Educational Establishments
Women working in the turfcare industry are a rarity, so much so that one post on the Pitchcare message board posed the question “why aren’t there more women in the industry?” The theories were many and varied, so we thought we’d ask one of the ‘rarities’, Jo Rawlinson, Estate Keeper at Charterhouse School, to give us her take on the industry
A good career move...
o Rawlinson is thirty-nine years old and lives in Witley, a small village just outside Godalming, the home of Charterhouse School. In her spare time she plays in a Ladies football team (Milford and Witley) and, in the summer months, plays in a stoolball team for Wonersh (another local village). She is a member of the Godalming Community Gospel Choir which, she says “is great fun” and also attends a Street Dance class once a week, and confesses to being “quite a busy lady”.
J
She has worked at Charterhouse School for the past six years and her current role is Estate Keeper.
In this question and answer session, we 66 I PC APRIL/MAY 2014
discuss how she came to the industry, how she is viewed by her colleagues and how the turfcare sector could do more to attract women into the industry.
What attracted you to become a Groundswoman?
As a keen sportswoman (ladies football team and stoolball team), I had always admired, and was intrigued, as to how people were able to present pitches so well; the skill and patience to get grass to look perfect, how the light and dark stripes on a pitch were achieved. I was also keen to work outside, and the prospect of working at Charterhouse School was very appealing.
Did you intend to make it a career or was it
just a ‘stop gap’ until something else came along?
When I was growing up, I never even thought of having a career in grounds. When I left school, I wanted to go into catering, so went off to catering college and, after working in a local hotel for eight years, I went travelling to Australia for a few years, which was amazing!
On returning from my travels, I started working in an office looking after the I.T. system. Three years in an office and I remember sitting at my desk one day looking out the window and thinking, I really don’t want to do this job anymore, I really want to work outside.
So, I went back to college, which was
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