International Women's Day by Geraldine Gallacher

"International women's day

The International Women’s Day theme this year is Embracing Equity. Forgive me for being a tad cynical but doesn’t something have to exist before we can give it a hug? I know it’s just a slogan but, as it’s presumably conceived by women, it does make me wonder if we’re aligned on whether we are gaining ground when it comes to equity. I know that I for one, don’t think we are anywhere near a level playing field i.e., achieving equity and I strongly believe that companies need to redouble their efforts to develop more women leaders lest they risk going backwards. Younger women, however, push back on women-only programmes perceiving them as either unnecessary or even patronising. Many eschew the very notion of the gender binary preferring to embrace gender fluidity. This is something I agree with, but I just don’t think the rest of society has caught up with that outlook. 

The broken bridge

In my book Coaching Women, Changing the System not the Person I use the metaphor of a broken bridge when describing women’s path into leadership. It looks fine at the start when you set out on the bridge, it’s ruptured in the middle, and then for those that make it over the bridge, it looks fine to most of them too. So where is the incentive to change things?

The ruptured middle

Younger women’s optimism tends to get dented when they reach their 30s. It’s a manic time when big life decisions tend to get made. Choosing a life partner, settling down & making a home, deciding whether to have kids. And all this when being assessed for leadership roles. My experience of coaching women as they become mothers is that this is when they notice that the bridge is ruptured and that previously hidden barriers to career success start to loom up in plain sight. You might have a boss that bends over backwards to ensure you don’t get too challenging work during this time. Is this considerateness or benevolent bias? Your company might shout aloud about their flexible work policy but overlook you for promotion if you elect to go part-time. You just can’t fit in those informal drinks down the pub any more due to a much less elastic day. 

The problem is that women at this stage are too busy and exhausted to be vocal about getting the bridge repaired, about changing the system.

The other side

On the other side of the bridge are those women who have “made it”.  They are now leaders and broadly fall into two camps. Firstly, there’s the anti-role models who are described as having “outmanned the men” and don’t have much truck with women that want flexibility tending to think that they should just “man up” a bit. They’re no help at all when it comes to drawing attention to changing the system.

However, there is another group of women leaders, women of my generation who can see that things need to change and recognise that it should be an aspiration for men and women to be able to combine both a demanding job and a fulfilling personal life. 

The good news

And the good news is that men too are pushing back on “greedy jobs” that demand too much of their precious time. It’s only by more people aligning on the need to change the culture of overwork that we have become accustomed to that we will ever level the playing field or sticking to my bridge analogy, not just repair the bridge but redesign it completely. 

So, let’s still push for equity and, of course, embrace those examples where we do see equity. A big hug for the fabulous trio at the top of Insurer Aviva where the Chair, the CEO and the CFO are all women. Or take a look at Finland’s government where most of the key Heads of State jobs are held by women."

by Geraldine Gallacher