Why Men Win at Work E-Book

Gill Whitty-Collins

• Herausgeber: Luath Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 365

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Why are men still winning at work? If women have equal leadership ability, why are they so under-represented at the top in business and society? Why are we still living in a man's world? And why do we accept it? In this provocative book, Gill Whitty-Collins looks beyond the facts and figures on gender bias and uncovers the invisible discrimination that continues to sabotage us in the workplace and limits our shared success. Addressing both men and women and pulling no punches, she sets out the psychology of gender diversity from the perspective of real personal experience and shares her powerful insights on how to tackle the gender equality issue. 'This book tells the inconvenient truth about the gender inequality issue, providing some real deep insights into what truly gets in the way of driving diversity - even in companies that are trying to do the right thing. It may be uncomfortable reading for some but crucial for driving the needed change to create a long-term advantage.' - Paul Polman, Founder & Chair, Imagine and Ex CEO, Unilever

Leseprobe

GILL WHITTY-COLLINS was born near Liverpool and after attending the local comprehensive high school went on to study at Cambridge University. After graduating, she joined Procter & Gamble, where she led global brands such as Pantene, Olay and Always, and swiftly moved up the ladder to Marketing Director, General Manager and finally Senior Vice-President. Her story and vision will inspire you to join the force to make gender inequality history.

Praise for Why Men Win at Work

This sprightly book draws on personal anecdotes and academic research to make a readable and practical case for improving inclusion—BROOKE MASTERS, CHIEF BUSINESS COMMENTATOR, Financial Times

In the tradition of all the most efficient execs, Whitty-Collins sets out an almighty set of recommendations—SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE

Gill Whitty-Collins is 2020’s driving force in the fight against gender discrimination.—HOOD MAGAZINE

A call to action, a real eye-opener and a must-read for everyone.—BOOKS ETC

A fantastically clear and research-backed approach to understanding why everyone should be feminists.—FELICIA WILLOW, CEO, THE FAWCETT SOCIETY

Whitty-Collins’ straight-talking exploration of gender diversity at work combines psychology, experience, insight and advice to make for a really eye-opening read.—SAM BAKER

Best non-fiction book of the Pandemic.—KAREN DOBRES

Packed full of great insights and helpful action-oriented advice.—JANE CUNNINGHAM, CO-AUTHOR OFBrandsplaining

‘This book has changed my world view on gender equality in way others have not. I have a level of awareness and understanding that was simply not there before.’ JO SCAIFE, CEO CLEARBLUE

A truly brilliant and inspiring book, a rallying call to us all to make inequality history.—ANNI TOWNEND

Enlightening, thought provoking, and perhaps even life changing.—JOHN FORSYTH

A must-read for any manager/leader aiming or hoping to improve their business.—KEVIN MCCARTEN

This book should be read by all men and women at work. Brilliant analysis and recommendations about the workplace.—UTE HAGEN

This book blew my mind.—RICHARD CALDICOTT

An eye-opening and game-changing read.—GAUTIER VILLIAUME

A mine of insight and self-reflection.—ESTRELLA LOPEZ-BREA

Impossible to put down.—HANNAH ROBINSON

A must-read for all women and men in the workplace, simple!—JANINE MENASAKANIAN

One of the very best books about women and work.—CECILIA POULLAIN

Life changing.—ELLIE REES

It blew my mind. I regularly quote sentences from it to my friends and colleagues. We need more education like this out there for all.—ANGHARAD TRUEMAN

5 stars...a gift to the world.—JOSE L LOPEZ REYNOSO

An insightful and inspirational read and one that I will get both my sons to read as well.—JULIE DONALD

One of my favourite books of the year.—AMINA RABIA

An awesome, eye opening book… By the end my feminist phobia was cured and this feels more like a bible to me.—LYNNE NICHOLSON

A brilliantly written book. Easy to read with actionable advice for us all… rare gem.—MARIE PAOLUCCIMandatory reading for anyone who wants to build an inclusive workplace.—JAYA BHATIA

A great read from the first page.—LAVINIA MILNER-GRAY

A real page-turner.—MATTHEW THOM

A great, thought-provoking, balanced and challenging read.—WILL HOGG

People say books broaden horizons but this one has changed my life for ever!—ANNA MALONE

