THE first female plumber in the UK, a billion-streamed singer songwriter and a multi-lingual academic professor were just some of the distinguished women who addressed schoolchildren at Roedean School in Sussex to mark 2026’s International Women’s Day.
Students from the city’s schools joined Roedean pupils at their school on Friday (Mar 6) to hear inspiring words from 15 multi-talented women who had all overcome gender hurdles to achieve their dreams.
Windrush generation member Claudine Eccleston held her audience enthralled with her tale of arriving from Jamaica as a child and going on to train to become a plumber in 1977 – the first recorded female to do so. She recalled: “It was the most painful thing I have ever done. I was physically and verbally abused by the men I trained with and they would throw things in the vat of liquid lead we used as I passed so that it would splash me. When I finished training, no-one would employ me. In the end I managed to get work with Camden Council in London. They made a big deal about hiring me in the London Evening Standard where I had my picture taken but when they had a celebration to mark the occasion they woud not even give me the day off to attend! The press reported thast Camden Council had made history by hiring me – not that I had made history by training to be a plumber!”
Now founder of Playing The Race Card, a Hastings project using art to spark conversations about race and sociak justice, Ms Eccleston has also fostered 40 chidren, worked in social care and is now immersed in local history in her retirement.
The pupils were also treated to a performance by one half of alt pop duo Oh Wonder, Josephine Vander West, who with her partner has written, produced and released five albums, garnered three billion streams and played headline shows in 45 different countries. Her accompanying talk, Finding Your Voice, explored how her determination to be a successful musician drove her to gig many hundreds of times to gain experience and resilience and achieve her ambitions. “I feel like, as a woman, the most important thing in order to get where you want to go is authenticity,” she told the children. “Embrace your quirks and uniqueness. Don’t try to hide those bits. Give yourself permission to live life on your own terms. You must have blind faith in what you do and have no self doubt.”
Associate professor Dr Jane Lavery, who has pursued a career an academic languages after graduating from Cambridge in French and Spanish, addressed today’s anxieties around finding a job as a young person when she told her audience: “Research shows that three quarters of the UK cannot speak a foreign language, while in the EU 56% of people can speak at least two other languages. There is high demand for linguists in the jobs market and the CBI is clamouring for linguists. I don’t believe services like Google Translate will ever replace humans who can communicate in different languages because it is all about intonation and nuance and eye contact – that will never change.”
Other speakers at the event included celebrity vocal coach Candi Underwood, archaeology professor Joanna Sofaer, lieutenant colonel Rachel Grimes, GP Katie Spensley, education professor Anna Robinson-Pant and author Juliet Nicholson.
Roedean deputy head Dr Ross Barrand said: “A quarter of the way through the 21st century, more than 122 million girls worldwide are still denied an education because of their gender. For nearly two years, women in Afghanistan no longer have the right to speak outside the family home, and 1.5 million Afghan girls have deliberately been deprived of their right to any education. We are incredibly fortunate to be educated in the UK, and it is beholden upon us to take full advantage of whatever opportunities we have. Education is a right, but it is also a gift, which should be cherished. The school was delighted to welcome a diverse group of speakers to this event – a GP, academics, a lieutenant colonel, a plumber, an entrepreneur, musicians, an author – all women. To hear from speakers who are all at the forefront of the fields is exciting, enlightening, and, most of all, empowering.”
