Four Things I’ve Liked This Week

Here we have a Buzzfeed-esque list of “4 Things” which have caught my eye of late: things which made me laugh, made me (fleetingly, before I remember the weather, #8monthsofsnoweachyear) want to emigrate to Canada, made me mentally crown a member of the British Royal family this week’s #HeforShe champion and made me recall an early brush with a culture very, very different from my own.

Firstly,  this meme response to a Time magazine cover from 2014 made me laugh.

“Can Anyone Stop Hillary?”  was the question in a televised debate: and here we have the great reply.

 

In my 2015 round up of people and stuff I loved, I referenced the then newly minted Canadian leader Justin Trudeau as a hero for saying, in a very matter of fact way “Because it’s 2015 …” when asked why he had a 50/50 gender split in his cabinet. He’s gone on to consolidate his feminist credentials; Fortune magazine did a nice round up of five times that he’s been a feminist hero and I especially like this quote, from JT’s recent editorial in the Globe and Mail:

“Feminism is about equal rights and opportunities for men and women, about everyone having the same choices without facing discrimination based on gender. Equality is not a threat, it is an opportunity.”

So yes please Mr Trudeau, do please keep saying you’re a feminist.

Another, perhaps unlikely, bloke was outed as a gender champion last week when Prince Harry visited Nepal and spoke in support of gender equality at the Girl Summit. I would love to see him do more of this type of work – I think he has huge influence and reach and,  removed from the burden of pressure to be a future monarch,  he could really build his own portfolio and platform in support of women, girls and education.

“There are way too many obstacles between girls and the opportunities they deserve,” the 31-year-old prince told the crowd [at the Summit]. “We need to acknowledge that so many countries and cultures are failing to protect the opportunities of young women and girls in the way they do for boys,” he continued.

The royal, who admitted he has not spoken out on the challenges of young girls in the past, embraced the opportunity and encouraged others to do the same.

“We won’t unlock these opportunities for young women and girls unless we can change the mindset of every family and community. To achieve this, it cannot just be women who speak up for girls,” he said.

Finally, a recent story in The Observer took me back in time and reminded me of my first foray into volunteer work when I was still at school. We currently hear so much about refugees from Syria but the paper went to catch up with a number of Vietnamese refugees, who found themselves in the UK in the early 1980s after their rescue from terrifying boat journeys (hence being referred to in tabloid terms as “the boat people”) and subsequent re-homing in Peterborough.  At the time,  the Cambridgeshire city was dubbed a ‘new town’ and was in the throes of expansion and development; businesses were lured there with cut price offices and rates and new housing estates seemed to spring up almost overnight.  The then Mayor made some of these new properties available to a number of Vietnamese families and I came to know them when I spent two afternoons a week with them as part of my volunteer work (in lieu of playing hockey!) at school.

The programme was nominally about teaching the adults English,  but in reality it became much more about learning life skills and how their new life and society actually worked. So whilst we did spend time sitting in their kitchens doing English lessons together (numbers, colours, names, food and drink, and putting stickers up on items around the house – door, chair, TV, sink, fridge) we also went out and about together so that my new friends could learn how to use public transport,  how to use the public library, what to do in a shop (how to queue, for example … I remember this causing much puzzlement), how to sit in a café and order from the waitress.

I did this for nearly two years before I left Peterborough to go away to university and I loved it – and I know that I learned as much from my new friends as they ever learned from me, not least the capacity to look at life through a different lens and see things from another point of view. It was wonderful to read the article and learn about how the families settled and became successful; there is one very successful young woman featured in the article and I wonder if I met her when she was a child.

Weekly round up: anyone for tennis?

As Adele would say, hello. Ahead of a long (in the UK, at least) weekend, here’s my round up of gender related news, plus a recommendation for a novel.

There’s still lots of noise around the gender pay gap. And I feel that my prediction earlier this year that it’s THE human capital news story of 2016 is very much the case. The Huffington Post asked – just how persistent is the gender pay gap? Apparently, even companies that practice “salary transparency” – making all employees’ salaries publicly available – may end up paying men more than women.  And a report by the UK Women and Equalities Select Committee said the government has failed to close the pay gap and called for action on what it dubbed the ‘motherhood penalty’.

Meanwhile, anyone for tennis? The sporting pay gap story of the week played out in a series of comments, resignations and backtracks. Firstly, Indian Wells Tennis Garden CEO Raymond Moore’s allegation that female tennis players “ride on [the] coattails of the men” hit the tennis world like a bombshell, prompting his subsequent resignation. While Serena Williams called his statements “mistaken and very, very, very inaccurate,” Novak Djokovic firstly took the opposite view, saying he believes there is data to support the notion that men bring in more fans, swiftly followed by HIS backtrack,  claiming he had been misunderstood and that it wasn’t his “intention” to cause offence (thus proving my oft-repeated point that it’s never about intent but always about impact). Game, set and match to Serena Williams and Andy Murray, I think,  who both come out of this debate with dignity and gender equity support intact and consistent.

