Tag Archives: feminism

Are Women Still Underpaid at Senior Level?

Another day another poll! Bear with me as this one has something of interest to say to anyone interested in gender equality and equal pay.

Late last year the Chartered Management Institute polled 38,843 executives and came up with this little story:

If you (a woman) and a man started your careers in the same job, in the same company, on the same day, achieved the same level of seniority and retired at exactly the same time, you, the woman, would be £423, 390 worse off than the man.

The more senior the role the bigger the disparity.

Despite this it seems there has been some progress towards meeting the government targets of getting to at least 25% representation of women on boards (although presumably they are being paid less) by 2015. Currently 17.7% of FTSE board directors are women, according to a recent report from Professional Boards Forum’s Board Watch (try saying that out loud!)

Out of the UK’s top 100 private companies only 64 actually publish the composition of their boards. Of those 73% have all male teams of executive directors and 565 possess all male boards.

Among the large private companies with zero female boardroom representation are the betting group Gala Coral, whose bingo customers are overwhelmingly female, and the gym group Fitness First, which operates several women only gyms. Virgin trains come into this category too, which is surprising as Richard Branson is on the record as supporting mandatory quotas for numbers of women on boards.

Will Boardroom Quotas for Women Undermine Their Credibility?

Why Women on Boards? The Evidence

Quotas for Women on Boards? Yes, Yes, and YES!

If you’d like to read more on this there is an excellent article on The Observer website by Simon Goodley

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Gender Issues

Does the Virgin Ad Campaign Make You Want to Use Their Services?

Written by Jane 0 Comments

Have you seen the latest Virgin Holiday’s campaign? It’s of the ‘nudge, nudge, wink wink’ variety showing a burlesque dancer woman covering herself with round boards advertising their holiday destinations with oh so witty lines like ‘would you like us to take a bit more off?’ How I laughed!

At the risk of being accused of not having a sense of humour (trust me someone will, or worse) doesn’t it make you just yawn? The one thing it certainly doesn’t do is make me want to pick up the phone and book a Virgin holiday. If their advertising is so out of date no doubt their holidays are too. Anyone care to be chased round the pool by Sid James a la Carry On films? (Hope I haven’t just given them an idea for their next campaign…) Who are they aiming these ads at? Is it men who book annual holidays?

No doubt Virgin think it’s great as any publicity is good publicity and people are talking about it, but in my eyes it has marked them out as old fashioned and not worth bothering with.

What do you think when you see those ads? Does it endear you to the Virgin brand?

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Other posts that might interest you are:

‘Are You being Sold the Fifties Myth?

Harrod’s Sexist Stance

Gender Issues

Resolution or Revolution? Feminism is BACK!

Written by Jane 0 Comments

It’s that time of year when we start making resolutions.

In a month or so it’ll be that time of year when we forget our resolutions…

Instead of making resolutions how about a revolution? A quiet female revolution.

I think it’s been an interesting twelve months for feminism and women’s issues. At times in the past it has felt as if I’ve been totally out of the zeitgeist, an old woman banging on about discrimination against women which only me and a few diehards seemed to care about or actually notice. I even gave a talk at a girls’ school where I was stunned to be asked what feminism was. They weren’t being clever; they genuinely didn’t know.

On the surface it seemed like feminism was a dead cause. Young women now had it all and hadn’t fought the battles of the previous generation; they reaped the rewards and had little to complain about.

At least that’s what it was like on the surface: scratch a bit and a different story emerged. Over the last dozen or so years if you had any group of women together where they were able to talk openly about their experiences at work, a different tale was told. Women were not happy with their lot. Many felt discriminated against and many felt they wouldn’t be taken seriously if they complained. Some even believed that complaining would seriously blight their careers and would rather accept the staus quo than take the risk of speaking out. (If this sounds like you you check out The Women’s Equality Network for help and support)

A quiet (ish) revolution seems to have been taking place. And finally, during 2012 it seems to me that feminism finally became mainstream again. I no longer feel like I am out of step, out of time. The radio has been full of programmes on the topic, and feminism has featured in various guises in news items; the BBC has been roundly and openly criticised for its male equals serious stance/ young women complement old males approach, (started by my dear friend Miriam O’Reilly taking them to court!) and new books on feminism abound.

The issues haven’t gone away but there is an acknowledgement that they exist.

So women, this year, don’t resolve to simply lose weight but revolt until we carry more weight!

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Women & Sport

Written by Jane 0 Comments

Here’s an interesting fact which emerged last week:

Figures show that 15.5 million people aged 16 and over are playing sport every week. That’s 750,000 more than a year ago and 1.57 million more than when London won the Olympic and Paralympic bid. The strongest growth has been among women, with half a million women on their bikes, playing netball, running, swimming and going to the gym in the past year helping to cut the gender gap in sport. Sport England

That is amazing. Did the Olympians of any gender inspire you to take up more exercise?

Thinking of expanding your training business? I can help you. To find out more, click here.

Other related posts on women and sport:
More Women Than Ever in Olympics So Why…

Football and Invisible Women

Confidence, Gender Issues

Should Airbrushed Women Be Allowed?

Written by Jane 3 Comments

I might add should doctored photos of any gender be allowed as they perpetuate a false idea. That false idea impacts most severely on women, hence the title.

