On having a minority for every occasion

Awareness of the lack of diversity (racial, gender – the list goes on) in certain aspects of business (and life, really) has now gone mainstream to such an extent that it’s being parodied and mocked on social media.

First we had the genius Man Who Has It All on Twitter and Facebook, sharing such gems as:

 

Is it REALLY possible for men to juggle kids, housework, lack of sleep, dull skin & the first signs of ageing hair?

And:

CONGRATULATIONS to all male EU leaders for getting there on merit alone. Very well done all of you.

And then last week, a satirical website offering “token minorities” for hire – to sprinkle diversity into marketing material or a conference panel – went viral.

Rent-A-Minority lampoons the tech and media industries its founder says pay lip-service to the notion of diversity without making any meaningful changes.  The site was created by Arwa Mahdawi,  who works for an advertising firm in New York. She is half-Palestinian and half-English and told the BBC that she created the site because she was tired of seeing companies making superficial gestures to promote diversity.

“It’s very frustrating when you’re a minority yourself, because while you’re facing institutional hurdles, all the talk of diversity means a lot of people think you’re benefitting from positive discrimination,” she says. “What actually triggered me to set up the site was someone asking me – in a very matter of fact way – if being brown and female was an advantage in advertising, which is absolutely ridiculous.”

She also says that in her view, the problem is particularly pronounced in the technology and media industries. While companies’ marketing materials may feature a perfect ratio of minority faces, their boards of directors is often another story.

(c) RentAMinority

Mahdawi says she hasn’t had a genuine enquiry from any businesses yet, but has been contacted by a handful of individuals who may have missed the point, and want to register as minority guests, keen to speak at future conferences.

As with Man Who Has It All,  the spoof is so near to the truth that it’s quite painful. How long must we wait until the problem dissolves so that there’s nothing to parody and that we also don’t need the Lean In library of photo images, curated with Getty Images to give picture options which don’t play to the oh-so-familiar Woman Laughing at Salad trope?

 

 

Celebrating women and girls of colour at the 2015 Precious Awards

Last week, I went for afternoon tea with nearly one hundred strangers. I was joining Foluke Akinlose MBE at her annual celebration of the best in black, British female talent, the ninth annual Precious Awards and,  aside from Foluke herself, I didn’t know a single other person at the event.

However! The room was buzzing, everyone was in celebratory mood, people were genuinely friendly and I learned that, in answer to the oft asked question “What brings you here today?” simply answering “I’m a friend of Foluke’s and I’m here to support her” was a great gate opener and conversation starter.

Foluke believes that “women of colour are virtually invisible in mainstream society today” and she established the Precious Awards in 2007 in order to shine a light onto black womens’ achievements, and to also ensure that women and girls of colour have no ceilings to their ambitions.

The awards are sponsored by Barclays and Credit Suisse and take place over afternoon tea – this year at the Banking Hall in the City of London. The awards themselves – full results are here – covered areas such as women in professional services, women in STEM, women in the creative industries, outstanding social enterprise of the year and outstanding leader. The Precious Man of the Year award, which goes to a public vote, was won by the heart-as-big-as-the-world Solomon Smith of the Brixton Soup Kitchen, a grassroots organisation which provides food and practical resources to the homeless;  the Precious Girl of the Year award celebrated two teenage girls who will one day lead the world, at a bare minimum. Congratulations, Lashai and Precious.

My biggest takeaway of the afternoon was the sheer joy that everyone there felt at being amongst their peers. I know from my work in training on bias awareness that we all instinctively feel most comfortable and like ourselves when we are with people like us – whoever and whatever that might be.  And many women at the awards told me that, so often, they were not only the only woman but usually too the only PERSON of colour in a meeting or at an event – so their enjoyment at being with their peers (“it’s so fabulous to look around this room and see so many beautiful black faces!”) was a wonderful thing.

My highlights of the day (aside from delicious rare roast beef sandwiches) were meeting, in no particular order:

