Why every girl deserves a seat at the leadership table

When we talk about leadership, we often picture boardrooms, suits, podiums and titles. But leadership begins long before any of that – with access. Access to education. Access to safety. Access to spaces where voices are heard and valued.  Across sub-Saharan Africa, girls face significant barriers to education. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), millions of girls still don’t complete secondary education for reasons of poverty, cultural expectations, safety concerns and inadequate infrastructure. 

And yet, we expect these same girls to lead in their families, communities and places of work. But we don’t always give them the tools to do so. This disconnect is what drives my work in girls’ education today. 

I didn’t always plan to become an educator. I had trained as a lawyer – but everything changed in a Grade 4 classroom at Rembrandt Park Primary, where I stepped in for a teacher who had resigned. That temporary role became a career. I’ve since spent over a decade working in various schools – including Bryanston High School, Pretoria High School for Girls, and most recently St Mary’s School, Waverley, where I served as Deputy Headmistress and Head of Boarding. 

This year, I began a new chapter as Head of Senior School at Roedean, a school grounded in strong values and a truly holistic approach to girls’ education. It’s also a place where I’ve found the space to imagine what’s still possible for young women in South Africa. 

My own story shapes how I lead. I grew up in Alexandra during a time when South Africa was still divided and access to education was largely race-based. I was raised by my grandparents. My grandfather was a driver. My grandmother worked as a domestic worker. I didn’t grow up speaking English and had to learn it at school. Even when I moved to what was termed “Model C” schools, I was often one of only two children of colour in my class. It was a big adjustment, and some of those moments taught me something crucial about leadership development: it must start with creating belonging. Waverley Girls’ High is where I finally found my footing as a young girl. The principal was a leader who embodied both warmth and firm boundaries. She had an open-door policy, but her expectations were crystal clear. She was strict about punctuality and standards, yet she made each of us feel like we had a parent figure we could turn to.

She taught us how to lead ourselves. Her example shaped how I think about leadership today: as something built on accountability and genuine care for others. These are the values I now pass on to my students. My path to university taught me early lessons about resilience. I had hoped swimming would be my route to higher education, but when those dreams didn’t materialise in high school, I had to pivot to study law at Wits University. I learned a harsh lesson that school had never taught me: how to deal with failure and manage my mental health alongside academic pressures. I wasn’t equipped to handle these challenges, and it took me time to find balance.

School had never taught me that setbacks weren’t the end of the world. This experience fundamentally changed how I approach education. I tell my students that leadership is not about having all the answers. A mistake is not the end of the world – it’s where real learning begins. Failure isn’t something to fear, but something to grow from.Girls are often socialised to pursue perfection, to get everything right, never to disappoint. I want to shift that thinking. At Roedean, I want to teach our young leaders to embrace imperfection and see mistakes as learning opportunities, not evidence of being broken.

All-girls schools can be intensely competitive, but they also offer something rare: an environment where girls lead everything, where they learn to disagree with respect, where they take the mic at assembly, and where they see themselves reflected in every leadership position, every discipline, every space. That visibility matters. But there’s something deeper happening in girls’ education that’s particularly vital for Africa’s future. Girls who grow up in these environments leave school with the skills and confidence to drive conversations forward, bring diverse voices to the table and create solutions that work for everyone – they carry qualities that make them powerful leaders in any room they enter.

In Africa, we say a woman is a rock – the foundation that holds everything together. But when that rock is under pressure, how do we support it? We can’t wait until it breaks to try to repair it. We must strengthen it from the beginning. Every time a girl is told that her opinion matters, that she belongs, and that her future is hers to shape, we’re building the world we want to see. I don’t want Roedean girls to simply sit at the leadership table. I want them to redesign it. Because if we are serious about transforming our continent, we must stop seeing girls as beneficiaries of development, and start seeing them as leaders of it. 

From social justice movements to economic transformation, from technological innovation to building communities, the solutions South Africa needs will come from young women who were taught early that their voices matter, their ideas have value and their leadership is not just welcome but essential. Girls in leadership should be the norm. That shift begins in our classrooms, with educators who believe that every girl deserves not just a seat at the table but the confidence and skills to transform it entirely.