In US politics, The New York Times reported on how white men are pushing back on supporting Hillary Clinton, whilst Donald Trump’s “problem with women” may cost him the Republican nomination (and that would be a real definition of soft power,  if it happens).

“To win the White House Donald Trump will have to accomplish one of the great political seductions of all time. Having insulted the women of America as bimbos, fat pigs, dogs, slobs and disgusting animals, he will have to persuade them to vote for him.”

(I can’t actually bear to illustrate this story with a relevant image,  so please use your imagination, if you can stand to do so.)

Thanks to ELLE’s Hannah Swerling sharing the details of it with us at Soho House last week,  I finally caught up with this New York magazine story on why and how young single, female voters hold the power in 2016 – why the shape of marriage and family life is changing and how the practicalities of female life independent of marriage give rise to US demands for pay equity, paid family leave, a higher minimum wage and broadly accessible reproductive rights; many of these are issues that have, for years, been considered too risky to be central to mainstream Democratic conversation, yet they are policies today supported by both Democratic candidates for president.

Last week, Sheryl Sandberg celebrated the two year anniversary of the release of the Lean In Collection on Getty Images, a library of thousands of creative images devoted to changing the portrayal of women and girls in media and advertising. In the past year, searches for “woman entrepreneur” have increased by 402% on Getty’s website — and searches for “empowered women” increased by 772%. As Sandberg shared on Facebook, “We also need to broaden the images we see of men, and there are signs that these depictions are changing. In 2007, the most downloaded image of a father was a dad playing football with his son. In 2015, the most downloaded image showed a dad reading a tablet with his daughter. They say a picture is worth a thousand words — and in an age where visuals are everywhere, it is so important to think about the messages those images are sending.” This link shares what role imagery in advertising can play, so that we can “be what we can see.”

It was reported in the UK that the so-called “tampon tax” (wherein sanitary protection products are taxed as a LUXURY item) is to be abolished and chef and campaigner Jamie Oliver came out swinging in favour of breastfeeding, saying that “we need to support the women of Britain to breastfeed more, anywhere they want to”, although he then ran into a wall of criticism, mostly from women who felt that it wasn’t down to a man to “mansplain” such a female function.

The Pool shared some revised ideas about what dressing for work now looks like and discussed how women’s wear has evolved over the last fifty years. And Lauren Laverne used the site to urge us all to speed up the pace of change.

Finally, books.

The Observer ran a nice piece on Caitlin Moran talking about her new book, Moranifesto and the same paper’s This Much I Know column featured feminist icon Gloria Steinem.

I read and enjoyed After the Last Dance by Sarra Manning; it tells the story of Rose (set in 1940s’ wartime London) and the (initially unlikeable) current day Jane, slowly unfolding their connection. A beautiful woman in a wedding dress walks into a seedy bar in Las Vegas and asks the first man she sees to marry her; in 1943, Rose runs away from home and ends up in London where she volunteers at Rainbow Corner, a nightclub for American GIs. It’s a slow burning read but I enjoyed it – perfect for a rainy afternoon and a hot cross bun.

 

Thanks to Sphere and NetGalley for the chance to read After the Last Dance.

 

The #WE Party on the gender pay gap

There are currently so many new stories and angles relating to the gender  pay gap that I think I’m going to have to use a #PowerofThree approach of my own and just cover three at a time.

So, in the week that the Women’s Equality Party launch a gender pay gap shaped campaign (details and video link below),  here are the three (and a bit) main stories on this ever evolving topic which have caught my eye in the global media in the last few days.

Straight in at Number One with a bullet,  we have the New York Times reporting that as women take over a male-dominated field, the pay drops, indicating that work, when done by women, is less valued and therefore less well paid. Historically,  this may not be new news; I seem to recall that clerical and secretarial work was, in the 1900s, always done by men and was considered of high status – until the First World War brought women out of the home and into offices and hey presto, the “just a secretary” movement was born.

“A striking example is to be found in the field of recreation — working in parks or leading camps — which went from predominantly male to female from 1950 to 2000. Median hourly wages in this field declined 57 percentage points, accounting for the change in the value of the dollar. The job of ticket agent also went from mainly male to female during this period, and wages dropped 43 percentage points. The same thing happened when women in large numbers became designers (wages fell 34 percentage points), housekeepers (wages fell 21 percentage points) and biologists (wages fell 18 percentage points). The reverse was true when a job attracted more men. Computer programming, for instance, used to be a relatively menial role done by women. But when male programmers began to outnumber female ones, the job began paying more and gained prestige.”

