Imagine the situation. You have a deep commitment to your work, trained for years, on low wages.  You have a great job, move up through the ranks, involving frequent relocations. Eventually you move up into management. You are popular with everyone but there are detractors too. Finally it seems like you might be able to step into senior management, in regional management. However the organisation needs to change its rules to allow you to do that. And when they change those rules they might say that if the local managers below you don’t feel that they can accept being managed by you they can opt to be managed by a different regional manager.

What a waste of talent. And how unfair after you’ve worked hard to get to where you are. Does it incentive you to do well?  Ultimately is it the best thing for those you work with?

This is exactly the situation that women priests were in around 10 years ago when it seemed they might finally be allowed to be Bishops. The vote to accept the ordination of women as Bishops finally happened in 2013 in the General Synod of the Church of England and Libby Lane was appointed Bishop of Stockport the following year.

What a long journey; women first became deacons in 1985! If you’re stuck in a system that feels like this, what can you do to move forwards or sideways, increase your experience and feel fulfilled?  How can you influence the system toward positive change?