• Kerrine Bryan: electrical engineer and (genuinely surprised) winner of the Women in STEM award, with which she was presented by MP and Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, Chi Onawurah – herself a former engineer. In addition to holding down a senior level job in the oil and gas industry and visiting schools in her capacity as a STEM ambassador, Kerrine has also “in my spare time” co-authored a children’s book called “My Mummy is an Engineer” and will be releasing the next in the series, “My Mummy is a Plumber” before Christmas. She and Foluke were interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour programme the day after the awards – if you hurry, you should be able to listen to them speak at the beginning of the broadcast.
• Lashai Ben Salmi, the fifteen year old winner of the Precious Girls Creative Award: and her awesome mother Sabrina; Leshai won the award for her work to stamp out bullying via the use of her self-created book and app and she is also a very accomplished public speaker, who in her spare time is learning Korean. Yes, Korean. (I learned this fact when I asked her where she might like to go to university ..)
• This “spare time” thing was something of a motif of the day, as pre-tea, I got chatting to Claudine Adeyemi, who told me that she was a property disputes solicitor with top firm Mishcon de Reya (“I knew I wanted to be a lawyer from the age of twelve”). A job like that would probably be enough for most people but no – Claudine has also set up the Student Development Company,  a non-profit organisation which aims to support, develop and create career opportunities and improve employability for young people. And yes, Claudine was also a winner, taking home the trophy for Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
• Finally, the keynote speaker was a woman who announced to the room that she “had a strange passion for tights.” Bianca Miller, one of last year’s Precious winners (and runner up on the 2014 series of The Apprentice) is on the brink of launching her own hosiery business and has come up with such a brilliant idea that I’m sure her new product, Bianca Miller London, will fly off the shelves (I suggested her Christmas marketing slogan should be: “A Pair of Tights in Every Stocking”. You can have that one for free, Bianca). She’s launching a range of tights and hold ups which come in eight different skin tone colours, to match every woman’s idea of “nude”, irrespective of skin colour, and in different sizes too,  so that they will fit women sized from 8 to 22. Genius! And I loved Bianca’s comment that “it’s not about tights, it’s about diversity.” Anyway, the hosiery will be launching soon via her website and through a Big Department Store chain – watch this space.

So, that was my experience of the Precious Awards. Uplifting, brilliant, inspirational – and all down to the vision of one fabulous woman, Foluke Akinlose. We salute you. And I can’t wait for next year.

Profiling a Precious woman: Foluke Akinlose MBE

Last week, I was an attendee at the 2015 Precious Awards – an annual event which celebrates the achievements of women of colour in the UK. The ceremony was amazing – uplifting, inspiring, all the superlatives. I’ll blog a bit more about it and some of the women who I met in another post, but ahead of then: here’s a re-blog of an article I originally wrote in 2011.

The Precious Awards were set up by journalist, entrepreneur (and all round superstar friend) Foluke Akinlose. I profiled her for The Glass Hammer four years ago and thought that, as an introduction to the Awards, the article could do with a wider audience. Here it is.

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As a child growing up in Manchester, Foluke Akinlose dreamed of launching a magazine for women and girls who looked like she did. But how did this childhood vision culminate in the creation of Precious Online, an e-magazine, network and resource for the UK’s c. 2.3 million women of colour and of the UK’s only awards for this community, described as a “memorable occasion” and “inspirational” by Prime Minister David Cameron?

“When I was younger, there were no British magazines that featured girls who looked like me. I’d spend my pocket money on American imports and they were great, but I really wanted to read about the Black British experience. When I grew older and started working in the media as a journalist, I quickly realised how expensive setting up a print magazine was. I just didn’t have those kind of funds, so I decided to put the magazine idea at the back of my mind for a while.

“In 1996, I began working in the online department of TV company ITN. Because of the nature of my job, I spent a lot of time researching online. I came across so many online publications aimed at African-American women but there was nothing for those based in the UK. I soon realised that the web gave me a publishing channel and that it was a way for me to launch the magazine of which I had always dreamed. So I followed my dream.

“Precious got underway in 1999 and was the first publication of its kind to launch in the UK. We now get 80,000 unique website visitors each month and reach 10,000 women via the mailing list – our goal is to be the premier destination for women of colour on the web.”

Precious aims to provide resources for and to showcase women of colour and to shine a light on their achievements in business and life. The site runs articles on health and beauty and profiles black writers and artists, as well as organising events every quarter on topics such as the joy of networking or audiences with entrepreneurial women.

The living embodiment of the phrase “seeing a gap in the market”, Foluke then launched the Precious Awards in 2007, as a result of “always being invited to awards ceremonies and yet rarely seeing black women receive recognition.”

“The Precious Awards are unique, in that they are the UK’s only awards to focus on diverse women of colour. Back in 2007, I went in to see Pearson, who agreed to host the first awards and to support it. I had no budget initially, so had to do everything myself. The first awards honoured women in six categories, which included leadership in the workplace, best social enterprise, best creative business and best start-up. Pearson are still big supporters and I’m very grateful for their vision and involvement.”

Foluke’s own vision and determination to succeed saw her lobbying the great and the good of British society to ask for their support for the Precious Awards – which in turn led to her receiving messages of support and goodwill from then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, his wife (and social activist) Sarah Brown (“she was great – she re-Tweeted the details of the awards to her thousands of followers and encouraged them to nominate women”) , (then) Deputy PM Nick Clegg and many other luminaries.

