“The best way to shatter the glass ceiling, she said, is first to shatter the myth that you can have it all.” – Mrs Moneypenny
Monday is International Women's Day 2010. I had expected one of the FT writers, a Mrs Moneypenny, to write about it - because she touches on a range of interesting issues around women in business - but instead she chose to ignore it and focused on something else.
It's an unheard, unsaid, shameful truth: women can't have it all.
It's thankfully not because we are somehow inferior. No, it's because no one can. Superman doesn't exist. Superwoman, less so. No one can have it all. Men have never had it all - it's just that 99.9% of them like to think they do, and like to tell the world it. But the sad truth is that men made the decision to go for the career and to leave their families behind. There is a small but fighting group of stay at home dads, and while they get the occasional mention in some news article, they generally are fighting for parental rights and leave the work/life balance issue alone. Most men, it seems, don't feel the need to have it all.
So why do women? There are countless reports and surveys produced showing the lack of women on FTSE 100 boards, and even more reports (usually produced by our Scandinavian friends) quantifying the benefits of gender balanced boards. No wonder career driven women are so focused on entering that elusive echelon where they can increase profitability by their mere existence.
Unfortunately, the truth has finally emerged. You can go and sit on a board and be that superwoman, but something else has got to give. It doesn't take a genius to realise that it's going to be the family - if you managed to find the time to have one in the first place. Countless networks and organisations work to find ways to enable women to keep their hands and feet firmly in both worlds, but is it time to admit defeat? Perhaps women can't have it all.
“Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.” – Douglas Adams
Last Friday, the Royal Institution made it's director, Susan Greenfield, redundant. The decision itself was far more melodramatic than that statement, from the information garnered by the media. It's said that staff were given thirty minutes notice to attend a meeting in which it was announced by the chief executive, that she was locked out of her grace-and-favour flat immediately, that she was offered a superb redundancy package which she turned down, that she had wrecked the prestigious institution's finances, that an 'old boys' club' culture was really behind it all.
Unsurprisingly, the bit that seems to have taken off is the 'old boys club' claims. Lady Greenfield made a statement saying that she will be presenting a claim in the employment tribunal which will include allegations of sex discrimination.
"I am the only female who has been appointed to this iconic post throughout the 211-year history of the Royal Institution, and I cannot see how this decision can be in the best interests of the organisation or its members."
Lady Greenfield is widely acknowledged to have been a fantastic asset to the Ri: she is clever, accessible and most importantly, can explain science to mere mortals. But science isn't accountancy, and finance always comes first - as the credit crunch should well have taught us all. All charities have to file their accounts with the Charity Commission. The mere fact that their accounts and annual return for 2008 were filed three months late speaks of poor internal governance, and the Trustee's report discusses issues around their finances.
Digging deeper into the return brings up the page with the Staff Costs, drilling specifically down to the employees earning over £60k. It doesn't take a genius to figure out where the Director falls. Earlier pages also show the Director's Office expenses, with another ~£207k to it's name.
The Ri says that they can no longer afford the post of Director, hence it - and she - is being made redundant. But do those numbers add up? Or is it really a matter of personal actions: she spent too much money, they were too narrow-minded to take any more of her supposed drama (the tabloid interested in Greenfield's marital affairs was particularly uncalled for), and so it was inevitable that this would be the parting of their ways.
It's one hell of a way to make a point - fire her, logic would say, don't stop yourselves from being able to have a director altogether. While I'm sure that they could construe a new position that does half the job (with half the salary) with a new title to avoid the issue of filling a redundant post, it's also the type of behaviour that gives the corporate world it's bad name. Following suit seems unwise.
If this all is a personal matter, as Greenfield claims, then the Trustees and Executives will have to move fast to restore their balance. It's a shame to loose Greenfield, but it would be a far greater loss to lose the Ri altogether. In proving the Ri wrong, she may well hammer the final nail in their coffin - and that's without sex discrimination tagged on.
Ironically enough, as I wrote this, I received an email from womenintechnology.co.uk inviting me to their next event, 'Women of Substance: Inspiring Women in STEM', hosted by none other than the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Wonderful timing. I wonder if this will increase or decrease the size of the audience?
