Reflecting on 45 Years of Keble Women | Jacqueline Drury

Jacqueline Drury was one of the many alumnae, staff and students who attended the 45 Years of Keble Women event in October, celebrating 45 years since the first co-educational matriculation in Michaelmas Term 1979, when 26 undergraduate and 8 graduate pioneering women joined the College, paving the way for generations to come. 

After graduating from Keble in 2006, Jacqueline entered the Teach First programme, teaching Spanish in Lewisham. She subsequently converted to law and qualified with international law firm Freshfields in 2013. She has since had in-house roles, including Group General Counsel at a drinks manufacturer. Currently, she leads the Commercial team at Phillips Law, alongside co-running her family business, which she has done for over 20 years. She lives with her young family in Berkshire.

Jacqueline Drury (2002 Classics and Modern Languages) writes:

I loved revisiting College for a vibrant, happy, thought-provoking event to mark 45 years of women in Keble.

How far we have come since my first day in 2002…and how far we still have to go?

At the time, I don't think I thought much about Keble's mixed nature, or the fact that our Warden was female.  Reflecting now, the possibilities open to me would have felt different, had there been a man in that post. Belated thanks, Averil, for the role model that you were.

We were educated to grab the world for all it was worth. I had so many opportunities. Sex/gender didn’t determine what we could achieve…did it?

Jacqueline at the 45 Years of Keble Women event

At the event, I met a sparkling grandmother, who gave up her senior position at a pharmaceutical company to raise her four children. “I was raising the next generation”, she said, “and that was more important”.

Touché. I’m currently a part-time law firm partner; I also co-run our family business and our home/young family. But the choices are impossible; the economics are brutal; the juggle is exhausting; community, family and women’s healthcare support woeful. 

In the panel discussion, Rehana Azib (1998 Jurisprudence) touched on the fact that her experience as a woman is inextricable from her experience as a woman of colour. I can only imagine.

And this in a “developed” “civilised” country. 

Much of my adult life, I’ve been working in some small way to address the impact of societal inequity on young people. Amazingly, the reunion’s seating plan placed me right under the inspiring portrait of Folarin Odunubi (2015 Jurisprudence), whom I first met when he became a Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholar in 2016 (a scheme that I helped set up and run). Folarin tells me we helped make a career in commercial law feel attainable. I look at all he’s achieved and feel that his success is all his own. But, if what he says is true, what about all the Folarins society leaves behind?

Right now, I sadly rarely find the bandwidth to do that work. I have responsibilities closer to home; I’m juggling daily to live in a way that leaves enough of myself to give something for others. We’d go a long way to solving this country’s productivity problem if, as a society, we could better support women and minority groups to contribute to their full potential. 

Even 20 years ago, Keble was a hive of positive energy, where anything felt possible and opportunities were there for grabbing. Keep it up: keep supporting your students, in all their diversity of types and in their challenges, and prepare them as best you can for whatever they do next.

Thank you again, and here's to the next 45+ years!