29 THE VIEW FROM THE BAR Felicity Gerry has scaled up the hard way, from working in riding stables, to the top of the international legal arena Can you tell me a little bit about your early life and education? My early life and education were defined by women. I was born in Dagenham, home of the women who walked out for equal pay, and when I was 7, we moved to Nottingham, a city of two-thirds women due to the lace industry. In Essex, I was schooled by nuns Sister Scholastica and scary Sister Frances on two sticks with horn-rimmed glasses. In Nottingham, I went to a progressive primary school where the female Head was cool and inclusive. In secondary school, Mrs. Purewal, who insisted on being carried in even when she was dying of cancer, pushed me ahead in maths. It didn’t stop me from being bullied. Thirty years later, I received an email from a retiring police officer who apologised for bullying me at school. She recalled I would always shout back. I suppose that has defined my career – I have always been the new girl who would never stay silent. Having left school and worked in a horse riding stables and, latterly a bar in Tenerife, at that point in your life, were there any career goals, or was it living one day to the next? I started helping out at a riding school when I was 12. It was a great escape from my parents’ divorce. I don’t really know what happened at school, but I went from being pushed ahead to lagging behind and the stables seemed like more fun, so by the www.ceotodaymagazine.com
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