Why Men Win at Work by Gill Whitty-Collins

Author:Gill Whitty-Collins [Whitty-Collins, Gill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Luath Press Ltd
Published: 2020-07-15T08:26:58+00:00

10

The women who win at work

WHAT BECAME MORE and more clear to me as I was writing this book was that there was a big question I couldn’t answer: what about the women who do win at work? Whichever way we look at it and whatever line of work we look at (business, sport, politics, healthcare, education, media) we see a maximum of only 7% of the top leadership positions being held by women, but 7% is not zero.1 Seven per cent means that there are some women out there who have made it to the top. So, I wanted to talk with these ‘Super 7%’ women and try to find out what sets them apart from the rest of us. They must have faced the same barriers that all women face throughout their lives and careers, so what is it that made them push through it when most women, let’s face it, are ultimately defeated by it and give up. I have been lucky to interview many incredible women – CEOs and Presidents of big companies, Chairwomen, COOs, very senior women from the worlds of TV, sport and politics. Of course, they are all unique individuals and there is no single blueprint for success, but it has been fascinating to see some clear common things emerge – including some things I didn’t expect to find at the offset.

The first thing I discovered is that just because a woman made it to the top does not mean she is necessarily seen as impressive. There are two categories of women who win at work – the ones that people dislike (often intensely) and the ones that people (including men) are deeply impressed by and consider the greatest leaders (of either gender) that they have worked for or with. We’re going to call the first category the ‘Manly Ones’ and the second the ‘Authentic Women’.

Let’s talk first about the Manly Ones. If I’m honest, this is what I probably initially expected – that the few women who are winning at work have done it by forgetting they are a woman and behaving like a man. This would be consistent with Helena Morrissey‘s view that:

These women… who have made it to the top are the exceptions, the ones who have mostly played by the rules of the existing game… are ‘a transition generation’… still needing to mostly fit in with the status quo.2

In reality, this isn’t what I have seen at all and, in fact, of all the women I talked with, I would only put one CEO (who didn’t want to be named) in this category, based on her rather aggressive denial of gender having ever been an issue for her or in her company. She told me, ‘I’ve been lucky to work for companies where gender has not been an issue… I don’t wake up in the morning and think about being a woman.’

Generally, the Manly Ones are the ones who are disliked by many of the women and men I

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