Thought-provoking and a compelling read on a vital topic. Have recommended it to both friends and colleagues.—ANNA BJÖRK

Helpful and enlightening… I’ve written notes and bent the corners so I can use it as a reference.—ESTHER STANHOPE

Read it, loved it, learned loads from it and have recommended it to so many others.—JENNY ASHMORE

One of the best things I’ve read about the issue… very few academic papers or books discuss the ‘whys’ of inequality and you do… hugely resonant.—CLAIRE WARWICK

Fantastic read and scary how many of the issues highlighted are still often accepted as the norm/overlooked in this day and age!—LAURA WALKER

Hands down my favourite book on gender inequality in the workplace! It brings to life the reality of what goes on inside companies every day and puts words to things that a lot of us see but struggle to explain. Plus plenty of research and data to make us all see how big the problem still is.—LIZZIE BARTHOLOMEW

Powerful and thoughtfully crafted book... Loved the hallmark gwc direct yet engaging tone coming through and the (P&Gesque) generous helping of data references... Wholeheartedly agree re inequality being huge opportunity for sustainable growth – exactly what’s needed right now in our Climate & Covid Crises World right now.—KEITH DICKENS

I loved it! Very well-researched, lots of thought provoking and shocking material in here, clear and powerfully constructed points and very well written... I willl keep this on my shelf ready for my daughter.—LISA BARCLAY

Full of golden nuggets that really resonated.—SALLY HINDMARCH

What a fabulous book! So many spot-on observations – especially all the double-binds, where whatever you do you can’t win.—ANNE ELIZABETH WILSON

What a fantastic book this is. It really made me think about leadership and everyday actions that I could take. I have recommended to a lot of friends and colleagues.—SCHELLION HORN

Best articulation I’ve read of a very nuanced challenge.—LINDSEY BATEMAN

An eye-opening, comprehensive and helpful read.—SOPHIE DEVONSHIRE

A compelling and clear-headed analysis and call-to-action on the systemic and mindset issues that lead to gender imbalances in leadership.—DIANE BAILEY-BOULET

This book is impressive, the way Gill approaches the subject is astounding… I recommend it to the most sceptical, to those who don’t believe in it, so maybe, with the data at hand, they can see it. I have underlined many phrases, it is a book that has left its mark on me.—MICHELA, AMAZON.IT

I found this a thoroughly enjoyable and insightful book – it’s given me a lot to think about and a much, much fuller understanding of why gender inequality exists in the workplace and what we can do about it.—5* WATERSTONES

A must read for anyone who suspects that there is gender bias, or is unaware that it still exists.—5* GOODREADS

…paints a 360-degree picture of gender inequality in the workplace and why it is the way it is today.—5* AMAZONBefore I read this book, I thought it is for people who work at companies. I was wrong. It is a ‘must read’ for everybody who work at companies, but it is much more than that. It needs to be read by parents, educators, students, people who work in media, and actually by everybody. It makes the invisible dynamics visible; it brings the unconscious into consciousness, so that something can be done about it…—5* AMAZON

Why Men Win at Work is one of those rare business books that is easy to read, blends big data and personal experience, and most importantly leaves the reader with a clear set of recommendations to be the change they want to see in the world. Gill Whitty-Collins’ direct and open style is perfect for the topic, challenging us all to re-look at diversity and inclusion with fresh eyes. An essential read not just for those in business but also for parents, teachers and anyone with an interest in feminism and equality (that means everyone!).—5* AMAZON

Whitty-Collins sets out the hard-hitting truth about how gender equality really works in the corporate world. Unlike many books I have read on this subject, it is immensely readable and written from the perspective of a gender equality convert. The irony is that Gill was hugely successful in the corporate world and yet still felt compelled to write this book! You can feel her fury but it isn’t directed at the male species – far from it. The author is empathetic to the fact that this is a tricky and complex area – it’s not easy to fix but she does not shy away from hard-hitting recommendations and the need for urgent action. Read this and I defy you to look at the issues passively again.—5* GOODREADS

First published in hardback 2020

This edition 2021

Reprinted 2022

ISBN: 978-1-910022-08-5

The author’s right to be identified as author of this book under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.

