Women’s work?
A
huge amount of attention has been
devoted in the media to the changing roles
of women. An example of this can be
found in a 2003 cover story of The Observer
magazine, in which women who had become
corporate executives were questioned as to how
they perceived both their position, and those of
women in general, in society.
- One interviewee, Sunita Gloster, is head of an
advertising agency and argues that more and
more women are facing reality head on; they
are more confident and expected to be treated
with respect and fairness if they take time off
to have children. ‘Success’, she says, ‘used to
be defined by a traditional male standard –
rising up the corporate ladder, with rewards
of money and status. Now women define
success by a more feminine standard: satis -
faction, fulfilment, making a difference – and
that can come in many forms’.
- Sahar Hashemi, who co-founded a chain
of companies and who runs her own
consultancy, insists that women want equality
with, and not superiority over, men, and that
they should celebrate being women, ‘not try
to disguise it’. ‘It’s about being women in our
own right and doing things on our own
terms’.
- Patricia Hewitt, as a former member of the
British Cabinet, argues that things are getting
better but too many women who work
outside the home feel that it is impossible to
have children. ‘An unofficial “parent bar” is
operating, and I think that’s the biggest issue
for working women’.
- Caroline Plumb, who developed a graduate
recruitment and research agency, notes that
women need to be stronger on self-
promotion, declaring that ‘success for me is
about having an interesting life, and being
exposed to a wide range of experiences and
people’.
- Ronnie Cook, a New Yorker running her own
design consultancy in the UK, compares the
‘warrior spirit’ of American women with the
more laid-back approach she finds in London.
In her view young men differ in their attitude
© Image Source/Corbis