In the fifth year of the awards, Foluke introduced new categories, which in 2011 included Mentor of the Year, Blogger of the Year and Precious Man of the Year, for which actor Idris Elba, rapper Tinie Tempah and politician Chuka Umunna were nominated.

As for the awards in the future, Foluke would like to find a major sponsor who will commit to supporting Precious over an extended period and being part of their success.

“The awards have had a huge impact on women’s professional and business lives. To win, or even to be nominated, gives them so much confidence and is a wonderful platform for any sponsor.”

So, where next for this intrepid woman?

“I would like to create a Precious presence in every corner of the globe – that’s my aim and I want to encourage young girls everywhere to be the best that they can be. I see myself returning to my childhood dream, when I read those American magazines – I would love to do an event for women of colour in New York.

“Here in the UK, Precious is proud to partner with [high school] St Matthew’s Academy in south London – we work with their pupils, both girls and boys, to inspire and encourage them to see that being a woman of colour and having your own business is a possibility. I want to make an impact and to show girls that you can achieve whatever you want to achieve.

“I hope that’s what Precious shows them.”

Earlier this year, Foluke published her first book, The Precious Book of Quotes, which features inspirational advice from 50 women of colour. She is now working on a novel and would like to create a publishing wing of the Precious empire by establishing an imprint for young female writers.

“I’m passionate about what I do and I hope to continue being an inspiration and a role model to other women.”

Awarded the MBE in the 2010 New Year’s honours list for her services to the creative industries (“I thought it was a spoof call at first when the Cabinet Office called to tell me I had been nominated”), Foluke is proof of the strength, talents and diversity of the black British community.

On women being paid the same as men for the same work

Earlier this month, I took to the stage in the Library room at Shoreditch House in London as part of a panel event to discuss the gender pay gap. Behind me, a large screen showed a near life size (or so it felt) picture of Beyoncé, in a bikini, covered in money and bearing the caption:

“When will women be paid the same as men for the same work?”

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 currently working on her first book about politics and race.

Deborah took us through an overview of the facts and figures and then led a discussion around not only the impact of the current gender pay gap, but also around the broader issues surrounding women at work in 2015: do we need to change or does the world of work? Should we be Leaning In? Are quotas a good thing or a bad thing?

Hannah talked about ELLE’s campaigns to be part of a new wave and re-branding of feminism (including supporting next month’s launch of the film “Suffragette”); Reni (who is in favour of quotas and who spoke really compellingly and with great verve and passion about the positive impact that they can have on the careers of women of colour) put out a great plea for the working environment to shift in order to accommodate a 21^st century workforce; and I talked about the more formal, office based workplaces in which I’ve spent most of my career and the challenges that women can face at different points of their lives, including my view that the gender pay gap isn’t just about career breaks and child raising but also – and perhaps more so – about an embedded and systemic belief as to the value of work that is rooted in gender based roles.

A couple of the other points that I raised included:

• The need for transparency: only 270 of the 7000 UK companies which employ 250+ staff have so far done a gender pay audit – and only FIVE of those have published their results. So we need to lift a few more rocks and see what crawls out.
• Reducing the pay gap: isn’t just about having more women at the top – it’s also about having more men at the bottom, ie achieving a more even distribution of men and women across the pay scale.
• Lying can be useful: in the context of the practice known as “anchoring”, by which I refer to the cognitive bias that makes people focus On A Number once it’s been stated, leaving only a small space for other, higher numbers to come into play. Imagine discussing your salary of five years ago in a job interview; then try and get That Figure out of play. Aren’t you sorry you mentioned it?

Like a lot of people who spend time in the diversity space, I’m familiar with the event based trope of women stating that Something is Bad and other women in the audience agreeing that yes, It is Bad. I wanted to offer up a few solutions for practical actions, so here’s what I suggested as takeaways for anyone who wants to personally challenge and close up the gender pay gap:

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.

 And, if we’re talking about changing the culture of the workplace,  here are a few ideas that I’d like to see companies/employers taking on board as part of their efforts to close the gender pay gap and build a more balanced workforce:

• Consider bias awareness training for your recruiters and hiring managers: to both stop them asking inappropriate questions (yes, it still happens, notwithstanding the law) and to change their focus away from previous salaries and the values that may be placed on gender based skills, attributes and employment;
• Commit to closing the gender pay gap in your company: embed this as a leadership objective, with actions, a timeline and penalties for lack of progress;
• Look at the bonus culture in your company: much of the 24% pay gap between men and women in finance is rooted in the discretionary pay model; for instance, a Big 4 accounting firm is on record as giving some of the senior men who don’t make Partner a consolation bonus to stop them leaving; most equally unlucky women there don’t apparently consider leaving at this point and so don’t ask for or get a golden “aw, shucks, we love you really” bonus.