Typeset in 10.5 point Sabon by

Main Point Books, Edinburgh

© Gill Whitty-Collins 2021

Contents

Foreword by Andy Burnham

Preface

How this book works

1 Yes, it is an issue

2 Do you have feminist phobia?

3 A few bad men

4 Maybe men are just better?

5 The invisible power of culture (and other forces)

6 The science bit

7 The competence vs confidence equation

8 Giving good meeting

9 The Umbrella Theory

10 The women who win at work

11 Sisters are (not) doing it for themselves

12 The cruel bit

13 So why do men win at work?

14 And now what the hell are we going to do about it?

To Do lists

Postscript: Winning at work after Covid

A final word

Acknowledgements

Endnotes

Book group discussion points

Some useful organisations & web resources

For my dad, brother of three sisters, father of three daughters and the first ‘feMANist’ I knew.

Foreword

Andy BurnhamMayor of Greater Manchester

FIGHTING AGAINST INEQUALITY and for justice is what brought me into politics. Throughout my time in Parliament, Government and now as Mayor of Greater Manchester I have been driven to help those denied the same rights, opportunities and treatment as others.

These values come from my family and the community I grew up in. People where I’m from looked out for each other and had a sense of togetherness – at a time when a Government in London held very different values and caused real damage to the social fabric of our country. I went to comprehensive school in the North of England at the height of Thatcherism and saw too many of my friends denied opportunities to realise their own potential, just because of where they were from.

It is because of the upbringing I had that I understand my own privilege as well as understanding the lack of opportunities afforded to too many people. You can’t fight for equality selectively – if any group is being marginalised then it is on all of us to step up and lend them our support.

Which brings me to what this book is about: gender equality. I am proud to call myself a feminist (or feMANist, as the author Gill would say) and have been for as long as I remember. If I hadn’t been when I first met my brilliant wife Marie-France at university, I can tell you I would have been converted pretty quickly by her. She and my two daughters have taught my son and me so much about what it is like to be a girl and woman in this world. I have realised that there are things that men simply do not see and are not aware of, even when they are well-intentioned – and that the only way to drive gender equality is to ensure women are equally represented.

I believe that equality and diversity drive and deliver better outcomes. Or put another way, a lack of equality and diversity usually leads to bad outcomes. The lack of women represented in key discussions during the Covid-19 pandemic was striking and it is hard to deny this impacted on the decisions that were made. The consequences for working women of closing schools and childcare facilities would have been better understood – and better decisions would have been taken – if 50% of the people in the room making these decisions had been women. Instead, we now have a situation where a significant percentage of women are leaving their careers, watching them stagnate or reporting exhaustion as they try to manage it all.

We have a much better chance of getting things right when teams are diverse and representative. But this doesn’t just happen. That’s why in Greater Manchester we have just launched the Greater Manchester Women and Girls Equality Panel. Made up of 20 diverse and informed women from across our ten boroughs, the panel aims to understand the inequalities affecting the lives of women and girls and to recognise women’s particular experience of Covid. We have tasked them with establishing a clear vision and plan to accelerate gender equality in Greater Manchester, which we will implement across the city region. This is how we make policy in Greater Manchester, from the bottom up, and with communities rather than imposing our ideas on them. I’m excited to see what this brilliant panel will develop.

It’s important to say that supporting women isn’t only about career opportunity and representation in leadership jobs and teams (what Gill calls the ‘luxury gender issues’). As long as we still have cases of violence against women we must do whatever it takes to eradicate it. In Manchester we want to make misogyny a recordable hate crime and have just published our Gender-Based Violence Strategy, a ten-year plan to tackle violence against women and girls. The Strategy focuses on the reporting of rapes and sex crimes, on holding the police force to account and changing women’s experience of the criminal justice system.

These are huge issues and addressing them will not be simple. But one of the key things that will drive progress will be having more women at the top who will understand what needs to be done. This is the critical importance of gender equality. If you have any doubt that this is an issue, this book will quickly change your mind. If you have any doubt that gender equality is something we will all win from, whatever our gender, you will soon be convinced of that too. But the real power of Why Men Win at Work is that it goes beyond the facts and statistics and explores the why. Why do we find ourselves in such an unequal world despite so many good intentions and despite women being 50% of the population, and equally intelligent and capable? What are all the invisible, unconscious barriers that get in the way of equality? As Gill says, only once we truly understand why things happen can we fix them.

