I started The Fair List, UK award in 2013. It ran, apart from a break in 2020 due to the global pandemic, for ten years or so. As I had finished most of my own TEFL/TESOL work by the end of 2020, it felt more and more far fetched each year to be giving awards to organisers of events that I no longer attended. So, in the winter of 2024/25 I decided to discontinue the scheme.
Our most important future action had been planned to be the mentoring of women speakers at plenary, keynote or panel level. To this end, we produced the mentoring pages you can still find on this web site.
But by now another organisation had grown and flourished, EVE or Equal Voices in ELT. EVE’s current main focus is working with Teachers’ Associations around the world to mentor women, encouraging them to speak at ELT/TESOL conferences. I couldn’t be happier that the work goes on!
I will keep this website live for as long as I am able. It has its place in the history of women in TEFL and may have useful resources for you. I wish you all success too in improving the representation of women at a high level at ELT conferences.
Tessa Woodward*
(Founder of The Fair List, UK)
*If you would like to know what has been distracting me from TEFL/TESOL, please visit www.tessaswriting.co.uk.