Such is the prevalence of airbrushed photos of women that when a photo of a famous woman in her natural state is published it actually makes the news! How utterly ridiculous is that?

Below are two photos that Britney Spears herself released to show pre and post doctoring. The photo editor is dictating their view of what they think she should look like. We’re being sold a lie. If the media is being told to clean up its act, maybe they should take this into account too?

Brave move: Britney Spears has allowed airbrushed images from her shoot to be released along with the original raw photos which show all her imperfections

There are so many reasons why this is bad, here’s one:

Leah Hardy, Former Cosmopolitan editor, has admitted that she airbrushed anorexic models to look less unwell, but kept their extreme thinness. The result was pictures of women with no body fat who still seemed to be healthy, strong and feminine.

“They had 22-inch waists (those were never made bigger), but they also had breasts and great skin,” she told the Daily Mail. “They had teeny tiny ankles and thin thighs, but they still had luscious hair and full cheeks. Thanks to retouching, our readers never saw the horrible, hungry downside of skinny. The models’ skeletal bodies, dull, thinning hair, spots and dark circles under their eyes were magicked away by technology … A vision of perfection that simply didn’t exist.” (source-www.channel4.com/4beauty)

Would Banning Airbrushing Help Combat Femageism?

I was asked recently for my views on the ‘invisible middle aged woman’. What did I think could help change negative societal attitudes? As the person asking wields considerable influence I thought long and hard about my answer. There are of course a lot of things that could be done but there is one action I think could have an immediate impact.

Every time a photo is published in the media that has been altered from the original (like the gorgeous Fren Britten who recently appeared on the cover of a best selling magazine having been so thoroughly airbrushed that I didn’t recognise her; ludicrous as she has been appearing on prime time TV in all her mature womanly glory), it should have a health warning stamped on the bottom saying:

‘This photo has been doctored in the editing stage and is not an accurate representation’.

Actually I’d really like it to say:

‘This photo has been doctored to show a false image of womanhood, one the advertisers prefer as it means they get to sell more cosmetics, promote slimming clubs etc. This misrepresetation of what real women, including mature women, look like is a significant part of a sexist culture which leads to surveys by Institute of Leadership and Management concluding that one reason women don’t progress into senior posts is a lack of confidence. Plus false female foto syndrome (FFFS just made that up!) contributes to a culture of gender discrimination which has a direct impact on women being under represented at all levels in society!’

But that just might be a step too far so I’ll settle for a short honest disclaimer on a dishonest photo, yes, even on Page Three!

What do you think?

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The source for these photos was The Daily Mail

Confidence, Gender Issues

Can You Be A Feminist & Like Baking Cup Cakes?

Written by Jane 8 Comments

When I was younger, much younger (in my childhood), much as I loved the idea of equality for women, my idea of what that might be was flawed. I still thought it meant being able to behave like a boy and have the freedom and opportunities that the boys had. In my very young days I also thought that, at some point, I would get a turn at being a boy too, as that seemed only fair!

That said, as I got older I still misunderstood at times the idea of feminism; I thought it meant I couldn’t do anything that girls liked doing, that I had to embrace boy type things. I began to feel disdainful of girls and their toys – and this was pre the awful pink revolution when Lego was just Lego and not fraught with sexual politics! At that time I wasn’t much bothered about cooking, sewing, knitting and homemaking in the way that I am now but I did, and still do, love frocks and soft, silky fabrics, and I’ve never really liked trousers. I felt a little guilty about this as if I was being too frivolous and betraying ‘the cause’.

University Bias

When I was 18 that began to change; I had an interview at Sheffield University, in the days when British universities routinely interviewed students before offering them a place. I wanted to study English Literature and I was taking three A levels in English, Sociology and Home Economics. I met with some grandee from the English faculty and spent a pleasant half hour telling him why I thought Thomas Hardy was a woman hater and tedious to read ( I later learned he was one of the foremost experts on said Mr Hardy…) when he said:

“One of your A levels isn’t academic; the University won’t accept it so you won’t be able to meet our criteria.”

Now, if truth be told, I didn’t really have my heart set on going to Sheffield so I wasn’t especially concerned what he thought of me so I replied:

” So you’re penalising girls then as I don’t know of any boys who take Home Economics at A level.” (Remember this was pre any equalities legislation and 1974).

He replied that he wasn’t penalising girls at all but it wasn’t a very testing subject and didn’t tell him anything about my ability.

I asked him what he knew about the topic and how it was taught. He knew nothing at all. So I told him about Home Economics A level and just how flippin’ testing it was and how it was the hardest subject I was taking and how they should absolutely accept it as an academic subject as, along with the 6 hour practical exam (think Great British Bake Off but not being allowed to talk or have a cup of tea), I also had to take three written papers involving science and economics! (Pause for breath-phew!)

A few days later I got a letter offering me a place at much lower grades than they usually demanded, i.e they wanted me to come, and a separate note saying that they had reviewed their position on Home Economics and were now accepting it…

It made me wonder in 1974 and I still ask myself the same question today. Why are things that girls and women like often held to be lesser in status and importance than things men like?

For more in a similar vein see Football and Invisible Women and Is Feminism on the Change?

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Confidence, Courses, Gender Issues