Next, we have two areas of the gender pay gap topic covered in the Harvard Business Review, who share the real reason why 30-something women are leaving their employers – and guess what,  it’s nothing to do with “family reasons” and everything to do with cold, hard cash. So,  where women can vote with their feet and leave the much-lauded talent pipeline for more money elsewhere: they will. And also in the HBR is a feature which indicates that our new (UK) pay gap legislation will also increase employee performance. Pay transparency empowers workers and enhances fairness. “When people know where they stand and know what it will take to move up, they’re more motivated to work to improve both their performance and their standing.”

Finally, the CIPD reports that short men and overweight women appear to suffer from unconscious bias affecting their pay, according to a study from the University of Exeter. The results showed that men who were shorter than the national average and women who were heavier earned about £1,500 less annually than colleagues. It’s suggested that leaders should acknowledge the unconscious bias that leads to this pay discrepancy and work to remedy it. Tam Fry, spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, said: “We have known for a long time that both [quoted forms of discrimination] are truisms. If you are a shorter man, with the same qualifications as a taller man, the tall man will get the job. By the same token, an overweight woman will earn less. It is awful but true.” Fry said he believed employers were acting on unconscious biases, rather than outwardly discriminating: “We are brought up to think that if you are fat you are less than perfect and that it is really tall men who are commanding. It is discrimination and, from an employment point of view, there is no reason for it. If you can do the job, you can do the job, and you should get paid equally.”

(I’ll reference the still-evolving story about gender pay gaps on the tennis court – and the charmless comments made therein – in this week’s end of week round up).

So now to the Women’s Equality Party, who are celebrating March – the first month of the year women actually get paid – with a new ‪‎campaign and video.

“Forty-five years after the Equal Pay Act, women still earn 20% less than men. This means that, in effect, women have to work until March before they start getting paid for the jobs that they do. Women earn less per hour, less per job and less overall. This is not only hugely unfair on half of the population, but it also has a detrimental effect on the country as a whole. If we unleashed the potential of women, the economy could grow by an extra £180 billion. That’s £2,850 for each and every one of us. If you want a party for equal pay, support the Women’s Equality Party.”

What I find absolutely staggering about the gender pay gap issue is the chorus of disagreement which it provokes every time it gets mentioned on social media or in an article.  The internet is awash with comments like: “Every job that I have worked my female colleagues have earned exactly the same pay as me, so where are these places that pay less for the same work?” and “But there isn’t REALLY a 20% pay gap is there … it’s all just rhetoric and manipulation….”.

So not only are we faced with fighting for parity,  we’re also having to challenge people who seemingly haven’t heard  of the concept that the plural of anecdote isn’t evidence, who were fortunate enough to ACTUALLY KNOW the full details of their colleagues’ salaries or who are clearly in utter denial as to the validity of the evidence.  Do they really think that any Government would have created new legislation to tackle this if the gender pay gap wasn’t a very real, known, documented issue?

 

News round-up: Michelle Obama, women cricketers flying in economy and washing powder for men

Another varied week in the global gender newsroom – here were just some of the stories which caught my eye.

As the Obama presidency comes to an end, the BBC used the occasion of International Women’s Day to examine Michelle Obama’s legacy. I think the fact that the word “legacy” is even being associated with the First Lady’s work is testament to her skills, smarts and passion to make the world a better place and not just be a passive partner or a clothes horse.

“It is her work on economic, social and racial inequality that most animates her and sets her apart. It is also this work, particularly the education of girls of colour in the United States and around the world, that is most likely to define her post-White House life.”

And still on the topic of FLOTUS, Nicholas Kristof noted in his weekly newsletter that:

“International Women’s Day came and went [this week], and it’s remarkable and reassuring to see how much more attention global women’s issues are getting. Michelle Obama has done a fine job promoting girls’ education, and President Obama says all the right things about how this is a security issue as well as a justice issue. But while the issues are getting more attention, they’re not getting adequate resources. President Obama promised when he was running for the White House in 2008 that he would start a $2 billion global education fund, and he never followed up — and it’s not as if Republicans have been interested either. One of my conclusions from spending a lot of time since 9/11 in conflict areas is that we overuse the military toolbox and underuse the education and women’s empowerment toolboxes. In short, educating girls and empowering women isn’t about helping half the population, but about helping everyone.”

