Lee's random blog

The new Liberal Democrat/Conservative coalition government has four women in its cabinet.  This is a very small number and does not compare well with other countries. But, much as the commentary would have you believe, this is not a simple issue to fix. Broadly, there are three areas that need to be looked at in order to increase the number of female MP’s.

1. Encouraging more women to come forward to stand as MP’s.

There is research from the US (applicable here) that shows that women need to be encouraged to run for public office rather than going for it themselves. There are several reasons for this, confidence being one, culture being another. (Yes I know there are examples of women who come forward but this research shows a tendency).  Addressing this would require a campaign not unlike an election campaign, reaching women in their homes and social lives.  We would need to expand the scope of  the political parties campaigns for increasing the numbers of female MP’s and empower them with budget to get out and about, round the country to encourage women to stand.  Now that the Lib Dems are in government we might find money for increasing the work that the Campaign for Gender Balance does.

2. Changing the perception of women as leaders in the party, in politics and in society.

This is even trickier.  Research shows that people automatically  think of a man when you use the word ‘leader’.  Our concept of leadership is masculine, which obviously makes it harder for a women to get elected, promoted within a company etc.  They have to work a lot harder to prove that they can lead, rather than it being assumed they can, the position men find themselves in.  (Yes I know there are examples of the opposite… etc)  The solution here is, paradoxically, to create role models of female leaders.  We need to develop and promote the female MP’s we have to be seen more obviously as leaders.  We need to actively encourage local parties to do the same and we need to encourage the media to run stories that portray female leaders in a positive light.  Less of the shoes and handbags stories about female MP’s and more about what they actually achieve in their roles.    This will make it easier for women to come forward to stand because they can see they will get recognition and will decrease the numbers of female MP’s leaving due to being constantly harangued by the press.

3. We need to change the nature of the job of MP.

It’s currently set up for a man.  Well, really for a person who has someone else at home looking after the kids and house full time. That tends to still be men. If a woman wants to be an MP, currently she has to fit into this mould. Hence the data showing that there are few mothers in parliament.  If we are serious about making room for women, then we need to understand that women bear the burden of raising our future generations.  We need to make it possible for them to do this (and dare I say for men to be able to do this too) and still become MPs.  We need to work out what parliament would need to look like for women to be able to contribute their thinking and their time, as well as taking care of community and family.  This is not a simple task and yes, is the redefinition of gender roles in society but it is basically what needs to happen.

So, you see, we should not moan about the numbers of women we currently have in parliament without a recognition of the deep systemic issues affecting a women’s chances of being successful at the job.  I’m up for changing this and will be making an offer to the Lib Dem/Conservative government to that effect.

Photo by Mike Baird on Creative Commons

A few of you have asked what I said at my talk earlier in the week.  Here are some of the themes.

Women make up 60% of all graduates in Europe and the US this year. In January 2010, for the first time, there were more women in employment in the US than men.  Women have become the majority of the workforce. Yet, only 12% of FTSE 100 directorships are held by women.  This is clearly not because there are no women working that can rise to be leaders or because women are not bright enough to do the job.  Britain also just became 74^th in the world in terms of the percentage of female MP’s, behind countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and recently overtaken by Nicaragua, the Philippines and Uzbekistan.

Why is this? We know a lot about the barriers to women progressing which exist within organizations.  Women still bear the burden of childcare so can work fewer hours if they have to pick up children from school, etc. A lot of opportunities go to people who can schmooze in the evenings and, as many women are essentially doing a second shift when they get home, they cannot attend these events. Women ‘step out’ of work to undertake the social service of producing more consumers yet are penalized for this unpaid service when they get back to work.  Work is set up for an old fashioned male paradigm when the workers and professionals were supported at home by unpaid help, (women) so they could work all the hours possible and get ahead.  And women were (perhaps) happy to be at home looking after children, when the mans wage covered all the costs.  This does not match the reality of our countries aspirations today.

There are also internal barriers to women excelling as leaders.  Women tend not to celebrate their successes in quite the same way as men do.  One client of mine expressed her dismay as her male colleagues went running to the boss to crow about what they had achieved on a shared project as she just got on with the work. Of course, those men then got promoted as they were noticed, whilst she did not. Women are not as canny about what it takes to get on in a masculine corporate culture, nor do they want to do what it takes when it conflicts with their values.  Women wait to be invited to run for public office for example, according to Marie Wilsons research at the White House Project.

