Daily Mail - 12.08.2019

Daily Mail, Monday, August 12, 2019 Page 31

By Matt Oliver

City Correspondent

Women still

need beauty

and brains to

be successful,

says top head

WOMEN are still expected to

have both beauty and brains

to get ahead in business, the

former headmistress of a top

private school has claimed.

Clarissa Farr, who ran St Paul’s

Girls’ School until 2017, said female

leaders were still caricatured as

‘shrewish’ or ‘loud’ and had to rely

on good looks to give them author-

ity at some companies.

The 61-year-old said many former

pupils complain that ‘being clever is

seen as threatening’. Alumni of St

Paul’s in west London, which charges

£25,000 per year in fees, are known as

Old Paulinas and include successful

women in business, politics and the

arts, such as film star Rachel Weisz

and Labour MP Harriet Harman.

But Mrs Farr said many women in

leadership roles still face double

standards from the men they worked

with. She said ‘aggressive’ male bosses

were admired but when women acted

the same way they were ‘feared or

lampooned’. ‘There are certain carica-

tures of women in charge – unattrac-

tive, loud, shrewish, nothing

compelling or inspiring – that

persist,’ she told the Sunday

Times. She claimed Facebook

found that prettier employ-

ees were more successful.

However, a Mail investigation

last month revealed even

when women do get to the

boardroom they still suffer

from pay discrimination.

Female FTSE 100 bosses

received £300,000 less than

their male counterparts per

year on average, with the top

20 bosses all men. Mrs Farr

said true equality between the

sexes cannot advance unless

fathers take more responsibil-

ity for parenting.

‘Men have got to pick up the

mantle in the family too and

talk about what they have

learnt from fathering and how

that is a large part of their

life,’ she said.

degree of caution... We need

to see more authentic, nor-

mal-looking female leaders

such as [German Chancellor]

Angela Merkel with uncom-

promising confidence that

says, “This is who I am, this is

what I am,” who are judged

by their words and actions.’

A 2013 study of more than

8,000 workers over 35 years

‘Men have to pick

up the mantle’

ROYAL Bank of Scotland is

poised to name Alison Rose

as its first female boss in its

292-year history.

The mother of two, 49, who

was made deputy chief exec-

utive of the group’s Natwest

last year, has risen through

RBS over a 27-year career.

Miss Rose, who is reportedly

being vetted by City regula-

tors for the top job, will be

the first woman to run a

major high street bank if the

role is confirmed.

In March, she produced a

Government review calling for

more help for female

entrepreneurs.

She has long been seen as a

potential successor to cur-

Top job? Alison Rose rent RBS boss Ross McEwan.

‘First woman boss’ for RBS

EVERYONE needs good neighbours but

a family has gone above and beyond by

starting a recycling plant on their drive.

The Barkers have put 12 wheelie bins

outside their home for people to deposit

plastics that are not normally recycled.

They have diverted a ton of plastic from

landfill since starting in December.

The family accepts all manner of items

including crisp and cracker packets, con-

tact lenses, toothbrushes, baby food

pouches and coffee machine pods.

Some packets are made with a metal-

lised film to keep contents fresh – but this

makes them difficult to recycle.

The Nuneaton, Warwickshire family post

them to a firm which can turn them into

small plastic pellets to be used to make

items such as outdoor furniture, trays,

roofing and flooring.

Kebrina Barker, 38, launched the service

after her children found a 40-year-old

It’s remoulded to create things

like benches and fence posts.

There’s no cost to me.’

The Barkers have so far sent off

194kg of crisp packets; 113kg of

coffee pods; 47kg of personal items

such as make-up wipes, suncream

and hair product bottles and 39kg

of snack containers.

Francis, 12, Stanley, 11 and

Bridget, 10 run a crisp packet col-

lection at school and the family

also do litter picks. Mrs Barker

said: ‘It’s taken off faster than we

could have hoped. It was family

and friends but now people are

turning up from across Nuneaton

and further afield.’

By Claire Duffin

CAMPAIGN

PLASTIC

TURN THE

TIDE ON

crisp packet in their allotment.

The mother-of-three, who works

for the Office for National Statis-

tics, said: ‘Britons eat six billion

packets of crisps each year. That’s

a lot of plastic.

‘We can recycle things consid-

ered non-recyclable. People come

to us as they would to the tip.’

Mrs Barker and husband War-

ren, 43, a caretaker, take the waste

to UPS in Nuneaton who take it to

TerraCycle. TerraCycle recycles

for firms including Walkers,

Colgate and McVitie’s. Mrs Barker

said: ‘Nearly all plastics can be

recycled and used again in some

form but it can be expensive. Ter-

racycle get sponsorship from com-

panies which means they can

afford to process the recycling on

a commercial basis. They take the

plastic, clean it out and shred it.

Wheelie good: The Barkers collect items on their drive in Nuneaton and send them to a specialist

Family’s TWELVE bins on drive help

neighbours recycle a ton of plastic

MEET THE GREENS!

chief operating officer Sheryl

Sandberg and Legal & Gen-

eral investing boss Helena

Morrissey were examples of

female executives whose ‘per-

sonal beauty’ had helped

them advance in business and

said that the finance, property

and advertising industries

remained ‘very objectifying’.

Mrs Farr added: ‘Unfortu-

nately, beauty is part of suc-

cessful leadership for women

in a way it shouldn’t be.

Women still have to use their

intelligence very carefully so

it is not threatening. Many

Paulinas say to me that being

clever is seen as threatening

and they are regarded with a