By
Claire Morley-Jones
March 2, 2016
Sarah supports and develops all her employees based on performance and attitude not on the basis of their gender. Sarah knows that EVERY day is International Women’s Day. Be more like Sarah.
So what might the suffragettes think? After their seemingly endless and courageous struggle I imagine they may be a little disappointed that there is still a “day” in which a) being a woman needs to be celebrated and b) there is only one day in the year being used to discuss the issues affecting women at work. I am sure though that they would be proud that women like Sarah have continuously broken glass ceilings in the business world.
My own first networking event, 10 years ago, involved 57 men in a room and me! Mind you not only was my gender against me, at 28, so was my age!
The world has come incredibly far since the days of enforced social and legal subordination. Long gone are the days in which Sarah wouldn’t even have been able to vote let alone run a business (that was anything other than a Brothel!). In October 2015, it was announced that 26% of FTSE100 board members were female while 20% of SMEs are now female led. Whilst this isn’t yet a 50/50 split, it‘s a significant increase since the 2012 small business survey of SME employers in which women led 15% of small and 11% of medium-sized businesses. Whilst attending an ESpark event in Leeds last week I was fascinated to discover that 70% of the room was made up of women in the first few years of trading. Wow – we’re getting there!
When we discuss a fairer representation of women in business, we’re not talking from a purely box ticking standpoint with enforced quotas. Instead, we’re saying that there should be a fairly represented landscape for women like Sarah because of merit and ability. Sarah’s equality is inherent. She has the exact same potential in a business sense to any male counterpart but perhaps some different and complimentary skills that could add value to a business. I am certain that equality for anyone is not about sameness and conformance, it’s about celebrating individuality and uniqueness and recognising that everyone has a role to play if they’re bought in and engaged in the journey.
Sarah’s friend Gavin is browsing Twitter and sees that HR180 has a strong female presence. He thinks nothing of it because it’s 2016 and this shouldn’t be a surprise. Be more like Gavin.
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