And fix them we must.

Preface

I COULDN’T HAVE written this book seven years ago. I wouldn’t have even thought about writing it then. In fact, if someone had told me they were writing a book called Why Men Win at Work, I would have had no interest in it at all. If I had even thought about it, I would have disagreed with the premise and maybe (probably) have got into an argument about it.

As the father of three girls, perhaps my poor dad had no choice but to believe in supporting girls and women because he was surrounded by us. To his huge credit, he embraced feminism and from as early as I can remember he and my mum never made us feel like we should do anything else but use our brains and work hard at school, get into a good university and get a good job that exercised our minds. Sadly, I did have girlfriends at school whose fathers didn’t see girls the same way and parked all their paternal academic and career ambition with their sons. Not my dad though.

It also helped that I went to mixed schools where, thanks to a combination of hard work, sufficient intelligence and being famously well organised, I was usually top of the class or close to it. It really never occurred to me to question whether I was as good as or equal to a man. Nor did my time at the University of Cambridge give me any cause to ask gender inequality questions – I was a pretty average student there overall but was privileged to come across some truly brilliant minds which came in both the male and female form. Then it was on to a career at a big international company, where for the first 18 years I would have told you that, while of course I was aware of gender diversity issues, I had personally never been on the wrong end of them. I had never felt in any way held back as a woman and, to be honest, I didn’t understand why people made an issue of it. I am rather ashamed to admit that I used to be one of those women who was rather arrogant and dismissive of women who talked about gender inequality, and believed the issue was that they were perhaps not strong enough and should ‘man up’ – or should I say, ‘woman up’.

And then I saw it. And once I had seen it, I saw it everywhere.

Not the old-school ‘bum tap in the photocopy room’ kind. (Although I know this does still happen, along with its sinister digital age evolution of instant messenger stalking.) No, what I became aware of was the invisible kind. The unconscious kind of gender discrimination that is so embedded in our psyches that even good men with good intentions participate in and contribute to, men who would count themselves as unconditional believers in equality. The kind that is so unconscious and invisible that even women themselves sometimes don’t see it happening and, even worse, contribute to it themselves. The kind that ultimately defeated me, when so many other barriers along the way had not – and has defeated, is defeating and will defeat many women in their careers if we continue to allow it to. The kind that is the real, underlying reason why women struggle to succeed and are so under-represented at the top levels in business and society.

And so now I have personally seen and understood it, I am livid, and I need to talk about it and do something about it. Why are men still winning at work? Why do we accept that we are living in a man’s world where over 90% of all leadership positions in society and business are held by men and no progress is being made?

We have seen that even a global pandemic couldn’t shift us on gender equality – when I began writing this book a year ago it was clear we were stuck and since then we have even gone into reverse, thanks to Covid-19. Women have taken on even more of the burden of housework and childcare to the detriment of their careers and face a ‘Not now dear’ response to any attempt at equality or diversity discussions because this is not seen as a priority in a crisis. Yes, I am livid and I have decided to talk about it, even though I know how unwelcome and resisted this subject can be by both men and women. I am talking about it because if we don’t keep raising the issue and fighting it, the unconscious system will keep on running in its unconscious way and we will still be here, in the same place, in 100 years. Brilliant women will still be under-leveraged and will not attain the positions in business and in society that should be theirs. We simply cannot let this happen.

A few points before we get stuck in.

While I spent 25 years of my career at Procter & Gamble, my fight is against gender inequality, not against them. I believe they are one of the better companies in their intentions and efforts to drive gender diversity. The gender inequality issues I talk about are ones that are seen and experienced in companies and organisations everywhere.

In order to talk about this issue, I am sometimes going to need to make generalisations about ‘men vs women’. I am very aware that we all sit on a spectrum of gendered behaviours, and on a spectrum of gender for that matter. There are men out there who will relate more to the ‘female’ characteristics I discuss and women who will relate more to the ‘male’ characteristics and people who will relate to other combinations of ‘male’ and ‘female’ characteristics. However, I need to make some generalisations about the way women are and the way men are, otherwise it isn’t possible to talk about why women face inequality in business and society. And it is very important that we do talk about it.