Over in Turkey, The Observer’s Catherine Bennett dubbed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan one of the world’s “greatest misogynists” in her article on Turkey potentially joining the EU.  And we learned of the female cricket team flying in economy whilst their male counterparts are up in what my former Australian colleagues used to refer to as “the pointy end of the plane” (business class).

The BBC shared an interesting trio of stories written by their pan-Asian team: the amazing adventures of ‘Sue in Tibet’ and her creator; how Indian women are fighting back against the prevailing preference for fair skin (as exemplified by the fact that every Indian cosmetics range has a skin lightening cream available, even ‘western’ brands like Clarins and L’Oréal) with the social media campaign which celebrates dark skin via hashtag #unfairandlovely; and a profile of Ladakh’s all women trekking company.

This year’s global teacher prize of $1 million was won by Hanan Al Hroub, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp and now is a teacher of refugees herself. She specialises in supporting children who have been traumatised by violence.

And this week’s #HeforShe hero is “Star Wars” director J.J. Abrams, who has announced that his production company, ‘Bad Robot’, now requires studios to submit female and minority candidates in proportion to their representation in the US population. Speaking at the New Work Summit conference, Abrams said the new hiring system is meant to increase diversity behind the scenes as well as in front of the camera. However, Fortune reported that a new survey finds that 67% of men believe “men and women have equal opportunities” in most workplaces. Not surprisingly, only 38% of women agree that’s the case.

Meanwhile, The Atlantic examined the USA gender pay gap, referencing that it’s now the narrowest it’s ever been, and yet it’s still 2.5 times the size of those of other industrialised countries – so they framed a few potential solutions.

I doubt that creating a washing powder aimed at men will help, but Leif Frey thinks that a new product (with a “cologne-inspired masculine fragrance of oak and musk”) will help break down stereotypes about who should do which household chores.

Finally, the ever on-point ManWhoHasItAll has a helpful recommendation as to how to break down structural inequalities – just smile!

On discussing the #genderpaygap at Soho House

So the UK had another Budget Day earlier this week and, in amongst the slash and burn policies (the Fawcett Society were profoundly unimpressed) and the sugar tax, was a fleeting reference to the gender pay gap – a comment which was not well received on social media.

That same evening, I appeared as part of a panel event to discuss said pay gap at London’s Soho House,  a follow up to the event we ran last September at Shoreditch House. The panel was moderated by writer and producer Deborah Coughlin and with me on stage were Hannah Swerling from ELLE magazine and Reni Eddo-Lodge, a freelance journalist who will be publishing her first book, on politics and race, in 2017.

As before,  Deborah ran us through the data, including sharing the fact that the gender pay gap starts with pocket money, and we then discussed:

• Who amongst us has been affected by the pay gap?
• What does the pocket money issue tell us about how women and girls are viewed?
• Millennials are doing better – but are they? Who is doing well and who isn’t?
• If the pay gap widens at 40, what are the issues? Maternity? Child care? Paternity? Added to which –
• The issue has actually got worse for women in their 50s. WHY?
• What effect will the government’s new transparency law have?

Hannah talked about the continuing work done by ELLE magazine to make feminism accessible and relevant to their readers and we showed their #morewomen film:

“There are too many instances in business, music, art and media, where women are represented by a single female.

Women rarely outnumber men.

Why aren’t there #morewomen making it?

There is room for more of us at the top.

One woman’s success makes EVERY WOMAN STRONGER!

More women for #MoreWomen”

As before,  we had a very spirited debate with lots of questions from the audience, around such issues as: targets vs. quotas – what could make a difference? What’s the business case for having a more diverse work force? What proportion of women in leadership can make a difference in an organisation? (Answer: 30% will give you critical mass, improve your decision making capabilities AND improve the bottom line. PDF info here.) How to best use maternity, paternity or parental leave?

Also as before,  I shared my tactical tips for practical steps which women can take to help them close their own pay gap,  which are:

1. Know your own worth: research the hell out of your market sector (whether freelance or employed), find out market values and hold your ground when in pay based negotiations.
2. Remind yourself: that men are apparently FOUR TIMES more likely than women to ask for a pay rise or negotiate a higher starting salary or signing on bonus. Consider your actions and think about challenging that number. Ask.
3. If the above two points feel really uncomfortable as ideas for you: consider working with a coach on negotiation skills, confidence building or whatever else might make you feel more inclined to haggle and get paid what you’re truly worth. Regard the cost of the coaching fees as a major investment in Team You – you should easily earn back the costs over time.

Here’s a  photo of me and Reni in action; when I shared this image on social media with the caption “And the gender pay gap is THIS big!”, one of the comments was: “I thought you were just demonstrating the necessary anatomy to be paid fairly”. Make of that what we will.

