Women's Leadership

Acknowledgements
This book has been developed with the help of many others. We
would both like to thank the women leaders we interviewed for their
time and their continued interest in our project. Their inspirational
stories and optimism have encouraged us hugely in bringing this
book to its fruition.
Valerie would like to thank her family for their support – Crispin,
Sarah and Tom have kept me motivated throughout, and thanks to
Dad for his encouragement. Carole would like to thank Tony for
his encouragement and support, and Mum and Dad for their optimism
in my ability to complete this project. We would both also
like to give special thanks to colleagues Dr Caroline Gatrell, Dr Ellie
Hamilton and Dr Elaine Swan for their continued support, friendship,
reading of drafts and invaluable critical comments.
We would like to acknowledge the Northern Leadership Academy
who provided funding for three of the women leaders’ interviews.
This book has been informed by earlier versions of our work which
appear elsewhere as follows:
Elliott, C. and Stead, V. (2008) ‘Learning from Leading Women’s
Experience: Towards a Sociological Understanding’, Leadership Vol.
4 (2): 159–80.
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