that it's
an essential part of who I
am and what it does, in a positive way,
It actually makes me work harder
because I have to prove to myself that I'm good enough.
Therefore, I work harder so I can actually prove the value,
but it's something I encounter every way,
and I see in a lot of women around me as well.
>> What particular achievement in your work or in your life
are you especially proud of?
>> Well in my life, in my personal life,
I ran my first marathon at
age 48 and I never expected to be able to do this at all.
It's something I'm super proud of
because it needs determination in its training,
it needs planning, it needs shear mindedness.
And in a way that's exactly
the qualities I pride myself on in my professional life.
I would never describe myself as
intelligent and brilliant and knowledgeable
But what I am is determined and I
work very hard and that's how I get stuff done.
So in a way, the qualities I
pride myself on in my private life,
and ones I pride myself on in my professional life overlap.
And that's what I want to pass on to my students.
>> What did you want to be when you grew up?
>> When I grew up, I actually wanted to be deep sea diver.
I was absolutely enthralled by Jacques Cousteau.
Loved whales, loved dolphins,
read everything about marine sea life.
And then came a moment around 12 or 13 when I
decided that actually there's
a big flaw with with my dream.
I'm quite claustrophobic.
So the idea of deep-sea diving didn't appeal to me at all.
So that dream changed very, very quickly.
>> Is there a woman in your life who
has inspired you in some way
and can you talk about that? >>Well one woman who has inspired me
professionally is an art historian
by the name of Patricia Fortini Brown.
She's really inspirational professionally because she came to
the discipline of art history quite late. She had great
determination, mature woman working really hard.
What she is as an art historian is
just a role model with regards to how she works.
So this woman manages to explain
the most complicated stuff in
such a way that it becomes clear so that,
that tight rope, because dealing with something that's
complicated but actually making it accessible.
She just navigates with ease.
I know her personally, and I feel quite inspired by her
personally as well because she is a proper mentor.
So she's very committed to education,
to looking after other women,
and I find that amazing. In my private life,
I have a number of women I massively admire
because just again of grit and determination to just keep going.
And the ones who really inspire me are the ones who
spend a lot of time investing in giving back,
kind of explaining to people about their awesomeness and
actually trying to inspire other women in
particular to follow in their footsteps.
So one of those women would be Jo Ward,
who is one of the Girl Guiding regional commissioners who
spends every waking minute of her free life,
thinking about how to inspire girls to break down barriers.
>> What advice would you give to your teenage self?
>> The advice to my teenage self is just believe it,
you can do it, just go for it.
And what does it matter? If you fail,
you've still learn something.
>> How does being a parent impact the way you
think and feel about something like gender equality?
>> Interesting question.
I have two children, one a girl and one a son.
So I'm very acutely aware of
potential differences in raising a daughter to raising a son.
So I try really hard not to
distinguish between them because of gender at all,
but to pay a lot of attention to their character,
their kind of personal likes and dislikes.
And just to, to, to forget,
one of my offspring is a girl,
and one of my offspring is a boy,
and I'm super proud of both of them because I think neither
of them have ever been so far defined by gender,
but more defined by what they're comfortable with.
That's, that's how I want them to grow up.
That's the kind of like mother
I want to be, kind of do it,
just go smash it out of the ballpark. Try it.