Bidiversity

By Christina Ioannidis, CEO of Aquitude.

Last week I attended the Women in European Business conference organized by Deutsche Bank. The message was loud and clear: there is gender inequality in the City of London and across the British economy as a whole. Only 10% of directors in Britain’s top 100 companies are women, and 25 of the top firms have no women board members at all.

Some of the statistics of a You Gov survey commissioned by Deutsche Bank shared in the event are astounding. The survey of 610 women showed that:

• 79% of London-based female professionals said men and women were treated differently in the workplace
• four-fifths of women professionals believe they are treated unfairly at work
• just over half of women questioned believe their firm is committed to ensuring gender equality, but
• only a third say management has made any improvements in addressing the issue over the past five years.

“There is fatigue around this issue: we’ve been talking about it for years and still nothing is happening, and women know it,” said one woman at the event.

This is despite the fact that women represent about 60% of university graduates in Europe; they also and make about 80% of household purchasing decisions –including ones about cars, computers, property, holidays and telephones.

A call for meritocracy without quotas

The women questioned in the poll said business had to become more meritocratic, but without positive discrimination rules to increase the number of women at the board level. At present, men and women are sharing entrance positions into the labour market on a 50-50% basis, but the representation of females in leadership positions plunges to 20%.

Move on when faced with the glass ceiling

Another message that came across loud and clear is that women should also assess their situation, and move on if their company was blocking their way.

“You think it’s them, and not me, and then have the courage to leave,” said Heidi Mottram, chief executive of Northumbrian Water; she definitely voted with her stilettos and moved out of a company after saying she got “stuck”.

Women take charge

The avenue is clear: change will not come unless women take charge of their destiny. Today’s economic climate and fast-changing environment requires us to keep our options open and not rely on the traditional “I am good at my job, so I will be recognised” attitude. We need to toot our horn as well as network within and outside our organisation. We need to build our support network of individuals who will encourage us to approach our work and our contribution more creatively. We also need to encourage ourselves to apply our skills and talents in ways that we may not have previously considered.

Changing the business culture to remove systemic bias

What should big business do? UK Plc needs to move beyond the figures and get into the real reason behind the mass exodus of women. Ask them why they are leaving, and why, as they are doing by the bucketloads, they are prefering to even take the risky path of setting up their own businesses. Our research has identified stereotyping to be the biggest hindrance.

That is exactly what my organisation is doing at this very moment. We have launched a world-wide survey to understand why women are leaving large corporations, and finding out the reasons behind them becoming entrepreneurs. If you want to contribute your views, take the survey here.