WOMEN leading

193 Pages·2005·0.634 MB·English

by  Sue Hayward (auth.)

W O M E N
leading
sue hayward
© Sue Hayward 2005
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2005 978-1-4039-3676-9
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First published 2005 by
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Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
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ISBN 978-1-349-51887-6 ISBN 978-0-230-51063-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230510630
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Tomy lovely daughter Millie – I hope you’ll be more impressed with my book
than you were with my first TV appearance – watching the Teletubbies instead!
And to Barry,who couldn’t believe his luck when I started writing instead of
talking for a living but put up with months of book writing
while pouring me endless glasses of wine
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contents
acknowledgements vi
chapter 1 WHERE TO BEGIN? 1
chapter 2 THE CHANGING ROLE OF WOMEN 13
chapter 3 BOARDROOM WOMEN: BREAKING
THROUGH THE GLASS CEILING 28
chapter 4 HOW WILL MEN COPE? 49
chapter 5 WORKPLACE SKILLS 65
chapter 6 WOMEN IN THE HEART OF THE CITY:
THE MONEY MARKETS 83
chapter 7 SISTERS ARE DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES 98
chapter 8 WOMEN IN THE MEDIA 114
chapter 9 WHO WEARS THE TROUSERS? WOMEN
IN RELATIONSHIPS 131
chapter 10 WOMEN ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE 151
chapter 11 SIMPLY THE BEST 170
bibliography 180
index 183
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g acknowledgements
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A huge thank you to everyone who gave up their time to be
interviewed for this book, and especially those of you who
kindly rescheduled when I was in bed with flu for most of
December and had to cancel interviews because I could barely
talk – a rare occasion indeed! There are too many people who
have been interviewed, or have sent information or copies of
books, answered questions and given permission for me to
take extracts from their websites to mention, but thanks to you
all. Hopefully you’ll all rush out to buy a copy to see your
quotes and advice in print.
Thanks too, to my wonderful friends who, on hearing I was
writing this book, sent me cuttings of newspaper articles,
suggested names for interview and put up with hearing
detailed weekly updates on how the book writing was
progressing. Thanks also to my Mum and Dad who over
numerous cups of coffee came up with endless names and
suggestions for interview – better stop thanking everyone now
or you’ll all expect a consultancy fee!
Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders but if any have
been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the
necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.
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chapter 1 ?
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W H E R E T O B E G I N ? e
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When I was first approached to write this book I was hugely
excited at the prospect of such a challenge. Pretty rapidly the
excitement and enthusiasm turned to doubt and concern over
how I could possibly do justice to the vast issue of women’s
leadership in just one book. If it’s taken us thousands of years
to reach this point in time, how can you sum that up in just a
few thousand words?
This book aims to examine women’s ability to lead, how we
lead and the skills we use in both our professional and
personal lives. It also looks at whether after so many years of
male domination, particularly in the business world, women
have finally discovered the answer within themselves to being
successful leaders. Are we finally realising that the answer lies
in using our own unique female skills rather than falling down
as we’ve done in the past by trying to copy the boys, bearing
the weight of an outdated and ill-fitting ‘macho’ image that
we previously felt was the only way forward in business?
Throughout the ages women have experienced so many
changes; some have been of their own making, whether by
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g campaigning, for example, to secure voting rights or through
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changes brought upon them by external events like world
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wars. Naturally our lives have not all changed at the same
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e pace; in some societies the level of independence that Western
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women take for granted may be many years away or possibly
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forever remain a dream for others.
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o But when it comes to women in business, which country
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would you cite as the one with the highest proportion of
women holding down jobs in senior management? Would you
come up with one of the major industrialised nations like the
US, Canada, the UK or Australia? According to research
published earlier this year in the Grant Thornton International
Business Owners Survey, Russia emerged as the clear leader,
with 42 per cent of its senior management positions held by
women compared with around 20 per cent in the US and 18
per cent in the UK. Look further down the list and it makes
for interesting reading. According to Grant Thornton’s
research, carried out in over 26 countries around the world,
Russia also has the highest proportion of companies where
women occupy management roles, at 89 per cent. That’s
followed by the Philippines with 85 per cent and the US,
Mexico and South Africa all have 75 per cent of their
companies where women hold senior management positions.
Bottom of the list are the Netherlands, Pakistan, Japan and
Germany, all with around 30 per cent.
While some countries may have a high percentage of
companies that employ women in management roles, when it
comes to the actual physical numbers of women winning
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these jobs, that figure falls in all cases. We’ve already estab- ?
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lished that Russia has around 89 per cent of companies where
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women occupy management roles and 42 per cent of the e
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country’s potential senior management positions are held by

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women. America has 75 per cent of companies employing
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women in senior management but only 20 per cent of the e
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country’s senior management jobs are held by women. In e
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Japan 29 per cent of companies employ women at manage- w
ment level but just 8 per cent of those potential jobs are done
by women.
So while it’s all very well trying to show the rest of the world
that your country employs women in high-level business
positions, what we must also look at are the actual numbers
holding down those jobs compared with the numbers of men.
Russia is really the only one to come close to a near fifty-fifty
representation at 42 per cent. As we’ll find out later in the
book, some countries like Norway are trying to redress the
balance by imposing female ratio targets which must be met.
Depending on your country and your culture, you might argue
that women have come a long way in a relatively short time.
Whether you want to interpret this as catching up with men or
as regaining lost ground, just look back a few thousand years
to ancient Egypt for examples of strong, forceful female
leaders before the ‘glass ceiling’ was even built. The
Egyptians were too busy building pyramids to think about
building glass ceilings. In making such huge achievements
within such a short time, and when I say this I’m thinking
realistically of probably the last 100 years or so, it’s created
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