“Diversity is not about how we differ. Diversity is about embracing one another’s uniqueness.” Ola Joseph
Diversity in investment banks is a contentious issue. I tend to focus my attention on graduate recruitment, because it's the easiest way to see what the demographics of the future workforce will be like.
I have a friend that joined the technology graduate scheme of one large American bank a couple years ago, and was part of an intake that was at least 70% white male. My friend, a white woman, joined the most unexpected team in that firm.
The team was founded by another woman. This woman went on to build her team, and after a couple years, when my friend had joined, this was the breakdown:
| Count | Disability | Ethnicity | Sexuality | Gender |
| 2 | dyslexic | White | straight | women |
| 1 | White | straight | woman | |
| 1 | dyslexic | White | straight | man |
The next incarnation of this team involved the man relocating to New York, and a new graduate coming on board. Yes, we have arrived at an all-women team - in IT!
| Count | Disability | Ethnicity | Sexuality | Gender |
| 2 | dyslexic | White | straight | women |
| 1 | White | straight | woman | |
| 1 | Chinese | straight | woman |
And guess what - the best is yet to come. Because my friend, that 1 white woman, is moving on. Let's introduce her replacement, as well as this year's new graduate.
| Count | Disability | Ethnicity | Sexuality | Gender |
| 2 | dyslexic | White | straight | women |
| 1 | Chinese | straight | woman | |
| 2 | White | gay | men |
There's something fantastical about this team. Shouldn't there be a token straight, white man?
It's easy to understand how it started, because it comes down to the key problem with diversity: everyone wants to hire people like them. This is not out of malice or (reverse) discrimination, it's because we generally feel more comfortable with people that have something in common with us.
Dyslexia's an interesting thing to appear in this mix, because it's a fairly hidden disability - given that it's estimated that 10% of the population is dyslexic, there should be thousands of such people employed by all of these large firms, and yet I'm sure most people aren't aware of their dyslexic colleagues.
And that leaves us with women and gay men. There are many, many variables at work, but given that women and gay men are few and far between on technology grad schemes, it's interesting to watch them gravitate into this specific team. Is it the job? The manager? The team? For once, I'm interested in the flip side: why are the stereotypical straight, white men not ending up here?
“DailyCandy’s subscriber list can be taken as the Holy Grail of e-commerce” – NY Magazine
I was recently introduced to DailyCandy, when a friend forwarded me an email with the subject Lower Eastside Story. It informed us that the Lower East Liquor Bar and Bistro had opened in Canary Wharf, where we happen to work. The review was short, frivolous, mouth-watering and even included a 50% off offer. We were sold in seconds.
I'm one of those people that never knows where to go for food, always finds out about a sale after the clothes that would actually fit me are gone, and loves cultural things but finds that keeping up to date on them takes up too much time. So a newsletter-style website emailing me the tidbits of information I need sounds like a good idea - it's like GOOP, but useful.
(Not that I have anything against GOOP, of course. But when even Gossip Girl is mocking Gwyneth Paltrow's creation, you have to wonder what exactly she thinks she's providing. I'm all for women learning to leverage the power of the internet, but it's all about the product.)
Nevertheless, I am for successful businesswomen, so I went to find out more about DailyCandy's. It was founded by Dany Levy, a former New York magazine editor, with a stellar background of private school and Ivy League education. DailyCandy went from Levy generating all the content herself from her bedroom in 2000 to a $125 million purchase for Comcast in 2008. The staff has grown, as DailyCandy has expanded from New York to a range of cities across the U.S. and even across the ocean to London.
Unfortunately, it seems that even with a woman at the helm, some stereotypes persist. New York magazine published an article about the company in April 2006 with the following quote:
The Website depicts a comely staff of 28 (all three forlorn-looking males hold IT positions).
A quick check shows that not much has changed in over three years. The number of men in the organisation has risen, with them holding finance and administration positions, but they haven't let go of the title of web developer in the process.
Not that it's theirs to let go: it's DailyCandy's to hire. Still, I have to wonder why this happened as it did.
- Perhaps there were only male applicants.
- Perhaps the women that applied weren't good enough.
- Perhaps DailyCandy hired through networks and so the type of woman that is employed to write for such a magazine doesn't tend to have technically minded friends.
- Perhaps the average technical woman doesn't want to work for a website that is generally about the shallower things in life and doesn't even have a girly techy section to show off the latest gadgets.
Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. Perhaps we'll never know why, but I fear that it's a mix of the latter points. We live in a society that is, unfortunately, an extension of high school: the girly girls go to Selfridges, the geeky girls go to the Apple Store, and ne'er the twain shall meet. The girly girls will assume that IT is a man's job because they don't have the inclination to make sense of it, and the geeky girls mock the women that can't have a conversation without bringing up clothes or men.
So it all comes back to diversity. After all, if women can't succeed with women at the helm, then we really don't stand a chance with men.
“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” – Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, is one of those books that seems to be everywhere and yet barely anyone I know has read it. I've been doing a lot of walking lately (in preparation for the 20 mile London Night Hike, please donate if you can!), and decided to grab the audiobook of Outliers to entertain me.
One of the more prolific statements that he makes is around the 10,000 rule: the concept that the key to success is practicing for at least 10,000 hours. Gladwell claims that it's true for everyone, from the violinists at the Berlin Academy of Music, to chess players, to Bill Gates. If you believe his theory, then you also have to agree with corollary. It doesn't matter if you're naturally a genius in the area - the 10,000 hours is still required to be successful.
Unsurprisingly, this all made me think about gender demographics in technology. Remind me, why don't we have many women?
They got lost, when they didn't get their 10,000 hours of practice during the 10 years of schooling that their male counterparts did. They were too busy being told to take English instead of Maths and trying to fit in with their peers.
They got lost, when they went to university for 4 years and ended up being put in the role of organiser and presenter and report writer instead of doing technical work during projects.
They got lost, when they took that career break to raise children and missed thousands of hours of technical and management experience.
The first two are things to be remedied, things that have been identified time and time again, and have a million and one projects in the works in the hopes of addressing them.
The last issue is something we have to learn to deal with. Women bear children; this is way things have always been and will remain for a very, very long time. The choice of whether to stay at home with your children is a personal one, but the key word is choice. It should be a fair choice, where there is no undue bias because your job doesn't suffer and neither do your children. Technology is important, but so is the next generation.
But now we know that taking that break automatically puts you behind the competition, because it doesn't matter how good your company's maternity policies are and it doesn't matter how good you are. You will still lose the advantage because you have to make up that time somehow, and that can only be done by working harder and longer, which new mothers usually aren't in the market for. So it will take longer to make that time up. The determined ones will make it, as they should, and the ones that decide it's not that important to them, won't.
My gut instinct tells me that career breaks will continue to be taken by women. I don't think this is an issue that needs to be tackled on that front.
Instead, the shoe has moved to the other foot. As men campaign for better paternity rights and start taking longer breaks themselves, will we ever reach a point where the playing field evens out across the genders?
“The geese that laid the golden eggs – but never cackled.” – Winston Churchill
This fine Sunday, I went to FindingAda's first public event: Women of Bletchley Park. Having never been to Bletchley Park before, I was quite keen to see the place as well as learn about the role women had to play during it's wartime efforts.
The day opened with an intro from the leading ladies: Suw Charman-Anderson, founder of FindingAda, Sue Black, Head of the University of Westminster's School of Information and Software Systems, Kelsey Griffin of Bletchley Park itself, and last but certainly not least: Jean Valentine, Bombe operator at Bletchley Park during the war and our tour guide today.
Jean covered the somewhat random history of Bletchley Park, which is nicely documented on their website. Kelsey explained Bletchley's problematic funding situation, which has been covered in the media over the course of the past year. Sue explained her personal involvement and gave some colour to the Saving Bletchley Park campaign that she has spearheaded.
We then relocated to the Enigma ABC Cinema to watch The Women of Station X. I think one of the oddest - and nicest! - parts of the day was to realise that half of the staff at Bletchley Park during the war were women. That's... equal representation. Obviously, women would have been doing vastly different roles compared to the men, but they were still there. The sad part is to hear how the men were able to leverage their Bletchley experience in their post-war lives, while the women sadly returned home, unable to tell a soul about the work that they did.
We had a wonderful tour with Jean, a fantastically enthusiastic and spry woman despite her age. One thing that hadn't occurred to me was how many different things are hosted at Bletchley: from the Churchill room to the Toy Collection to obviously the rebuilt Bombes and Colossus, to my personal favourite: the Bletchley Park Post Office. They produce first day covers of Royal Mail stamp issues, so while this is the original Women of Distinction collection, I grabbed myself the Bletchley version, featuring 6 of their heroines, one of which is Jean Valentine - our tour guide that had signed it.
