LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS

More women than men work in high-skilled professions, but men are more likely to be managers, directors or senior officials says government research. We meet some of the women bucking the trend

Last August it was widely reported that there were more companies in the FTSE 100 with chief executives called Steve or Dave than there were women bosses.

Our team at Business & Innovation Magazine repeated the research last month, and things have hardly changed.

There were seven Petes and seven Daves (but now just five Steves), against just seven women in total, one of which (Liv Garfield of Severn Trent Water), is included in this feature.

However, things are improving. The latest government-backed Hampton-Alexander Review, published in February, revealed that a third of all board positions in the UK’s FTSE 100 companies are now held by women.

However, men are more likely to be involved in early stage entrepreneurial activity according to government statistics.

On average, women get paid less – around £100 a week less in fact, and only 19 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises were led by women in 2017 (and we can’t see that it would be very different now).

More women work in health and social work, education, wholesale and retail than in any other sector. We’re not saying that these sectors aren’t of critical value, of course they are, but it would be great to see more women in senior positions in some of the UK’s leading industrial businesses.

Companies can’t argue that they don’t have the skills. Women are more likely to enter the workforce with higher qualifications than men, but they will earn less per hour. And that pay gap increases sharply at the point that they have children.

But the thing is – diversity works for business. UK companies with a more diverse workforce are nearly a quarter more likely to have profits about their industry average says the government – and others.

Improving the ratio of women to men in science, technology, engineering and maths by just one per cent could increase company revenues in those sectors by more than £300 million per annum, according to WISE, the campaign for gender balance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Why aren’t more companies busting a gut to get women on board? It is fair to say that some are.

This feature celebrates just some of the region’s most successful women in industry. There are many more equally successful.

Our final pick aims to shows women succeeding in every industry. So let’s hear it for the girls.

EQUALITY ACT — WHAT EQUALITY ACT?

BBC presenter Samira Ahmed successfully took the broadcaster to court after she discovered she was being paid less than a male colleague doing similar work.

Sue Waters, Director at Gloucestershire-based recruitment agency GB Solutions, says that it’s remarkable that the issues raised in her case remain unresolved in 2020.

“We often meet candidates totally prepared to compromise on salary to manage family responsibilities and their desire to make a real contribution to a business. Why should a career come to a crashing halt because of a life event?

Why should only one half of the partnership have to compromise on salary when both partners have family responsibilities?

“Employers are frequently worried about creating a precedent, but by offering some flexibility to candidates we explain that they can get much more bang for their buck. Yes, if you offer it to one you must offer it to all, but when business leaders realise that they too could spend more time with their kids before and after school, help with homework and call in on elderly parents, they will be keener to rewrite the rule book for all.”

LIV GARFIELD, CEO, SEVERN TRENT WATER

Liv became Chief Executive of Severn Trent in April 2014.

The Coventry-based water and waste company, which serves around eight million people across the Midlands, mid and north Wales, is one of the UK’s three large water utilities, and is listed on the Stock Exchange.

In January the company was included in Bloomberg’s Gender Equity Index, a worldwide index that looks at thousands of companies.

Liv said: “The fact that we’ve been named as one of the top companies just shows our commitment to gender equality which is all part of our move to becoming a more socially purposeful company.”

Before moving to Severn Trent, Liv worked at British Telecom. Her last role was as Chief Executive of Openreach, BT’s engineering division where she was responsible for the delivery of one of the fastest and most ambitious deployments of fibre broadband in the world, delivering the rollout across two-thirds of UK premises 18 months ahead of schedule.

She spent nine years in a variety of sales, service and strategy roles within BT before joining Openreach. This included four years as BT’s Group Director of Strategy & Regulatory Affairs and a number of roles motivating sales forces, managing call centres and leading largescale service provision and repair teams across the UK.

Liv is originally from Harrogate in Yorkshire, and is married, with two boys.

YOLANTA GILL, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, EUROPEAN ELECTRONIQUE

European Electronique is a leading UK systems integrator, specialising in the delivery of secure technology platforms including hybrid IT, cyber security and networking infrastructure.

Born and educated in Poland, Yolanta moved to the UK after gaining a Master’s Degree in Law at the University of Warsaw. She studied for her MBA at Oxford and joined the company in 1996, working alongside Mike Gill, until his retirement some 10 years ago.

Over the years European Electronique, which is based in Witney, has grown into the flourishing, market leading professional organisation it is today with a turnover approaching £60 million. Yolanta’s drive, passion and determination has steered the company to unrivalled success in delivering ICT infrastructure into both public and private sectors.

MARGHERITA DELLA VALLE, GROUP CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, VODAFONE

Margherita was appointed Group Chief Financial Officer and a member of the international telecoms company Vodafone Group Board in 2018.

She joined Vodafone, which has its headquarters in Newbury, through Omnitel Pronto Italia in 1994, which later became Vodafone Italy, where she held key senior positions in consumer marketing, business analytics and customer base management before moving into finance. In 2000 she became Vodafone Italy’s Chief Controller, before being promoted to Chief Financial Officer for Vodafone Italy in 2004.

Margherita’s success in Italy was replicated as first she moved to Chief Financial Officer for Europe in 2007 before becoming the Group Financial Controller in 2011 and then Deputy CFO in 2015. In these later roles she had a major impact on the success of Vodafone globally.

ISOBEL SHELDON, HEAD OF BUSINESS