Have a great weekend; the next post will be a news roundup, published on Monday.

 

I’m still #mindingthegap: a summary of recent activity on the #genderpaygap

I’ll be speaking about the gender pay gap at an event kindly hosted by Soho House in London tomorrow night, where we’ll share the current figures, ably summarised by this Fawcett Society graphic (in a nutshell: the current UK gender pay gap is 13.9% and, at the current rate of progress, it will take us FIFTY YEARS to close it) and then discussing – what can both employers and members  of the workforce actually do to challenge the status quo, close the gap and, critically, achieve parity before we reach 2066?

(Or even, 2133, based on the ever-cheery World Economic Forum’s forecast of The Gap needing 118 years to be closed at a global level).

Ahead of my end-of-the-week report on the event, here’s a summary of the last time I spoke about the gender pay gap, and a reminder that it apparently starts with pocket money.

Since Beyoncé and I took to the stage at Shoreditch House last September, we have new legal reporting requirements in place,  as summarised here in an article written for the blog by an employment lawyer and expanded upon in greater detail,  from the point of view of the employer, by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD).

There’s been a lot of news stories on the topic recently and I did a summary of them for you last month – here.

I’ll close for now with another outing for my favourite #genderpaygap cartoon, © Matt and the Daily Telegraph … one picture, many words and a 13.9% gap.

And I look forward to meeting anyone who’s at the event tomorrow night- please feel free to ask questions, live Tweet us using hashtags #genderpaygap and/or #mindthegap and come and say ‘hello’ afterwards.

 

The #PowerofThree: in conversation with Claudine Adeyemi

Three things about Claudine: she’s a property disputes lawyer, a keen Arsenal fan and the founder of non-profit organisation The Student Development Co. Claudine has already achieved more than many people of twice her age and has been recognised for her work in both a professional and an entrepreneurial world.  The SDC is an organisation which provides career related support to young people from less advantaged backgrounds through a range of initiatives. When we met at last year’s Precious Awards (where she was the winner of the award for Young Entrepreneur of the Year),  I was keen to hear her story and learn more about what motivated this extraordinary young woman, who decided she wanted to be a lawyer aged just 11, to give back to others.

 Here’s what we discussed.

When I was younger, it was a case of knowing a bit about certain professions and wanting to be something like a lawyer or a doctor. It was an aspiration, even though I didn’t really know what it meant, other than seeing lawyers on TV at 11. I deliberately chose my GCSEs and ‘A’ levels on the basis that I’d be studying law.  I then started to find out about the kind of other skills that would be helpful to me in a legal career – like debating, arguing, persuasive writing. As I grew up, I worked out that the decision I’d made as a child was a good one.

I left home aged 16. I won a local newspaper’s Student of the Year award in 2007 and met Camila Batmanghelidjh, through whom I was supported with a key worker from her then-charity Kids Company, who in turn connected me to a barrister as a mentor. I ended up getting  4 As at ‘AS’ and ‘A’ Level and I then obtained a 2.1 in Law from University College London.

A mixture of things led me to develop The SDC.  Growing up, although I’d always wanted to be a lawyer, due to my ethnic and socio-economic background,  I just didn’t know any – or even know anyone who could connect me to any lawyers. Initially, I set up a group called Young Black Graduates in 2012 to get young black people to network and share ideas and contacts. There was a huge emphasis at the time on young entrepreneurship, rather than on getting into corporate roles and careers. So I wanted to provide a platform to help other young people get into careers and transition from studying. Getting support from Kids Company has left me with a sense of duty; I want to give something back and pay it forward where I can.

I set up The SDC in early 2014. Our three aims are to support, develop and create. We want to support young people in their careers, develop their employability skills and create opportunities, either as volunteers with us or with experiences at our partner companies. We started out by targeting young people from ethnic minority groups, but now we also tackle wider social mobility issues.

The partner companies include law firm Mishcon de Reya, The Telegraph media group, PwC and Sky. We have set programmes, such as The Skills Insight Programme, which is aimed at school leavers, where our partner companies run events for our school leavers to learn about career options in companies such as theirs.  It’s really about widening career choices and providing access to new ideas – many people think that these roles and even the corporate office buildings are outside their reach. Or we work with companies who have existing outreach programmes and we participate by connecting people and companies. We’re really just trying to do what we can to overcome barriers to change.

We’re run by young people (including eight volunteers) so we can resonate with the user base. We currently work with c. 150 direct users, who attend our events and workshops or benefit from 1-2-1 support and we connect with hundreds more via newsletters and social media, our website and blog.

