Image from The Guardian
“Women of age often (but not always) have wisdom, beauty, tolerance and humour, intelligence, experience, empathy, understanding, are highly qualified and show boundless energy. Even more importantly, they bring another point of view. So why aren’t they being chosen when they want to be? Why has equality of opportunity proved so hard to achieve??
From Anna Ford’s excellent feature in The Guardian this morning.
In a week where we discovered that just 18% of presenters are women over 50, there has been much talk about why we aren’t more evident in any type of broadcasting. It’s time to ask NOT just why not, but who is making the decision to keep them out?
Good post.
Can I bring up an issue in the clothing industry? Why do men get promoted so much faster than women? I have been shocked to watch moderately qualified men jump ahead of EXTREMELY qualified women in this female-dominant industry. It was like this when I started in the industry 20 plus years ago and it is still the norm. I’m in the US but I’d be surprised if the UK was different.
OH MY GOODNESS< don't get us started on this one....why indeed. I had a kick ass Italian woman as my first boss in the industry, who made it to merchandising director level in the mid 80s by being brilliant and by scaring the pants off all the male directors. She taught all the women in her team to NEVER assume the senior management men in this particular company were any good because most of them were over promoted idiots and only half as good as the women below them. Sadly as you say, things haven't changed. I go to loads of retail conferences where there are still significantly more men that women attending as directors/CEOs, despite their companies being run by brilliant women. It is changing but it's taking FOREVER, why? A