One of the most telling pieces of research that the White House Project did was on perceived leadership characteristics. They sat a test group in front of small screens with a dial, and showed them clips of men and women speaking.  The test group were asked to dial up when the speaker displayed leadership characteristics and dial down when they displayed characteristics that were not associated with leadership. When the women came on screen people dialed down.  Our very concept of the term ‘leader’ is masculine. We do not internally regard women as leaders so we have a great deal of work to do to meet the masculine ideal.  This is why a lot of women’s leadership programmes are about training women to be more like men.

As far as politics goes, women largely don’t want to get involved because of the way that female MP’s are treated.  Remember Jacqui Smiths cleavage being of more interest to the media than her words as the new Home Sec?  That kind of reporting is pathetic and childish, frustrating and nearly impossible to relate to.  Also, generally speaking, women do not profess an interest in politics per se but will express an interest in issues, such as education, health and community relations. These things are the domain of politics but your average woman in the street does not see herself as having much to say about ‘politics’ because it has become synonymous with economics and defense.  Topics that traditionally men think of when they relate to politics. Of course, that is why we need both genders in politics, attending to both groups of issues.

Of course, this is not a crime that has been perpetrated on women.  Far from it.  We have been complicit in this set of arrangements.  We have accepted the status quo, we have left work in our droves when it got too hard.  We have not led in a way that made a difference to our culture.  It’s time to do so.  We need to step up and bring our voices to the table, for the sake of the women coming along behind us and for the children of the nation. We need to put ourselves forward for public office, stand an MP’s run for local council, as that is the only way that we will reach the tipping point necessary for the culture to change to something more female friendly.  Nobody is going to do this for us, we need to do it ourselves.

(This last bit of my talk wasn’t so popular…)

By now you will have seen that India’s parliament approved a bill on Tuesday 9th of March to reserve a third of all state legislature and parliamentary seats for women.  You would think from reading the UK press that this is an exceptional move but actually around 40 nations have some form of quota system in place for increasing the percentage of female MP’s.  The UK as a whole does not advocate the use of quotas, although the Labour Party has used this fairly unpopular device for a number of years, which resulted in the UK briefly rising the global chart after the 1997 election.  The UK currently ranks as 73rd out of 187 in terms of the percentage of female MP’s, behind countries such as Uganda, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.  We still fare better than the USA, which has 16.8%, and India which currently has only 10.8% female MP’s, hence the need for quotas.

Those that oppose the idea of quotas often appeal to meritocracy as an ideal for the selection and election of our members of parliament.  They say that to introduce quotas is to give women an unfair advantage and that they should be able to get elected on their own merits.  In fact some argue that the women that are selected using this method are less worthy than potential male candidates that could have occupied that space.  What can we say in response to this argument?

Meritocracy is of course something to aim for.  In an ideal world, female candidates for office would be assessed alongside men fairly and equally on their merits.  That seems logical.  The question is not so much is this happening or not, but ‘what criteria are being used?’ Just what is merited? Much has been written elsewhere on the different styles that men and women display when leading and the benefits that both styles can have on a business environment. It’s recognised in the business world that having women take part in the running of your company with drive tangible benefits. This information needs to be passed on to and fully understood by the selection committees of our political parties and to the British media who routinely scorn female MP’s.

However, that aside (and it will be explored more fully later), I wonder what else is at play in producing the UK’s disastrous results in female political representation.  We may see a reflection of ourselves in India. The Economist featured a piece this week on Gendercide, the murder of girl babies due to a preference for boys. I’m not talking about abortion as murder, I mean the actual physical murder of female babies when they are born.  This happens widely in India, and in other countries, as well as there being a large rate of abortion of female foetuses. The Economist article explains that this is causing a problem in China, as the large numbers of men are now unable to find wives and crime levels are rising due to the unchallenged masculine energy.

In the UK we do not sanction the killing of any babies and lets be thankful for that but I wonder what vestiges of this preference for the male over the female we still hold in our psyches.  When we judge female leaders on ‘merit’ are we actually holding up the male version of leader as the ideal? When we assess a women for the job of politician are we actually assessing her against men that can do the job of being available 24/7, with support at home, with no direct caring responsibilities for the family, with an ability to compartmentalise thoughts and feelings?  Are we deeply preferencing men when we choose our leaders?

I think that the percentages of female leaders in business and in politics speak for themselves. The cost of equality is giving up the idea that men are more worthy than women. In India and China giving up this belief would save lives. In the UK it would open up our power structures to women and enable them to make the contribution they are capable of making, for the benfit of the country and our future generations.