I am also very aware that the gender diversity issue is only a subsection of the much broader equality and diversity issues that we face in our society. I will focus on gender inequality from the perspective of a cis white woman, because that is what I have experienced and understand, and will leave others who have the right knowledge and expertise to represent their experiences. I will say, however, that I believe that the interventions that will address the gender diversity issues I am raising will also go a long way to drive diversity and inclusion in general.

I must warn you that I am going to say some controversial things. I am going to say some things that you might not agree with or might not accept as real, or may believe are inflated versus reality. And you might get angry with what I will say. I know because this is what happens every time I discuss this subject, whether on a gender diversity panel or over a nice dinner and bottle of wine with friends. I have more to share than obvious points of view that everyone nods along with, otherwise I would not be wasting my time writing this book or asking you to waste your time reading it.

This book is not written by an academic researcher or HR expert, it is written based fundamentally on the personal experience of a female leader. While I cite independent sources for many of the things I share, others are based on my personal observations and hypotheses. All are founded, if not on something I have read or studied, on something I have actually seen, heard or felt. I believe my experience and the experiences of others are real and valid and I make no apology for it. Ultimately, I have no formal qualifications to be writing about this beyond the fact that I am a woman who has held a senior leadership role – and I believe this is as strong a qualification as any.

This is not another book written only for people who read feminist books and are passionate experts on gender diversity. It is also for the sceptics, for people who think they don’t want or need to read a book on gender equality. If that’s you, I hope I can persuade you that you do. This is also the opposite of one of those man-hating books, I have written it for men as much as I have for women. I believe that the majority of men are good and decent people who would never intentionally want to repress women, and that the issue for most men is simply a lack of awareness of gender equality issues and of how to address them. We need to end the ‘women vs men’ gender battles if we are going to drive equality.

Do I think gender inequality at work is the biggest problem we have in the world today? No – it’s not even the biggest problem women have, and it won’t be as long as some women are being physically or sexually abused anywhere in the world. When one in three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime1 and women around the world are subjected to forced marriage, stoning, trafficking, female genital mutilation, acid attacks, ‘honour’ killings, slavery and servitude, gender inequality at work is a ‘first world feminist problem’ by comparison. These are much more important issues than the ‘luxury gender issues’ I will focus on, and these must be fought by every decent human being wherever they exist.

This book isn’t about the hideous sexism or obvious sexism that everyone can see, which has been well covered by others. It is not about the awful things that the very small minority of men who are predators or misogynists consciously do to control and manipulate women. It is about the invisible and unwitting things that men do that may not come from bad intentions but that do have significant negative consequences. This book focuses on what happens when women have been lucky enough to avoid or survive physical or sexual abuse and have ploughed through all the crap – the sexual harassment in the street, at school, at college – and have strived to stop it undermining them and holding them back. It’s about what happens when these women make it to work, in a good job, which they do very well. They work alongside men – men who, by and large, are decent, behave well, say the right things and wouldn’t dream of making an overtly sexist comment, let alone do anything physically inappropriate. It’s about all of the invisible, unconscious things they experience that will ultimately be what defeats most of these strong, intelligent, talented women.

Finally, for the record, I am a feminist, but this does not mean that I want women to rule the world. I do not believe that women are better or smarter than men. I simply believe that we are equal and that we should rule and run the world (and its businesses and organisations) together. But we are a long way from this, and I have insight to share as to why this is the case and what we need to do about it.

Gill Whitty-Collins

How this book works

ARE YOU SOMEONE who isn’t really sure you need, or want, to read this book? Do you believe that gender inequality is no longer a big issue and there are other, more important priorities we should be focusing on? Then you are exactly someone who should be reading this book. Simply glance at some of the many statistics in ‘Yes, it is an issue’. I can guarantee that this chapter will show you how gender inequality is still a huge problem and why this issue is so important – and one that you want to immerse yourself in.

Are you like I was? A successful woman who was lucky not to be on the wrong end of gender inequality issues and wasn’t interested in engaging in them? ‘Do you have feminist phobia?’ I will go on to share some things you may not be aware of which will change your perspective on supporting other women and lay out how you can do this.