I had a really great time at the event, loved taking the questions from the audience (as long time readers know,  I can talk about this stuff all day and all night long) and meeting people afterwards – a process that is still ongoing, as I have several future meetings set up, including one to have coffee with the man behind the Token Man Twitter handle,  who asked why there wasn’t a man on the panel?  A very fair and valid question and one to be somewhat addressed in a future post, which will be on the very ‘now’ topic of engaging men as diversity champions.  As I said whilst on stage:

“No minority group in history ever achieved major, systemic change without the help and support of the majority group.”

On the gender pay gap: do you work for free?

Sometimes you meet someone and a throwaway remark turns into a full on conversation and a really solid connection.

Last year, I was at an event, got chatting and happened to mention the time at which I arrived at a very senior leadership team meeting (of twelve biased men and true) to present my deeply optimistic proposed diversity strategy, only to be greeted by the Chair with the profoundly unhelpful words:

“Here she is – it’s Diversity Barbie!”*

(* not the worst thing I’ve ever been called at work, but certainly not the best of gate openers, either).

My new friend suggested that it would be a great title for my memoir (I can see the pink cover now …) and thus was our connection forged.

We’ve kept in touch and a few weeks ago, I was delighted to be asked to join a panel that she’s convening to discuss the gender pay gap – coincidentally, a topic to which I’ve given a lot of thought of late, given the amount of recent press coverage discussing the issue. For instance, take a look at this article from The Atlantic, in which the idea that asking female interview candidates about their current salary point is mooted as an act of bias – does it have the (possibly unintentional) result of just further double glazing the glass ceiling of pay gaps?

(c) The Fawcett Society

Anyway, I’m looking forward to discussing this topic,  given that, as the Fawcett Society states, “the gender pay gap remains the clearest and most dramatic example of economic inequality for women today.”

The UK government is now pressing ahead with plans (or, as PM David Cameron rather lyrically put it, casting “sunlight on the discrepancies”)  to force large firms to disclose data on the gender pay gap among staff in companies with more than 250 employees;  the PM believes that this will eliminate the gender pay gap “within a generation.”

Which would be A Good Thing, when we consider that (all info below courtesy of the Fawcett Society‘s website) :

• The UK passed equal pay legislation in 1970 and the USA in 1963 … but working women in the UK and the USA are still paid a fifth less than their male peers (22% in the UK, per The Guardian link above, or the equivalent of working for two hours a day FOR NOTHING);
• 62% of those currently paid below the UK Living Wage (as at August 2015, £7.65 per hour) are women;
• Primary causes of The Gap include – the motherhood penalty, leading a higher proportion of women to work in part-time, lower skilled roles due to childcare responsibilities. Then, on their return to work after a career break, reduced opportunities for career progression may force women to take up less senior and lower paid roles;
• Occupational segregation – as the Fawcett Society confirms, “jobs traditionally done by women, such as cleaning and catering are typically undervalued and paid less than jobs traditionally done by men, such as construction and engineering. Women make up 78% of those working in the low paid sector roles of health and social care, whereas 88% of those working in the highly paid STEM industries, are men.” 
• Outright discrimination – it’s been over forty years since the Ford machinists took the industrial action depicted in the film Made in Dagenham – but both direct and indirect discrimination still persists in the workplace.

I need to do more research, but I’m looking forward to the event next month.

And here’s my proposed mini bio:

“Cleo is a diversity and inclusion professional who maintains a successful senior corporate career alongside a freelance writing, blogging and social media habit at www.thegenderblog.com. She has worked for companies which include PricewaterhouseCoopers,  Credit Suisse, Australian engineering conglomerate WorleyParsons and AXA and is the recipient of a 2011 World of Difference award from the International Alliance of Women for her work in supporting the economic empowerment of women and girls around the world.

“She believes that impact is more important than intent, often wears pink and would like to ban the word “banter” in the workplace.” 

Ellen DeGeneres’ new GapKids line blows away gender stereotypes

Love this story – it has all my favourite ingredients: authenticity, blowing away gender stereotypes, clothes and Ellen. Best line:

“The clothing collection and accompanying ad campaign “encourages girls everywhere to be themselves, do what makes them happy and take pride in who they are,” according to a statement by GapKids.”

Hope we get this range in the UK.