(Photo by handmadebymaria, CC)

Kira Cochrane has written a good article in the Guardian today celebrating 40 years of women’s liberation.  What really struck me was the list of causes that the women were fighting for back then,

“the family, motherhood, delinquency, women and the economy, the concept of ‘women’s work’, [and] equal pay”

These are largely still the themes that women are concerned with today.  How far we have come and yet how much further there is to go.  I wonder what the new feminism is and what it’s goals are going to be?  My money is on power and leadership, transforming the nature of those terms and the relationship that women have to them.

Though I also believe that we need to demonstrate women’s leadership, not just talk about it.  What marked the beginning of the feminist revolution 40 years ago was action and we need that again.  Something that allows women to come together to do what they do, in their ways, to step up into leadership roles.  On our terms.

What do you think would help this cause?

(Photo by felipe_gabaldon under Creative Commons, no association to post)

I’m giving a talk on the above topic at the Hoxton Apprentice on Thursday 18th March for a 12.45pm start.  Do come along.

“Do Women Really Want to be Leaders?” with Lee Chalmers

Much is made if the low numbers of female senior leaders in UK companies but what is the real problem? Is it the working practices or do women just not want to lead? Do we actually want men to lead for us? Let’s explore our resistance as women to stepping up into leadership and what it would take for us to do so.”

Three easy ways to book your lunch:

The money for these lunches funds the training of long-term unemployed so they get on-the-job skills to find (and keep) a permanent job.

1. RESERVE YOUR PLACE AT corbett.castlevale@googlemail.com

2. THEN PAY £45: Phone Events Manager Laura Gomm on 0207 749 2826 for credit card payments (only that – get all info re timings etc from invitation) Or: BACS transfer: Acc Number: 32 03 64 69 Sort Code: 60-40-05.   (Nat West Bank, London WC2H 0PD.). Your place will be confirmed once payment has been received.

3. Please send Val Corbett your job title, and 3 or 4 lines of job description (unless you already have.) And any dietary requirements.

PLEASE NOTE : Networking starts from noon we sit down at 12.45 precisely. Unlike other lunches, the speaker starts before the first course is served.   Please, be on time – as the airlines say, if you’re late, we won’t wait!  Things change and if your diary suddenly frees, call 07920 107323  as there are always last-minute cancellations.

Quickest way to get to us: Northern Line Old Street tube, exit 2; walk straight, past traffic lights, Holiday Express, first left Coronet Street and Hoxton Square at top of this short road. Hoxton Apprentice is top of the Square next to the church. Takes 6 ish minutes.

About the Organiser

Val Corbett, director of Hoxton Apprentice. Born in Cape Town, Val has had a career in the media spanning national newspapers, magazines and BBC television. She was founder director of an independent TV production company producing several programmes for BBC TV and Channel 4. After that she co-wrote six novels but now gains far more satisfaction from her work with Training For Life. Val has the specific brief of marketing and promoting the Michelin-recommended Hoxton Apprentice.

Full detail on the Hoxton Apprentice website

Great write up in the Women Count Blog about Costa Rica electing its first female President.

“Last week history was made in Costa Rica when Laura Chinchillawas elected the first women president in the country’s history. Chinchilla won with 47% of the vote. She had served as the Vice President and had the full support of outgoing President and Nobel peace prize winner Oscar Arias.

This is a huge accomplishment not just for women in Costa Rica but for all of Latin America, which is still largely dominated by male leaders. Chinchilla has a long political history. She has served as Public safety minister, Congressional deputy, Justice Minister and of course Vice President.

Chinchilla is married with a teenage son and is a graduate of Georgetown University here in the United States.

Though women across Costa Rica and throughout the world celebrated her victory, claiming it to be a victory for all women, some women have remained hesitant. In fact some say it is more of a victory for one woman versus all women. The reason being that Chinchilla is a Social Conservative who is very vocal about her views against gay marriage and abortion.

Despite the hesitation by many women’s groups, we should still give the moment it’s proper recognition. When witnessing women succeed at breaking that glass ceiling in other countries it should give inspiration and motivation to female politicians in the United States and across the globe. If Costa Rica can break that ceiling, so can we.”

Given her politics, it’s important point to note that simply increasing the numbers of female MP’s/leaders does not necessarily guarantee that the world will be a better place.