Are you a good, decent man who supports gender equality and believes you don’t contribute to the issue, so you don’t need to engage with it? Do you even worry that gender equality is a threat to you and your career? Perhaps you treat diversity and inclusion as a side enhancement, not as core to business success? If so, you’re not in the small group of ‘A few bad men’, but you will come to see that men winning at work isn’t actually in your best interests. You will, I hope, come to agree that you do need to engage with the gender equality issue and be ready to sign up as a fully-fledged ‘feMANist’.

Is there a small part of you that, although you would never say it out loud, thinks that men get most of the top jobs because they deserve them? That ‘Maybe men are just better?’ You will see the evidence that proves that there is no competence or intelligence gap between men and women. There is no logical reason for one gender to have a disproportionate share of key positions in business and society.

So why do men win at work and have most of the top jobs? Once all the questions and doubts about the gender equality cause have been addressed and everyone is fully on board, I will go beyond the facts and figures and delve into the underlying, unwitting and unconscious reasons that cause and perpetuate gender inequality. This includes ‘The invisible power of culture (and other forces)’, ‘The science bit’, ‘The confidence vs competence equation’ and ‘Giving good meeting’.

It also includes the ‘Umbrella Theory’ where we will see how too many women believe in the myth of meritocracy and don’t understand the need to invest in networking and self-marketing. We will also discuss the impact of unpaid labour (housework, childcare, etc) on women’s ability to do this on top of a good job.

At this point, you may be asking yourself what about ‘The women who win at work?’. Over 90% of the big jobs are held by men, but not 100%. I will introduce you to some exceptional women, the ‘Super 7%’, who have reached the highest levels in business. We’ll explore their attitudes to work, men, family, childcare, dress codes and more, so you can understand what sets them apart.

When discussing gender inequality there is a lot of talk about ‘sisterhood’. It’s so important that women support each other and that, when they succeed, they put the ladder down for women to follow in their success. But there are not enough examples of this happening – ‘Sisters are (not) doing it for themselves’. I will discuss why this is and how we all can and need to do more to remedy this.

Why can’t women look at why men win at work and apply this to make them successful? In ‘The cruel bit’ we will look at why this just doesn’t work and how there needs to be another way.

Having taken a journey through all of the things that drive gender inequality, we’ll look at the bigger picture and ask, ‘So why do men win at work?’ and ‘What the hell are we going to do about it?’. I will suggest interventions and initiatives to take, no matter if you are a parent, employer, manager, media-maker, woman or man, to sustainably drive equality and diversity in your world.

1

Yes, it is an issue

OVER THE YEARS I have had a lot of conversations with a lot of people about gender diversity and they virtually always start the same way. Sometimes I am talking with a woman who has been on the wrong end of gender inequality and is therefore painfully aware of the issue, ‘gets it’ and is keen to discuss it. But most of the time a gender equality discussion meets with one or more of the following responses:

1 I don’t know why women are still making a thing about this, it’s really not an issue anymore, certainly not where I work. Women are treated just the same as men. Sexism doesn’t really exist anymore.

2 Women are equal now – more or less.

3 Frankly, I find it a bit embarrassing to complain about gender issues when we’re so lucky compared with women even 50 years ago and women in other parts of the world who are dealing with real problems. With our nice jobs and big salaries, we have gilded lives really.

4 If I’m honest I think some women use it as an excuse. If they don’t get the job or promotion they want, they blame gender inequality. Perhaps they should take a look at themselves and accept that they were just not as strong as the person who got it.

5 There aren’t enough women with the right experience and credentials, that’s the only reason men are getting most of the big jobs. We need to build the pipeline from the bottom.

6 Just putting women who are like men in senior jobs and on teams doesn’t help anyone – some of them act more like men than the men, they are ‘man-women’. That isn’t the answer to driving diversity.

7 We shouldn’t be talking just about gender diversity, we should be talking about diversity in general – the importance of diverse styles and thinking, which can come from men and women. (I would not argue with this either, but it rather misses the point that a group that is dominated by men and lacking women is also likely to be lacking in diversity of thought).