My hope is that The SDC becomes a national organisation, still run by young people, which can support more young people. And I want to focus on making it into something that can be handed over and can be sustainable. I’d also like to move towards registered charity status and it becoming a more prominent organisation and not just a project. Social mobility in Britain is a huge issue.

With my own career, it’s early days yet, as I only qualified about eighteen months ago. At the moment, I’m focusing on learning everything and getting to grips with my specialty area. Long term, I want to progress as far as I can but currently I’m just enjoying being in the career I’ve wanted to be in for such a long time. I have a few unofficial mentors who I meet for a coffee. And I’m a mentee on the Law Society’s mentoring programme; my mentor is a lawyer at another firm. I think it’s so important to have a mentor, be it in a structured way or more casually, to provide support and guidance.

Looking back, I’d try and encourage a younger me to have more confidence in her own abilities and in herself.  I’d tell her to stay focused and persevere. I encourage young people to research and learn about different career possibilities – there are so many options. I always suggest that they start by working out what they enjoy and then seeing if there’s potential for a career in that direction.

Yes, I’m a huge Arsenal fan! I love going to matches and I love swimming too.

 

Sponsors: would you like me to interview and profile some of the key women in your organisation? If so, let’s talk – please contact me for an exploratory chat.

 

End of week round up – mostly celebrating #IWD2016

This week,  it was pretty much all about International Women’s Day  on March 8^th,  with lots of organisations using the event as a launch pad for their initiatives and announcements.  Here’s some of what caught my eye.

Back in 2008, I made a film called Closing the Gender Gap which featured the then deputy President of South Africa, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. She is now the executive director of UN Women and discusses in this Fortune interview  what International Women’s Day is all about. She had one very specific recommendation for how businesses of all sizes can help promote gender equality – clue: it involves money. And gaps. And here’s UN Women’s look at how IWD is celebrated around the world.

My absolute favourite story of the week (possibly the year, or maybe ever) was about newspaper The Scotsman becoming The ScotsWOMAN for the day, complete with an editorial mix which celebrated as well as analysed the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women.

Newly launched newspaper the New Day (which also happens to have a female editor, Alison Phillips) shared a graphic featuring some great quotes and also published (yet another) tool to cheer us all up by allowing us to calculate where we fall on the gender pay gap. Meanwhile, The Guardian suggested that we stop asking for parity with men and instead ask for progress – which, given that the International Labour Organization reported that women have seen only “marginal improvements” in the world of work in the past 20 years, is a very valid point.

The mostly female team behind the hit BBC  show ‘Call the Midwife’ reminded us that the show:

“… places women at the very centre of every episode, and women’s stories at the central part of our world. The role of women in the birthing room – and the positive aspect of female relationships seen more widely – has too often been invisible in popular culture. Yet the immense worldwide popularity of our programme demonstrates that our viewers, male and female, see this as a positive and natural thing for a drama to show. We hope there will come a time when it is so natural to drama that it does not require special mention – or indeed a special day in the calendar.”

The BBC also shared three stories as part of their IWD coverage: five pictures that revealed how women are treated around the world; England cricket vice-captain Heather Knight looked back at how far the women’s game has come; and here’s an interesting series of images of women making technology work for them.

However,  it wasn’t all good news; Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who has already enraged many by urging Turkish women to have at least three children and for calling efforts to promote birth control “treason”- said in his speech to celebrate IWD that he believes that “a woman is above all else a mother.”

Unesco reported, complete with some rather scary illustrations, that sexism and stereotyped language is rife in textbooks, whilst football club Wellingborough Town banned its chairman for making sexist remarks; perhaps he thought it was ‘banter’?

Nicholas Kristof (the ultimate champion of HeforShe, to my mind) commented on his Facebook page that:

“The group ONE has a new report noting that “poverty is sexist”–it absolutely is–and concluding that the worst places in the world to be born female are Niger, Somalia, Mali, CAR and Yemen. To me, the best index of global gender inequity is that there are still more males than females worldwide. Women live longer, so there should be more females. But because in so many places female foetuses are selectively aborted, or girls aren’t fed or vaccinated or taken to the doctor when sick, there are actually more males than females worldwide. And this can’t just be a women’s issue, but should be a men’s and women’s issue together!”

And the TUC issued a report which claims that women who have children before they are 35 take a 15% pay hit, compared with childless women. Other cheering data points include the fact that 20% of women under 25 were dismissed or forced out over pregnancy or maternity leave, compared to 10% of all mothers.

It’s the custom in many countries to present women with flowers on IWD – I was often given an individual rose on March 8^th  when I worked in an office which had a large population of Russians, where IWD is also a public holiday. Perhaps it’s a shame that a bloke in Romania failed to remember the tradition, given his wife’s enraged reaction.