All in all, it was a lovely day out. Go and see what it has to offer if you can!
“The future [...] is digital, and Xerox will continue to be the digital printing partner of choice.” – Anne Mulcahy
When the issue of women comes up in a professional environment, it's quite common for men to ask why we need all of this attention focused on the issue. In my previous job, it was pointed out to me that not only did I report to a woman, but her manager, and her manager's manager were also women - with the global head of the extended team (based in America) also a woman. With such a long chain of women, they said, was there really anything for me to moan about?
But for every such line of women, the company had another 10 to match it of men. What's more, those hierarchies stretched much further than mine ever did - because it was a man that had the top job. This is why it still matters.
Of course, women are breaking through every day. Ursula Burns' ascent to the position of CEO of Xerox has been widely reported, not least because she is the first female African-American to lead a major public company, and because she is taking over the reigns from another woman. Anne Mulcahy is often credited with rescuing the company known for photocopying, although I don't believe the usage of the word 'xerox' as a verb has extended beyond America.
There are some similarities between the women: apart from the obvious business acumen, Mulcahy has two grown sons while Burns has a 16- and 20-year old, but that seems to be where it ends. Mulcahy joined the firm as a field representative upon completion of a BA degree in English and Journalism, while Burns started as an engineering summer intern and went on to complete her BSc and MSc in Mechanical Engineering.
While it goes to show that perhaps one really should do what they love at university, because it can all lead down the same road at the end of the day, I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was pleased that Ursula Burns is a scientific woman. Her academic achievements are impressive on their own, but she also worked her way up from being raised by a single mother in a New York City housing project. Now that's a role model for future generations!
“My career is based on enthusiasm, determination, hard work and luck.” – Anna Amtmann
I'm usually far more interested in planet research than plant research, but when I heard that a woman from my alma mater, the University of York, had a blurb in the June 2009 edition of GARNet newsletter, GARNish, about a women in science project she was running, I had to take a look.
As part of her Royal Society Rosalind Franklin award, Professor Ottoline Leyser (University of York) has produced a book entitled Mothers in Science. The aim of this book is to illustrate, graphically, that it is perfectly possible to combine a successful and fulfilling career in research science with motherhood, and that there are no rules about how to do this. On each page you will find a timeline showing on one side, the career path of a research group leader in academic science, and on the other side, important events in her family life. Each contributor has also provided a brief text about their research and about how they have combined their career and family commitments. The book is available for downloaded from
http://bioltfws1.york.ac.uk/biostaff/staffdetail.php?id=hmol
The book contains profiles of 64 academics, including a woman from my former computer science department and quite a few other familiar names. It gives an interesting insight into a world that rarely gets to be in the spotlight. There are obvious limits to the story being told, but while there is a slight bias towards the idyllic world of supportive (and more often than not, academic) husbands with part-time or flexible working arrangements, the "2 body problem" that academics face when they are not located in the same city are also addressed.
Some women happily say that they delayed children until they were established in academia with research groups, while others were 'unknowingly pregnant' when taking up early research positions and took 8 year career breaks. Almost all detail their childcare arrangements, ranging from family to departmental nurseries to various nannies and au pairs being employed. One woman, Sunetra Gupta, has not only juggled two daughters alongside her academic career but is also an established novelist with four books under her belt! The only thing missing is greater coverage of single mothers and inclusion of same-sex partnerships: this is a good start, but there is more equality to be found here.
All in all, it's a fascinating read and well worth hitting the print button for local libraries and schools to stock. People always say that women can have it all these days, but this is one of the few times where you get to see the proof of it with the compromises - from the parental side.
“Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.” – Ernest Hemingway
My generation spawned many things, including the birth of ‘ladette’ culture. Despite the stereotypical image of young British women downing pints, I still associate wine with a woman’s drink.
You can imagine my surprise at being the only woman in the room when I joined my other half for a wine tasting a few weeks ago, organised by his firm’s trading technology department (where he works). Where did all the women go?