On the gender diversity front – yes, it is still an issue. Pleased as I am that we have made progress over the last 100 years and that women are now allowed to vote and leave the house on their own, what we have today is hardly what we could call equality for women. People see one woman get a CEO role or voted in as Prime Minister and they think it’s job done. It’s not. The progress we are seeing is at best very slow, at worst non-existent, and has us a very long way away from real equality – which, in case we are in any doubt, means 50% female.

At the Women’s Equality Party Conference in 2018, Sandi Toksvig (the party’s co-founder) brought the gender inequality issue alive in her hilarious way. She told us that of the FTSE 100 companies seven are run by women but 17 are run by men called John, with 14 by men called Dave.1

Let’s look at some other, less amusing, gender equality facts.

Among the 2020 ‘Fortune 500’ rankings of leading US businesses, the irritatingly celebratory Fortune headline of ‘hits an all-time record’ announced that 37, or 7%, have women CEOs (and not one has a black female CEO).2 It is also worth noting that these women leaders are concentrated at the bottom of the Fortune 500, where the companies are smaller. Europe is even further behind, where less than 3% of Europe’s S&P 500 companies have a woman CEO.3

One defence I often hear is that most women don’t want to be a CEO because they have other priorities in life. While this may be true for some, don’t try to tell me that 90% plus of men want to be CEO but only less than 10% of women do. In fact, 45% of women – versus 54% of men – say they would like to become a CEO4 and, at the beginning of their career, 43% of women – versus 34% of men – aspire to reach top management. (Although, after two or more years of experience, this is down to 16% for women, while for men the number remains the same.)5

We will discuss why this happens later, but nothing here indicates that only 7% of women want to get to CEO level, even once they have started to see the barriers they will face. And this is not just an issue of men versus women at CEO level. The Hampton-Alexander Review recently celebrated the FTSE 100 having 32.4% women in board positions (still a long way from 50%) with only 23.1% women in executive committee positions; and this is not on track to improve given that 68% of the new appointments are going to men.6 Another stat to note, 66% of the HR executive positions are held by women but only 15% of the Finance Director (FD) positions. Only 25 of the FTSE 350 boards have appointed a woman as Chair. Two of the FTSE 100 boards and six of the executive committees are all-male, as are 38 of the FTSE 250 executive committees. Six FTSE 100 companies have no female directors.7 Only 19% of US board positions are held by women8 (somehow it seems more shocking to say that men hold 81% of board positions).

A 2018 McKinsey report found that 65% of all female executives are in non-management roles9 and Grant Thornton’s data from 2016 shows that women account for only 24% of US senior business roles.10 A man is ten times more likely to make partner at a law firm and three times more likely at an accountancy firm, and only 10.5% of fund managers are female.11

Three per cent of global venture funding went to female-only founded start-ups in the year ending October 2019 and start-ups run by women get only 2% of US venture capital firms’ investments, despite 39% of all privately held businesses being owned by women; interestingly, women-led funds also invest largely in men.12 Even at the total workforce level there is a gender issue: in the US in 2000, 59.9% of women aged 15 and older were in the workforce; that fell to 58.6% by 2010 and 56.7% by 2015.13

At my previous company, which puts a lot of well-intended focus on driving gender equality, we nonetheless saw leakage of women at every level. Close to 50% of the recruits into the management entry level were women but by the second management level it was already dropping and by the third was down to around 40%. By Senior Vice-President level, it was down to around 30% globally and lower in Europe. The United Nations (UN) has a similar leakage profile and say that it will take them 703 years to reach gender parity at the top level based on their past ten-year progress rates.14

When you step back and think about it, it’s actually incredible that we allow this to be the case without working harder to understand it and to intervene. As Hanneke Faber, President of Europe for Unilever, dryly puts it, ‘It’s hard to believe women get more stupid over time.’

