sure that would cover most women’s travel and a coffee. And what it would do for motivation and mental health does not bear thinking about. By any other standard this would be deemed a crisis. So, I hear the cry ‘what can we do to change it?’ There are absolutely ways we could make change. And fast. And I think much of it could start with stopping behaviours before they start. Let me give you an example: At a recent external meeting, a male leader was explaining to me how a male member of staff had asked for flexible working. He was minded to turn this request down. Pretending not to understand why I straightened my smile and said, “oh why?”. The reply came, “Because if I say yes to him, everyone will want it.” And there it was. At a stroke. One man restricts many to work flexibly and therefore by the gender domino effect, imprisons all the women in a relationship with those men. Because if the men can’t work flexibly, it will undoubtedly fall to the women to be expected to. Nothing about this even whispers equity. There is no romantic tailwind of change for us. Headwind all the way. And no sign of a government stepping in to help. This is one small example. Multiply that hundreds of times and it’s not difficult to see why we are in the mess we are in. The first stepping stone is acknowledging and addressing the fact there is an issue. With so many still refusing to accept we need to drive change - all of us, not just the women in the workplace - we will never get anywhere. Following that, make sure it’s a constant topic of conversation - not something only to be touched on once a year - and set goals. We measure everything in the workplace and set targets for improvement. Why should equality be any different? Business leaders need to practise what they preach - the old adage is ‘do as I say, not as I do.’ But when it comes to equity, true equity, that simply doesn’t fly. What gets measured gets done. If we don’t have equity and we don’t have a clear plan from the government as to how they will help, what do we have? By my maths, we have resilience to keep going, we have hope, we have a voice to call out behaviours and we have each other’s support. We have the tools to create workplaces which celebrate those who stick their head above the parapet and reward people who genuinely want to make a difference. Externally I’m warming to the idea of resorting to anger. Goodness knows we have tried everything else. In 2022, women earned17% less than men on average. Less than 15%of landholders worldwide are women source: Food and Agriculture Organization, 2015; World Bank, 2019 source: hbr.org BOARDROOM BREAKTHROUGHS
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