And finally,  for anyone in the mood for a Friday evening glass of wine,  The Guardian brought us the story of Italy’s first all-woman vineyard.  Saluti, cheers, sláinte, à votre santé, etc.

Did I miss anything? Please share stories or links in the comments below.

Have a great weekend – look out next week for a new #powerofthree interview with a woman who decided aged 11 that she wanted  to be a lawyer (spoiler alert: she made it!)

On #WomenandPower

Hillary Clinton is probably one of the most high profile and powerful women in the world at the moment, and is moving towards becoming America’s first ever female Presidential nominee. It is not, however,  the smooth path to the White House that she might (not unreasonably) have expected. Bernie Sanders crushed her in the recent New Hampshire primary—thanks in large part to female voters, 55% of whom say they voted for Sanders. The loss was undoubtedly a tough one for Clinton; she won the state in the 2008 race and it put her husband on the path to the White House in 1992. In her concession speech, Clinton looked forward, saying, “It is not whether you get knocked down that matters, it is whether you get back up.”

She subsequently won  major victories on ‘Super Tuesday’ in seven out of eleven Democratic primaries and caucuses, including Texas and Massachusetts. Her wins are credited to her popularity with minority voters and her kinship with Southern Democrats from the two decades she spent in Arkansas. There’s more on her campaign trail in this interesting piece from the BBC.

Elsewhere in the world, a new report suggests that women continue to face a double hurdle to gaining political power. While there has been an increase in women’s participation in politics across the globe, it has not necessarily resulted in an increase in their power and influence, a study by the Overseas Development Institute has found.

Although participation in political systems is a prerequisite for influence, women’s presence alone does not mean they have actual power or are able to make advances in gender equality. Women elected to public office are often seen as “troublemakers” and not “like other women”, are judged more harshly and can face violent backlashes for being politically active. The performance of individual women leaders can also affect public perceptions of the abilities of women in general.

Through interviews and observations in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malawi and Kenya researchers found numerous examples of where women have brought about positive changes through their involvement in male-dominated political and judicial systems. The report concludes that the major factors in women achieving real political power are (my italics) advances in education and technical knowledge, economic independence, feminist organisations and political skills, combined with changes in social structures and rules.

ODI research fellow Tam O’Neil said:

“Women have more rights and representation than ever before, with democracy and quotas as key drivers. But women leaders must be credible in the eyes of their, mostly male, peers to have real power – and this means having higher education, technical competence, and economic independence. Increased representation is a shallow gain unless women also have access to resources, and unless widespread beliefs about women’s role and capabilities change. Policy-makers need to pay more attention to these issues.”

Some of the report’s key findings include:

• Village courts in Bangladesh now have at least one woman on all cases involving women and minors in project areas. However, social norms and structures prevent women from engaging in what are seen as male issues, such as land and property disputes.
• In 2010, the women’s movement in Kenya succeeded in negotiating a constitution that was so progressive on gender issues that it was known as the ‘Women’s Constitution’. One of the key changes was a requirement that the Kenyan parliament include at least one third female representation.
• Much of the backlash against increasing numbers of female Kenyan politicians is expressed through bullying, which is often sexual in nature. And even with increased representation in parliament, women remain a minority so must work hard to lobby male politicians to support legislation that treats men and women as equal.
• An indication of the uphill struggle Kenyan female MPs face is the passing of a controversial marriage bill in 2014 which legalised polygamy.
• A new survey of women MPs in Malawi shows that female candidates often face prejudice and gendered abuse during election campaigns. Once elected, women MPs can find it difficult to progress their own career or women’s rights in general. To be accepted by voters and keep their seat, MPs need to conform to expectations of a “good woman” in dress and behaviour. Women MPs however have worked in politically smart ways, using restrictive gender norms strategically to achieve rights and benefits for other women.
• Women MPs made the case for a new Divorce, Marriage and Family Relations Act (2015) by appealing to male MPs as fathers, stressing the dangers of child marriage to girls. At the same time they did not draw attention to some of the more controversial provisions in the bill, such as those relating to marriage by repute, custody of children and marital rape.
• Most Malawians have socially conservative views about women and gender relations. However, around half of the women MPs said they share domestic responsibilities, such as childcare and cooking, equally with their husband – showing the importance to women’s leadership of both women and men being prepared to challenge gender stereotypes.
• In Afghanistan, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, women activists and international actors lobbied for the law (2013) on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which criminalised violence against women for the first time.

As the week of International Women’s Day draws to a close,  this report is a timely reminder of the gender based work still to be done and the power based progress still to be made in many countries around the world.