Women are also enormously under-represented in politics and law. According to the UN, as of October 2018, only 9% of Member States had a female Head of State or Government, and a 2020 World Economic report tells us that only 25% of parliamentary seats worldwide are held by women, slipping to only 21% at ministerial level.15 Only ten countries have gender equal cabinets.16

Only 34% of UKMPs are female and there have been fewer female MPs in history than the number of men that hold seats in Parliament at one time.17 Women currently hold only 27% of Cabinet positions, the lowest level since 2014 and only 7 out of 38 Lord Justices of Appeal and 19 out of 106 High Court Judges are women.18

In the US, four states have never sent a woman to the Senate or the House, only five states have a female governor and only 31 women have ever served as governor versus 2,317 men. Women hold 16.3% of seats in the House of Representatives and 16% of seats in the Senate. A record 110 women now serve in Congress, which represents a pitiful fifth of seats.19

Only 10% of Japan’s legislators, senior officials and managers are women.20

The lack of women in leadership in politics is particularly critical as it both illustrates the extent of the gender gap and it plays a major role (perhaps one of the most important of all) in creating and maintaining it. According to the World Bank, only six countries currently give women and men equal rights. In the average nation, women receive just three-quarters of the legal rights that men do.21 As Caroline Lucas MP said:

If more women were here [in parliament], it would be more likely that the issues that are demonstrably unequal in terms of their impact on women would be picked up and stopped… the policies coming out of this place would be fairer to women.22

A key recent example of exactly this was during the Covid-19 crisis that some of the UK plans, most notably on school closing and childcare, had serious flaws that had not been caught because women’s perspective was missing in their development.

The gender diversity issue in the media arena is also important. A Women in Journalism study found that four out of five front-page stories were written by men, with 84% of those stories being dominated by a male subject.23 One in five solo presenters on UK radio is female (only one in eight during peak time). Women make up only 24% of people heard, read about or seen in newspapers, television and radio news. A pathetic 5% of sports media coverage in the UK is devoted to women’s sport and comedy shows such as Mock the Week have been criticised for ‘gender tokenism’ with their male-dominated panels.24

It’s the same story in film: women make up only 21% of all film-makers, and in the 92 year history of the Oscars, only five women have been nominated for the Best Director Award (only one has ever won it, Kathryn Bigelow) and only 14% of all nominations have gone to women.25 A woman has never won the Best Picture Award and Jane Campion is the only woman to have won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or in its 72-year history. Perhaps it is not surprising then that male actors spend 100% more time on screen in films than females do, they also have 69% of the speaking roles, with only 23% of films featuring a female protagonist.

Research from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media found that, from 2006 to 2009, not one female character was depicted in G-rated family films in the field of medical science, as a business leader, in law, or politics26 and that in the top 100 US family films of 2019, male leads outnumber female leads two to one.27 They saw the same issue in advertising: based on their analysis of over 2.7 million YouTube ads from 2015 to 2019, they saw female characters 44% of the time but only 29% of the time in a business and industrial context, with men having 50% more speaking time and more likely to be shown working and in leadership positions.28

Female characters, meanwhile, are significantly more likely to wear revealing clothing and to be shown in the kitchen, shopping or cleaning. Perhaps this is not entirely surprising when we learn that, globally, 89% of creative directors are men.29

When we watch a film or TV show with our ‘gender glasses’ on, we start to notice that we are constantly served up male-created media full of male-driven stories and characters. Caroline Criado Perez’s Invisible Women brilliantly documents the extent to which the male experience has come to be seen as universal and the female perspective is excluded and what we see is, at best, a limited, one-dimensional representation of women and, at worst, a damaging one. This is critical because it is proven that we are all greatly influenced by what we see on screen and around us – if we see men in the boardroom and women in the kitchen it affects how we all perceive women and their role in society.

Haley Swenson, a fellow at New America, observed in her response to Pew Research Center’s study (which calculated gender representation in top Google image search results) that Google significantly under-represents women as managers and chief executives:30

We know that what people see affects what they perceive to be normal, and that in turn affects behaviour… If you don’t think it’s normal for a person like you to do a certain job, then you just don’t do that… one of the things that drives sexual harassment is men in those jobs perceive women as infringing in a space that’s supposed to be theirs.31

We could ask Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the Prime Minister of Iceland, about this. As she was about to take the podium to deliver a speech, she was asked where the Prime Minister of Iceland was.32 She clearly didn’t look like the kind of person (read correct gender) who would or could do that job. One of the key problems is that so few of us are actually aware of the extent to which we are being influenced by the media and images over time – the impact is largely unconscious for us. Seeing their own experience and identity reflected back at them is something men take for granted and they are not conscious