Society
The arithmetic of equality
Published 04 June 2007
Behind all the talk of men in crisis there are increasing signs that women's toehold is actually slipping
Mathematics is good for many things - helping to launch space missions, boggling children's minds - but I've often felt sceptical when its equations have been applied to human emotions and problems. A few years back, for instance, when scientists announced that they'd worked out the equation for happiness - a perplexing formula that amounted to Personal Characteristics + (5 x Existence) + (3 x Higher Order) - this seemed a waste of time akin to re-creating Michelangelo's David in cream cheese.
Late last month, though, came a new report that applied a dose of mathematics to an ongoing issue and genuinely made sense. In the study Inspiring Women: Corporate Best Practice in Europe, the Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business (part of the London Business School) looked at the practices and structures of 61 major companies, including Microsoft and Volvo.
One of its key findings was that women were unlikely to thrive in an organisation unless already at least 30 per cent of that company's senior executives were women.
The report explained that, when a company reached this magic figure, it inevitably led to changes in the organisation's ethos. In particular, women lower down the ladder were more likely to get the opportunity to take on "business- critical" projects that allowed them to develop their leadership skills. This, in turn, enabled them to improve their career prospects.
I spoke to a colleague about these findings, and she recalled her own experiences some years ago on an executive committee where she was one of only two women out of 21 members. She found herself marginalised, her ideas and approaches stereotyped as "female" - to the extent that she got fed up, and quit. When she rejoined a few years later, with women now accounting for a third of the committee, the culture had been transformed. There were now seven women involved - all of them bringing different ideas, personalities and approaches to the table - and it had become impossible to stereotype or undermine them. At that point, they had a genuine opportunity to shape the culture of the organisation, to make it as welcoming and open to women as it had always been to men.
Over the past few years there has been much rhetoric in the media - often in unsubstantiated opinion pieces - to the effect that women's battles have been won and that, having trumped boys in the classroom, we are also conquering the country's boardrooms, pushing poor, trampled blokes out of their jobs. Even though the gender pay gap actually increased very slightly last year (women in full-time work now earn 17.2 per cent less than their male counterparts), the talk has been of a crisis for men, a situation in which their power and influence are being fatally undermined, leaving them helpless, quivering wrecks with fast-shrivelling pay cheques.
The reality, as the growing pay gap suggests, is both different and worrying. For instance, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers published this year found that there had been a huge, 40 per cent drop in female senior managers in the FTSE 350 over the past five years. At the same time, in 2006, the number of women holding directorships in the FTSE 100 also fell, ending years of small, slow, but constant growth.
And this slippage is a feature not only of the business sphere. For instance, in the same week as the London Business School published its report, the Cannes Film Festival celebrated its 60th birthday and released a photograph of 35 of the world's greatest film directors, all of whom had contributed to a special anniversary project. In a sea of men stood just one woman: Jane Campion. While this representation of women was particularly woeful, it wasn't entirely surprising. In 2000 women made up 11 per cent of all film directors - the highest figure yet. By 2005 it had fallen to 7 per cent.
In an ideal world, it would be great to see a whole range of institutions and industries creating an environment where women could compete on equal terms, where they didn't feel anomalous or marginalised - or that, in every decision they made, they somehow had to represent all women, a pressure under which no one could ever function comfortably. It would be great, for instance, if female MPs made up at least 30 per cent of the Commons, rather than just 19.5 per cent, as they do now (falling to a dismal 8.7 per cent of Conservative MPs). It would be great if there were more women editing national newspapers: out of the 16 leading titles, three are currently edited by women.
Behind all the talk of men in crisis (talk which seems to get louder by the day) there are increasing signs that women's toehold on the culture is actually slipping - that, quietly, we are witnessing a revolution in reverse.
Now, more than ever, women need to be vigilant, need to engage with these issues and need to do everything possible to get the numbers running in the right direction - pushing towards the 30 per cent figure that holds the key to future parity. Without such an effort, there's a chance women could lose their toehold completely, with no fanfare whatsoever.
Kira Cochrane is women's editor of the Guardian
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