«  
  »

Women On Top

Last week I was giving inspiration from my theory of ‘Slap & Tickle’, and this week it’s the concept of ‘Women On Top’.

I have been approached recently by several organisations working towards achieving greater diversity within their workforce. For many, their focus is ethnicity, but with several the focus appears to be gender. It’s an interesting situation to find yourself around a table with 6 men, looking very worried, asking for your help. They explained they had to get some women into senior roles by the end of 2010 and did not have a clue what to do about it!

Since writing my 7 Golden Rules I have become fascinated as to why there are so few women in top decision making roles in all sectors – I have come to several of my own conclusions and would welcome comments.

Having worked mainly with men for the last 30 years I am comfortable in a male dominated working environments. I believe I understand it and can adapt easily to work with it. My 7 Golden Rules all relate to succeeding in such an environment as a female. But my research has lead me to believe that men and women are motivated generally by different things in the workplace. In my experience men are much more tuned into salary and rewards and seem more inclined to suffer a role or working environment in which they are unhappy.

Women, on the otherhand, generally appear more concerned with satisfaction, appreciation and fulfilling working relationships. They seem far less prepared to suffer unhappiness at work and are prepared to sacrifice these top salaries for a happier life.

So does this mean that women simply don’t want to put up with the crap that comes with these top positions?

Undoubtedly some of the crap for women at the top comes from having to work in a male environment. But remember – boys are boys and girls are girls. So we would not want to be on a stag do with them – nor are they likely to want to be on a hen night with us. We think and react differently which could produce such an astounding result if we could find a way to work together.

Our brains are wired differently and our approach to challenges is very different; but what evidence is there that either way is best? Surely a 2 pronged approach would produce a better result?

The problem I fear is that there are not many women who currently want to be in the boardroom given the fact that not many boardrooms are female friendly. In fact, many of them are the opposite in my experience; and what incentive is there for men to make the boardroom female friendly? What evidence is there that having more women in top roles will produce a better result? My argument is that until it has been tried properly then it is a moot point.

Being female, I know our strengths and our weaknesses. I know that if we are allowed into the boardroom, better results will follow. But I choose the word ‘allowed’ because I am not convinced that many women want to fight their way there. My mission therefore is to convince the guys of how they will benefit by creating a more female friendly boardroom.

Any help from anywhere will be greatly appreciated. I would hate to think, as far as Women On Top are concerned, that both men and women are happy with it in the bedroom but not in the boardroom!

December 4th, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized

45 comments to Women On Top

Leave a Reply

 

 

 

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>