Jo speaks about the importance of raising your hand, which is really about taking risks. Living in a society where you constantly feel pressure to be perfect, taking a risk which might result in a failure can be scary. For this reason, girls might not raise their hand in class, unless they are 100% confident of their answer.

 

This issue then translates into the working world, with female employees being less likely to go for a promotion if they do not meet all of the criteria compared to their male colleagues. One quote from the book I loved is “raising a hand today is about being braver today than you were yesterday”. It is indeed true that it is important to teach young girls to seize opportunities and lead the life they want to, and that that can start with something as small, or big depending on the perspective, as raising their hand.

 

Jo Wimble-Groves is an author and co-owner of the global award-winning mobile telecoms provider, Active Digital. Since co-owning her organisation with her brother (founded in 1996), Jo has won numerous awards including voted ’35 under 35’ in Management Today as featured in The Times (2010). Jo is an ambassador for STEM subjects and in 2020 she won the Everywoman in Tech, ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award for her work. Jo aims to inspire the next generation of female entrepreneurs and in March 2019, was one of 100 women to be invited to 10 Downing Street to have tea with the Prime Minister. As a mum of three, Jo writes a parenting blog ‘Guilty Mother’, which is enjoyed by over 55,000 followers. Her first book, ‘Rise of the Girl, Seven Empowering Conversations to have with your daughter’ was published by DK Books on 7th October 2021; and is available in the UK, US, Australia and on Audible.