The #PowerofThree: in conversation with Bianca Miller

Bianca Miller: TV star. Personal brand champion. Hosiery magnate. Business mentor. Winner of numerous awards, recognising her unique blend of skills, ideas, business smarts and entrepreneurialism. I first met Bianca at the 2015 Precious Awards, where she delivered the keynote address with what I now know to be her trademark wit, business savvy and charm. When the idea first came to me of getting successful women to share their stories on the blog as The #PowerofThree, Bianca was, unsurprisingly, one of the first people who came to mind.

Here’s what we discussed.

The three things for which I’d like to be known are my work in personal branding, my entrepreneurship and as an advocate for women.

My personal branding work entails me working with a series of clients, helping people understand how to market themselves to enhance their future. I love the fact that I can deliver a workshop and really help someone’s career trajectory.

As an entrepreneur, my new venture is called Bianca Miller London, which is so different to my first business and in a very new business sector to me – it’s a retail and hosiery business, providing different shades of “nude for you” tights and hold ups. At heart, I’m an entrepreneur. I enjoy identifying a problem (in this instance,  why were there only two shades of nude tights available on the High Street?) and then creating a solution. The right shade of nude hosiery is about empowerment, about illustrating the beauty in diversity and about helping women to feel good about themselves and their outfits. I want to #redefinenude.

As a women’s advocate, I’ve seen a pattern across my corporate and university clients of women who say and  feel they can’t do something due to their gender. That really irritates me; we can all make a dream or an idea a reality. I like to help and support young women and I tell them how important self-marketing is. I advise my personal branding clients to be prepared to articulate who you are and what you do well.  What does your CV say about you, are you talking to the right people?  Think about how you want to be known and perceived.

When I first started out, I did sometimes see a flicker of surprise when I turned up for meetings and the client saw that I was young, female and black.  I was advised by my Dad to acknowledge that it was my reality and that I had to find a way to overcome it by asserting my credibility and knowledge. If it was a problem, it was then ‘their problem’, not mine. I was an only child who went to an all-girls school and I felt that I could do anything. I didn’t see gender issues until I went into the world of work.

I don’t have formal mentors,  but I have a roster of people I can call if I need to. My fiancé is a great mentor, as he’s in business as well so we are always chewing over new business ideas together. Looking back, I should have looked to find someone in my target industry at an earlier stage. Having a mentor is so important.

The professional achievement of which I’m most proud  is starting my first business. I was brave but naïve.  I was only 23 and I had bills to pay.  It was tough for the first two years, sorting out cash flow. Looking back, I wish I’d known not to spend lots of time and money on advertising, but instead to focus on building relationships. Money spent on coffee or lunch was a better spend in terms of referrals and business development. Again, it all goes back to building a strong network.

Appearing on the 2014 series of The Apprentice gave me a great platform, even though I didn’t win.  I’d been running my personal branding business for just over two years and had already had the idea for the  hosiery business a few years earlier. It was suggested that I apply for the show – so I did. It gave me massive marketing exposure, a profile and a database of contacts so that people knew who I was. I ended the show even more convinced that I had a great idea for the product but I still needed investment. Department stores and fashion buyers were puzzled by the idea and some even told me that women of colour don’t actually buy tights.  But I knew there was a market for it and I’d done my research. Then I got a meeting with Selfridges and they got it – they have a diverse customer base and could see how their customers would love to have a range of hosiery that worked for them and their clothes.

Social media has been fabulous for us. The hosiery range has been available at Selfridges in London for a few weeks and it’s now in the Birmingham store, too. We need people to get behind us and prove that there’s a market for the product. Our website sales are going really well and people can also go to Selfridges and get that in-store experience.

2016 is turning out to be a great year for me so far! I’m getting married in April, in January I was acclaimed as a top 10 leader on LinkedIn and I’m also on TV again, this time as a coach on the BBC Children’s show “Pocket Money Pitch”.  It’s a business show for children aged 7-14 – they pitch an idea with the intention of winning a year’s pocket money (about £250 is the current going rate!) and I’m one of the coaches who help them polish their pitch to the judging panel. And I am brand ambassador for  the ‘.uk’ domain name, encouraging individuals and entrepreneurs alike to consider their digital footprint, online brand and the value of promoting ‘brand you’ in the UK.

I’m writing a book on the A-Z of starting a business, with practical hints and tips about doing it yourself. I’ve written eight chapters so far, so if anyone’s involved in publishing – call me.

Sponsors: would you like me to interview and profile some of the key women in your organisation? If so, let’s talk – please contact me for an exploratory chat.