{"id":7443,"date":"2020-05-25T14:04:51","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T14:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=7443"},"modified":"2020-05-25T14:07:21","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T14:07:21","slug":"nicola-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/?p=7443","title":{"rendered":"Nicola Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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This is an edited version of an interview that friend of damesnet<\/strong> Christina first published on her blog<\/em> https:\/\/ionthecity.wordpress.com\/<\/a>, and we\u2019re very grateful for her permission to reproduce it here. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2016,\nNicola Williams became the first Ombudsman for the Military. Previously she was\nthe Service Complaints\nCommissioner <\/a>(SCC), which gave her oversight of how complaints\nare dealt with in all three sections of the military: Army, Navy and Air Force.\nHer previous post was as Ombudsman to the Cayman Islands, taking her back to\nher Caribbean roots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Ombudsman for the\nMilitary<\/a>, she is able to overturn decisions, if she believes that\nthe internal investigation has not been properly handled.   She has\nbeen pleasantly surprised at the response and the recognition of the need for\ncultural change, in all the armed services, at the top levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not bad going for a black girl growing up in South London, where her teacher\u2019s advice was for her to get a job in Woolworths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicola has experienced racism, had the \u2018N\u2019 word thrown at her, near her home by a respectably suited business man. But far more subtle and invidious is the institutionalized racism and sexism, which wastes the talents of so many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her immigrant parents were invited to the \u2018mother\u2019 country with high\nexpectations, wanting to contribute their professional expertise in both the\npolice and education. They were unable to get employment in either. There was a\ncolour bar in the police in 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For her migrant parents, the final straw was how the educational system failed\ntheir children. Low expectations and failure to encourage ambition meant the\nfamily returned to Guyana, and when Nicola went from primary to secondary school\nshe observed that black people could achieve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicola Williams<\/a> trained\nfirst as a lawyer, then a barrister, and then a judge, and is currently on the\nCrown Court circuit in South London, witnessing at first hand how things have\nchanged. Her mentors and tutors in law were both women: the excellent Patricia\nScotland and Helena Kennedy, and it was waiting to attend a seminar with both\nBaroness Scotland and Baroness Kennedy that we met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was chance that led her to the post of Ombudsman to the Cayman Islands. It had only been advertised once, but Nicola had thrown the paper out. By serendipity, she across it again as she sorted her recycling, applied and got the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Cayman challenged my resilience. I had to build everything from the\nground up. My professional reputation, my friends, everything. I discovered I\nhad resilience. It gave me confidence in my own abilities. I came out of all\nthat better off. It taught me that I can count on myself.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hers is a talent\nwhich could so easily have been lost. She sees the importance of being a role\nmodel, not just for black South London girls, but children and people\neverywhere who may have been let down my the system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicola has an interesting perspective on how women will ultimately\nachieve equality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018While the power structure is still\nlargely white male from a certain social certain class, the only way a white\nman of a certain age will have his consciousness raised will be through his\ndaughters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These men now, if they\u2019re in 50s and 60s, have daughters and\ngranddaughters. As they get older, they are more aware of age discrimination\nand possibility of disability, and it\u2019s not what they want for their daughters.\nThey want their girls to have the opportunities they had.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Her teacher’s advice was for her to get a job in Woolworths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":7457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,286,55,65,62,59],"tags":[289,290,288,287],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7443"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7467,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7443\/revisions\/7467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/damesnet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}