I don’t want to belittle the person who has taken on that seat at the table, I am sure they will have worked hard to get where they are. Though is it that the only acceptance in a male dominant boardroom is a woman who has come up the ranks in HR? Is it that there just aren’t enough woman wanting to take on more senior roles or is it there just aren’t enough being promoted? One could say it’s a chicken and egg situation, which comes first? I recall a client wanting to recruit women IT specialists as he felt his workforce was too male orientated but just couldn’t find one so employed a female marketing person instead!
I don’t have many idols but if I could meet Karren Brady and ask her how did she as a 23-year-old woman with little previous experience at this level of management walk into a man’s world and achieve such success? A few years back I read her book “Playing to Win” that she wrote mainly because when she was wanting to coach other women on what she did she found that there were very few, if any, good books about successful women and even fewer written by a woman. She wrote that book back in 2004 but I haven’t seen any others on the bookshelves to support women.
And as it’s just been reported that a study by Mattison Public Relations has found that Female directors of FTSE 100 companies earn 74% less than male directors. What’s also shocking is that according to its research, female leaders are paid around £246,000 on average whereas men in the same role hit £935,000.
What I have found is that instead of having diversity in the boardroom I see women who employ only women, networking only for women, how are these two things right?
I realise Rome wasn’t built in a day as women were only allowed their own bank accounts in 1975 but surely some things must change and don’t get me started on International Women’s Day…