Maxine Looby (Oldham College)

Further Education lecturer, Faculty of English and Maths, Oldham College 

Election address

Standing up for, speaking out for, and fighting for the voices of all women is all I know. I come from a lineage of strong women who taught me what it means to stand firm, speak truth, and fight for equity. Those lessons guide me every day. As a lecturer at Oldham College, I see first-hand how structural inequality shapes women's lives in post 16 education.  

It was an honour and a privilege to serve as UCU President 2024-2025, a year that gave me not only the responsibility of presiding over our union but the opportunity to strengthen our collective work on women's leadership, development, and visibility across UCU. 

Throughout my presidency, I saw clearly how the intersectional nature of inequality impacts women's working lives. Women with intersecting protected characteristics—Black and racially minoritised women, disabled women, LGBTQ+ women, migrant women, carers, and others—face multiple and compounded barriers at every stage of their careers. These inequalities do not operate in isolation; they stack, intensify, and often go unseen. This includes the urgent need to stand firmly with trans women, defending their rights and safety in the face of increasing far-right hostility. Understanding these intersecting realities is essential if we are to meet the needs of all women members across FE and HE. 

Women across both sectors continue to be disproportionately casualised, marginalised, and pushed into insecurity. The recruitment and retention crisis in FE, mass redundancies in HE, the rise of insecure contracts - fuelled by broken funding models—hit women hardest. Women balancing significant caring responsibilities, often without institutional support or flexibility, face even greater pressures. Our union must not only recognise these realities but actively challenge them. 

If elected, I will continue to: 

• Develop accessible, meaningful opportunities for women to build leadership skills at all levels of the union. 

• Bring together UCU's equality committees to embed a truly intersectional approach in our campaigning, organising, and industrial work—ensuring no woman is left out or behind. 

• Push for high-quality training for reps on understanding and applying intersectionality in casework, ensuring support reflects the lived experiences of our women members. 

As a woman with lived experience of intersecting barriers in the workplace, this work is deeply personal. My journey informs my commitment to supporting, empowering, and elevating women across our union. I will continue to fight unapologetically for all women members, ensuring we don't simply push for change—we create, shape, and sustain it across our union. 

Because when equity for all women is not just imagined but realised, every one of us stands to benefit. 

I'm proud to support Suzi Toole (FE), Mark Pendleton (HE) in the Vice President elections, alongside a slate of candidates found here: https://tinyurl.com/NECelections2026