Why women? A few suggestions

Yes – still here,  still blogging and prompted to do so again by noting that there’s a link to the Gender Blog on my new employer’s intranet – so hello, new colleagues from the Women Professionals Portal!

Here I am in my new hard hat,  as handed out during induction on Day One a couple of weeks ago.

My next post will be about what I’ve been up to in recent months but here in the interim is a useful reminder,  courtesy of Forbes Women, as to the value women bring to leadership positions.

List compiled by Magus Consulting.

• “…. Companies with three or more women in senior management functions score more highly on average (on nine dimensions of company excellence). It is notable that performance increases significantly once a certain critical mass is attained, namely, at least three women on management committees for an average membership of 10 people. “ (Women Matter, McKinsey 2007)

• “Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women board directors attained significantly higher financial performance, on average, than those with the lowest representation of women board directors.” (Catalyst, October 2007)

• “A selected group of companies with a high representation of diverse board seats (especially gender diversity) exceeded the average returns of the Dow Jones and NASDAQ Indices over a 5 year period.” (Virtcom Consulting)

• “An extensive 19-year study of 215 Fortune 500 firms shows a strong correlation between a strong record of promoting women into the executive suite and high profitability. Three measures of profitability were used to demonstrate that the 25 Fortune 500 firms with the best record of promoting women to high positions are between 18 and 69 percent more profitable than the median Fortune 500 firms in their industries.” (European Project on Equal Pay and summarized by researcher Dr. Roy Adler in Miller McCune).

Guest post: Three Big Questions: Expose gender stereotypes in your business

This is a guest post from Christina Ioannidis, an international speaker, consultant and seasoned entrepreneur.  Christina is the author of the recently published “Your Loss: How to Win Back Your Female Talent”.  She is a thought leader on the subjects of gender-savvy leadership and talent management, employee and customer engagement, effective product development and marketing, as well as innovation and intrapreneurship.

When writing Your Loss: How To Win Back your Female Talent, we asked professional women to share their thoughts on gender stereotypes and how to retain women in business. Here are the three Big Questions we heard.

1) Do you hear ‘Is management really a woman’s thing’?

36% of the skilled, professional women we questioned in Your Loss left the corporate environment because they did not feel fulfilled in their role. Statistics of women in business make this the biggest single push factor. Are you addressing gender stereotypes within your management team and on your board of directors? Women’s management style may not be your norm, but it could just be your saving grace. Read more about nurturing female management styles in my blog post.

2) Is flexible working or working from home considered “skiving”?

The traditional gender stereotype is that women leave the corporate environment for more flexibility to juggle work with a hectic home life. The big question is how to retain women by making remote working acceptable in your corporate culture ? First, make sure everyone is fully aware that this is a real option. Then, update your communication systems and support line managers in running their teams remotely. Finally, don’t forget to evaluate how it’s going, tweak it a bit and reward good performance. Read my blog on flexible working for more extensive hint and tips.

3) Would you promote her if you heard she wanted another child?

It’s oh-so-familiar: the stereotypical professional women in her thirties who is passed over for promotion (because the male management think things will fall apart once she goes on maternity leave). Do not underestimate the benefits of having a satisfied, loyal, long-term employee who appreciates having a great job whilst still being able to pick her kids up from school.

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Read more about “Your Loss” on the Recommended Reading tab, above.

Q is for Quota

There’s been a degree of press coverage of late around the suggestion, as put forward by Viviane Reading, who heads up equality and equal rights in her role as the European Union’s Fundamental Rights’ Commissioner, that European companies may soon be forced to implement a system of gender quotas at board level.

Predictably,  the Confederation of British Industry have responded to this with horror, thus:

“… the best and most sustainable way to promote diversity in the boardroom is by selecting candidates from as wide a talent pool as possible, and by making appointments based on merit.”

Well,  yes.  This is true.  But,  given that this “best and most sustainable way” doesn’t seem to be happening of its own free will, how about a bit of a push?

Read more about the back story, and what’s happening in other countries around the Q word, in my latest article for The Glass Hammer – by clicking here.

Carol Paterson Smith @theglasshammer.com

Carol Paterson Smith

My profile of Carol Paterson Smith of Rothschild Blackpoint, who also runs her own business, Alpha Female, is now available on TheGlassHammer.

Here’s  the link – happy reading.

It was a great piece to write,  as Carol was such a fabulously inspiring interviewee – the words just flew from her onto the page and I hope you agree that that comes through in the article.

Sample quote:

“As a way of supporting women in the City, I take my two female interns out and about with me so that they too can network and learn. I lacked role models when I started and I want to try and stop that.”