I don't often write opinion on this Hawk Search blog, but this morning my next door neighbour stopped by and handed me an article she'd torn out of yesterday's Daily Telegraph entitled "What’s stopping alpha women from breaking the glass ceiling?" She said, "I thought of you when I read it."
It reminded me of an UKSIF network event that I attended last year, having been invited by David Harris at FTSE. I was talking with the head of a sustainable research firm, a fund manager and David Harris, discussing the Davies' report and women in boardrooms. (I've blogged about this report before - Six months since the Davies' Report, Women on boards).
At the event, these three men suggested that the Lehman event might not have happened had there been more women at the top of these financial institutions. I shared that I had no desire to get into senior management as I was more interested in managing work so I could put my family first and have a career that supported that. They looked at me like I had just landed from a spaceship.
In his blog post, Graeme Archer writes...
It may well be that it’s not male managers who prevent women from taking the top jobs; maybe women look at the lifestyle implied, and withdraw from the race.
and continues...
The big problem with quotas, then, isn’t only this great truth: that positive discrimination remains just that, discrimination, which breeds resentment and inequity.
When it comes to my TO DO list, this is my order of priorities: mother, wife, small business owner/recruiter, community volunteer.
As a recruiter looking for the best talent for the job, I wholeheartedly agree with Graeme Archer's opinion...
If the lack of women at the top tier is down to the pool from which the applicants are drawn, then forcing companies to appoint more women from the small set willing to put up with never seeing their children would produce boards with the same essential personality as now, albeit with more ovaries. Women who want to play a hands-on role in their children’s upbringing will still be absent.
My neighbour knows me very well.