Over the past year, since becoming part of the Women to Watch network, Ruth Gould has continued to successfully led the DaDa (Disability and Deaf Arts) from strength to strength, with 2010’s tenth DaDaFest attracting almost 65,000 visitors and further helping to change people’s perceptions of disability and the arts.

She says, “It was a lovely surprise to be named as a Woman to Watch and I was amazed to be recognised. I can often feel quite isolated doing my job, but now I feel part of a bigger picture and I know that I’m not alone.”

Although she was unable to attend as many of the Women to Watch events over the past year as would have liked, due to family illness, Ruth has still found being part of the network extremely beneficial.

“My confidence has sky-rocketed,” she says. “I used to think that becoming a CEO was the pinnacle of a person’s career, but now, through meeting other women in the network, I’ve realised that instead it can actually be a stepping stone to move into new arenas – for example policy implementation.’

For Ruth, one of the greatest successes of the 2010 festival was the screening of the groundbreaking installation ‘Motion Disabled’ by DaDaFest Artist of the Year Simon Mckeown. The screening aimed to raise awareness of disability rights, in partnership with VSA (The international organisation on arts and disability), and was shown in seventeen countries around the world including Australia, Argentina, India, Ireland, Senegal, Saudi Arabia, and the USA.

Over the past year, Ruth has also completed an MA in Social Enterprise Management, at Liverpool’s John Moore’s University. Her dissertation ‘DaDaFest Ghetto Blaster’ focused on the ten years of DaDa fest and how it has grown into the UK’s largest Disability and Deaf Arts festival. She is now considering a PhD and looking into moving more into an academic environment.

As well as being part of the Women to Watch network, Ruth runs a Liverpool wide informal network called ‘Liverpool’s Top Women’ and though she acknowledges that the glass ceiling does still very much exist, she feels that there is also a lot of excellent work going on in Liverpool to help tackle this issue.

Looking ahead to the future, Ruth is keen to become more strategic and expand her work further afield. Being a Woman to Watch has certainly helped her make a start with this, as since she appeared on the list, she has started to engage more frequently with contacts in London.
Ruth is also passionate about inclusion and keen to see the end of negative attitudes towards disability and ageism, through the work she is doing.