It’s easy to come up with superficial reasons behind this phenomenon:
- They signed up but couldn’t make it due to work issues
- They have to run home and take care of the kids
- They like wine but they don't care about it that much
- There aren’t that many of them there in the first place, so proportionally you wouldn’t expect (m)any anyway - unfortunately I wasn't able to get hold of the percentage of female employees in that department to confirm what the expected figure would be around.
The first three points all lose ground when you take Women Inspired by Wine into account. The group was only launched in April of this year, and it's exactly what you would infer from the name: an organisation that provides educational and social opportunities around wine for women. One would assume that they have a number of members, or it wouldn't exist. Who are these women? I think it's safe to say that they don't work in trading technology at investment banks, or maybe they do and that's why they eschew the work events for the superior women-only ones!
However, for anyone that thinks perhaps the women attending these events are something other than city professionals has it wrong because one of Women Inspired by Wine's partners is none other than Women in the City. But how many of those women attend the wine events?
Women in the City was created when Gwen Rhys, a serial networker if there ever was one, decided that there should be a forum to gather city women together. This resulted in a 'one-off' lunch that has become the annual flagship event for the organisation. In addition to the lunch, they now have an annual symposium, an awards scheme and produce a magazine with items of interest to both men and women.
The network is currently focused at senior women, with a target age of 35-45, but I'm pleased to see that future endeavours include a Rising Star award for the 25+ age range. I remain convinced that while networks are good in the current atmosphere, the only reason they are necessary is because women are in the minority. The only way to bring this situation to an end is to increase the number of women, and that will naturally occur by fostering younger talent.
Maybe then, the day will arrive when wine events are open to both genders, and both will attend. What a novelty!
“First of all, I have always dreamt of being an astronaut, even if this might be obvious.” – Luca Parmitano
Anyone that follows me on Twitter will have been inundated with tweets last week when the ESA finally revealed their 6 new astronauts. The varied group consists of 2 Italians, 1 German, 1 Danish, 1 French and the one I was waiting for – 1 British.
There was thankfully one woman in the group, the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti, who the BBC News website called ‘ESA’s first female astronaut’ until they realised that the ESA has in fact had two female astronauts in the past. One was Claudie Haigneré, who was the first Frenchwoman in space and left the ESA to go into politics. The other was Marianne Merchez, a Belgian that married a fellow astronaut but then resigned from the ESA before ever going into space. So that leaves Cristoforetti on her own in the ESA Astronaut Corps, and she’ll most likely remain like that until the next round of recruitment in 15 years (if past precedent is anything to go by) but I’m more than confident that she can hold her own.
Earlier this week, ESA remained in the news with the launch of ESA astronaut Frank De Winne to the International Space Station. It’s a significant mission for many reasons. Firstly, De Winne and his two crewmates will remain with the current inhabitants of the ISS to form the first six person crew of the ISS. That crew will mark the first time that representatives from all five ISS partner agencies will be in space together: 1 Belgian ESA astronaut, 2 Russians, 1 Japanese, 1 Canadian, and last but not least, 1 American NASA astronaut. Of course, De Winne himself is going to be the first European commander of the ISS, a role he will take over after four months in space.
But what’s so good about space, apart from the fun vibe that one gets after watching the new Star Trek movie? The ministers in charge of space activities in the ESA's 18 Member States and Canada met today for the Sixth Space Council. The ministers noticed the contribution of space to leading economic recovery through innovation, with key points including the potential of satellite communication technologies for broadband in rural areas. This is a remarkably simple concept that anyone visiting a rural area can understand, and yet we are not in a position to do anything about it.
I understand the need to generate excitement around space and astronauts at a basic level – and if we have things like new astronauts to announce, then by all means, that should be maximised for media attention – but I find that more often than not, the practicalities and usefulness of space exploration is sidelined, especially the role that the people down on the ground play. Things might be changing, though. It’s still the International Year of Astronomy, and the She Is An Astronomer project is going strong in the UK with Maggie Aderin working on projects with Blue Peter and arranging for short items about women in astronomy to be broadcast on the BBC Radio 4’s Women's Hour.
I also remember part of the astronaut application asking the candidate for their opinions on the role that an astronaut should play as a public face. It’ll be interesting to see what Maj Timothy Peake will be doing on the media front in the months to come – especially given that the UK has yet to contribute financially to the ESA’s human spaceflight programme.
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