Subverting Gender Roles in Parenting with Jane Garnsey

When I first met Jane, I was so intrigued by her journey in both her personal and professional life, I just knew it had to be shared with others. That’s why I invited her on my podcast because if we hear the stories of women who subvert gender norms that are no longer serving them, then we too, can find the courage to do the same.

Jane has had a career in HR spanning 20 years and she is as passionate now about people as she was on day one. Fully CIPD qualified, she worked for most of that time at TalkTalk, leading teams specialising in HR Operations, Property Management, Health & Safety and Internal Communications & Employee Engagement. It was there that she also studied and gained a qualification in Professional Coaching. She now works as People COO at Skipton Building Society. It is fair to say her roles have been high powered and like many women in such roles, when it comes to planning a family, some big questions need to be asked like:

‘Who is going to look after the kids?’

Traditionally, it was women who made the sacrifices, taking the whole of the parental leave and often changing to part time hours or even giving up her job all together to care of the children. In more modern times, it is more common for the role of caretaker to be split evenly between the two parents; however, very rarely do we see the father making sacrifices in their career to take on the role of full-time care giver and the mother taking on the role of main bread winner.

Well, this is exactly what happened with Jane and her husband when they had their two children. It wasn’t easy. When a woman decides to disrupt the status quo and do things her way, she is bound to face challenges. In this episode she talks about how she navigated some of these challenges.

I hope Jane’s story inspires courage in you to subvert gender norms that are no longer serving you.

If you know of any groups to support stay at home Dads or working Mums, I would love to hear about them. Email the details: info@yasminariffcoaching.com

Are you a disruptive woman or do you know any? If you are and would like to feature on my podcast let's connect and arrange a date: info@yasminariffcoaching.com

If you would like to find out more about the work I do coaching women you can visit my website here.