A recent article in The Independent highlighted the fact that only 12% (139) of directors of British based FTSE companies are female. The debate around getting more top female executives at the helm of our best loved British institutions has seemed to rage on forever! Since I started in business the same articles have appeared on countless occasions asking why this is the case in the UK. I have always been in favour of supporting women getting to the top if that is what they want.
But is it what women want? Can I be as patronising to ask whether women know what they really want? Is it a question of aspiring to get to these positions of authority? Or being happy with where they are at? Are there barriers to truly getting to the top? Do you have to be a certain type of person to want to get to the top?
As a focused individual wanting to make a mark with my own business I have always assumed that every woman working within the professional sphere or running their own businesses want the same thing. The countless women in business I meet are confident individuals with very clear perspectives on what they want to achieve out of life. Very often they use what they do to empower the lives they lead. Work life balance is more of an imperative for them.
Does sitting on a FTSE 100 Board excite, terrify or fit in with the lives we want to lead? What is the answer to this very weird conundrum? Why do we in the UK have some of the worst take up rates in Europe? Should we be worried? What do you think?
