Welcome

Bex at TEDx giving a talk on how unpaid training creates another gender pay gap and contributes to chronic workforce shortages in essential services

I’m Bex. My life’s work is helping women make great money - and to feel damn good about it. I work with women who want to change how they are positioned, paid, and received. My work sits at the intersection of gender pay equity, identity, and economic power. I’m deeply committed to supporting women’s sovereignty - the freedom to live and lead without contorting ourselves, appeasing, or settling.

Originally from the UK, I moved to NZ as a university student and lived there for over a decade. I worked in the public service for 5 years which was fine until it wasn’t.

My sister died in 2019 and it totally upended my world. I couldn’t pretend to care about things that didn’t matter to me anymore.

I left in pursuit of more meaningful work – only to find myself in the trenches of gender pay inequity. While training as a social worker, I discovered I’d be required to complete six months of full-time unpaid labour to “prove my worth” in the profession. In the midst of my “absolutely f*cking not” awakening, I refused and dropped out.

Turning Rebellion Into Reform

Instead, I wrote my Master’s thesis on the systemic devaluation of women’s work and how its true cost is internalised by women themselves. Alongside this, I ran a nationwide campaign for paid training in female dominated professions & gave a TEDx talk about how unpaid training contributes to chronic workforce shortages in our essential services – healthcare, mental health, social services, and teaching.

Systemic Change to Personal Liberation

Determined to understand how we unlearn deep-seated beliefs that we are not good enough, we should be “grateful for the opportunity,” and just “get on with it,” I trained as a coach through the Institute for Coaching Mastery.

Here, I deepened my understanding of the interconnecting nature of internal and external drivers of the gender pay gap.

The Work That Emerged

I don’t believe women need to exhaust themselves fighting systems head-on for decades in the hope of change. Transformation happens faster, and more powerfully, when women recalibrate how they see themselves in relation to embedded power structures.

When a woman recognises her worth, she becomes a force to be reckoned with. Her presence changes, her decisions sharpen, her authority stops being questioned — and even when it is, it no longer matters. That’s the work I do now.

If this resonates

If you’re done contorting yourself to fit roles and expectations that no longer match who you are — and you’re ready to earn and lead from a place of self-trust and sovereignty — you’re in the right place. This work isn’t for everyone, but if it is for you, you’ll know.

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  • Terry Taylor, Specialist Medical Laboratory Scientist & Former President of the NZ Institute of Medical Laboratory Science

    [Paid Placements Aotearoa] that Bex headed grew from an idea to a national campaign that involved exceptional leadership and strategy to ensure success. It has been a remarkable achievement that shows exactly the type of determined, dedicated and courageous person that Bex is. To see this from an idea to a parliamentary rally and select committee appearance with all the associate media and public commitments in between says it all about Bex and her leadership skills and development of critical thinking and analysis.

    To watch the development of Bex across all aspects of building and implementing a strategy and her development into a confident and exceptional media and public voice has been awe inspiring. Clearly Bex has a huge future in mentoring and coaching others to work on and achieve their goals. Bex is a rare talent that I have no doubt will make every path a winner no matter what she chooses to chase.

  • Associate Professor of Social Work, Dr Hay

    Bex Howells’ leadership in the paid placement campaign in Aotearoa New Zealand has been exceptional, demonstrating a thoughtful and considered approach that ensures multiple perspectives are heard. Her ability to listen and navigate complex discussions has brought this critical issue into the public arena in a meaningful way. Her determination is evidenced in the significant growth of the campaign since its launch, and the subsequent media and political attention. The campaign messages are evidence-based which adds credibility and urgency to the need for rapid and extensive policy change.  Paid placements would have  life-changing impacts on the wellbeing of thousands of students engaged in professional and vocational higher education courses in Aotearoa New Zealand.  Through her efforts, Bex has sparked important and far-reaching conversations, including in government policy spaces, that are contributing to the shaping the future of fair and sustainable workforce practices.

  • Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers

    Bex’s passion and drive for seeing change that improves the lives of those who are unfairly disadvantaged was evident during our work with her on the Paid Placements campaign. Bex has a knack for not only truly hearing and understanding the issues from those experiencing hardship, but communicating those issues to others with clarity, strength and connection. She truly understood the very essence of how much paid placements would mean to our social work students and profession through her expert engagement skills. She demonstrated the ability to connect this issue to not only the immediate needs of students now, but also the workforce challenges that unpaid placements are exacerbating into the future. She involved our students and our profession in a way that brought hope for the future and a clear direction for change. Her mahi has brought this issue into the spotlight in an easy-to-understand way and provided a solid foundation for this advocacy to continue. In social work, we hold true to the professional value of mātātoa – moral courage in the face of uncertainty and challenge – Bex exemplified this value throughout the campaign, and we are so grateful for her courageous spirit.