The Great Debate UK
Women leaders: High peaks, low gullies
- Glenda Stone is an Australian businesswomen in the UK, CEO of Aurora and a commentator on economic gender issues. The opinions expressed are her own. Reuters will host a “follow-the-sun” live blog on Monday, March 8, 2010, International Women’s Day. Please tune in.–.-
In Australia there is a common expression of social phenomenon called the “Tall Poppy Syndrome”. It is a pejorative term that describes human behaviour of attacking, despising or attempting to cut down or criticise people of genuine merit because their achievements or talent distinguish them above their peers. Targets are often accomplished people with a public profile: business leaders, politicians, academics – and at times even celebrities and sporting personalities.
The media can be especially vicious in strategising, fuelling and orchestrating smear campaigns with the sole intention of defaming and questioning the character and ability of high-profile leaders.
So three questions arise: Do different countries differ in their appetite and media tolerance for Tall Poppy Syndrome? Has inaccurate, sensationalist, instant reporting in the media become a globally accepted normative standard? And are women even greater targets for negative media attention because of unfair, deeply ingrained societal gender bias?
The UK is one of the most competitive and intensive media consuming countries in the world. In fact, any country where the Murdoch empire towers, a full and crowded range of media exists ranging from the most unintelligent sensationalist reporting through to attempts of more fact based and balanced coverage.
Unlike France where newspapers like Le Monde present lengthy fact- based articles so that readers can consider multiple perspectives and make up their own mind, the UK resorts to six or seven word headlines and light sensationalist text designed to control the minds of the masses, often without them even having to read the article. There has been a significant dumbing down in reporting over the past decades and the masses are simply told unquestionably what to think and believe.
Leaders are constantly attacked and defamed, and a mindset of “if it is not negative it is not news” prevails. Some may argue that social media such as Twitter drive and thrive from this phenomenon, as does the all too familiar tit-for-tat political retaliation banter.
Glossy or matte? Women in the recession
- Glenda Stone is chief executive and founder of Aurora, a recruitment advertising and market intelligence company, and co-chairs the UK Women’s Enterprise Taskforce established by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The opinions expressed are her own.-
A theory once proposed by Estée Lauder Companies chairman, Leonard Lauder, was that in times of economic downfall women purchase more lipstick.
Referred to globally as the “Lipstick Index”, the theory asserts that in times of economic distress women substitute expensive fashion items for less expensive grooming and “feel good” items such as lipstick.
Estée Lauder observed this phenomenon following the Sept. 11, attacks in 2001. It has also been touted by such iconic beauty houses as Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel. Even Bobby Brown launched their 10 shades of lipstick range in 1991 right in the middle of a big recession.
So lipstick may be the female morale booster as were the comic Charlie Chaplin films released during the Great Depression of the 1930s, but will it be enough to pull women out of the doldrums when there simply are just not enough jobs to go around?
Reviewing women’s participation in paid employment over the decades, Office for National Statistics findings show that in 1971 the UK employment rate for women was 56 percent compared with 70 percent by the end of 2008.
This compares with a similar decrease in men’s employment rate for the same period, with UK male employment falling from 92 percent to 78 percent. In 2008, more than 12.5 million working age women in the UK were in paid formal employment, with 40 percent working part-time compared to around 11 per cent of working men. The all-time record high for UK employment was in Q3 2007 at 29.1 million.
Women entrepreneurs to dispel micro myth
- Glenda Stone is chief executive and founder of Aurora, a recruitment advertising and market intelligence company, and co-chairs the UK Women’s Enterprise Taskforce established by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The opinions expressed are her own. -
Most venture capital and angel investment tend to go to a specific breed of entrepreneur – innovative, well networked, intelligent, confident … male. Is this the result of deep-rooted discrimination or is this simply an issue of supply and demand? Women-owned businesses are largely under-capitalised and this leads to inhibited growth.
Access to finance is cited by numerous sources as the greatest barrier to the growth of women’s enterprise but “access” is only the consequence and “education” is the cause. More women need to participate in business education addressing business growth, technology, revenue models, and securing correct types of finance.
Globally women-led businesses receive less than 5 percent of venture capital. Women business owners also seek less bank loans and overdraft facilities. Regardless of country, women are more frugal – they do more with less, for less. Is this a flattering positive or is this a naive flaw that perpetuates women’s relegation to micro enterprise?
I co-chair a taskforce established by Prime Minister Gordon Brown. We advise on strategy relative to increasing the quantity and scalability of women’s enterprise. If women started and grew businesses at the same rate as their male counterparts, the economy would experience greater wealth and job creation and, needless to say, generate further substantial tax revenues for government.
The private sector is keen to encourage emerging markets of women entrepreneurs because this can result in an expanded customer base and vertical cross-selling opportunities. One of the biggest challenges facing the Taskforce is the disproportionate interest in micro versus fast-growth businesses, not so much from the private sector or senior experts in central government, but from business support providers and the actual women themselves. Perhaps the fast-growth female led businesses are simply busy doing business and do not view gender-based networks as relevant. In addition to government programmes and private sector support typically from finance and technology corporations, thousands of businesswomen’s networking groups also exist around the world to encourage and support the rise of female entrepreneurs. Serving an important need, many of these networks provide various training programmes and events but the networks themselves usually lack revenue models and so each month many new networks launch while others simply disappear.
Although recent years have seen an emergence of women’s funding networks predominantly in the US, Canada and the UK, most networks tend to focus on micro-enterprise and social networking rather than on formal business education. In addition, media coverage tends to focus on small women-owned businesses in retail that have a good story for high audience appeal rather than on the more scalable and complex business-to-business enterprises that may be of less interest to mainstream media audiences.
Glenda ~ One-half of Forbes ’100 Most Powerful Women’ last year were CEO’s of major Fortune500 companies. How did their companies do in 2008? What percentage of the total business failures in 2008 were women-owned/founded companies? If the % is low, one could argue women owners were able to manage their businesses with far less leverage using internally-generated funds. Women news anchors would definitely like that story. Perhaps having a more level playing field will be one of the upsides to this economic downturn. However, if women were playing primarily in the home-accessorizing businesses, then they suffered along with all other businesses dependent upon continued building & renovation of homes. [Aside: Personally, I've always wanted to run a railroad like Dagny in "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand.]
On International Women’s Day, the Medical Women’s International Association emphasizes that to create equitable access to health and health care that there are three parts to gender and health. They are the biological differences between women and men, the sociocultural aspects of society as to how they see the roles of women and men, and the power relations between women and men. MWIA strives to improve the health of all, while making society aware of these three aspects that are necessary to ensure that health care can be accessed by all.
Shelley Ross
Secretary-General
MWIA