‘There appears to be little doubt that women are hungry for success’ said the Demos provocation piece for Women at the Top. Echoing those findings, City University had received 300% more applications than it could fill for its respected MA course in cultural leadership, which targeted women in the first year. So why a three-hour debate on the issues of women in leadership? Is there that much to talk about? Evidently
so, as the CLP had to move to a larger venue at the Barbican to cater for the huge response to its conference.
Why such hunger? Would ‘Men at the Top’ have attracted such a response? Such statistics as exist show that men are still firmly in the driving seat across the cultural and creative industries, although women are generally more highly qualified. Years of lobbying, campaigning and awareness raising have failed to correct the picture.
‘There are clearly no cultural factors’ declared keynote speaker Tessa Jowell, then Secretary of State, DCMS. And the possibility that women were simply not good enough was dismissed very briskly. Self-doubt – that old female acquaintance – still operated as an impediment, she said, feeding ‘an unwillingness to see oneself as a leader’. Women still did not have enough faith in their right and ability to break through the glass ceiling.
But increasingly, women were starting to question the traditional picture of leadership with its undertones of macho confrontation. Althea Efunshile juxtaposed transactional and transformational leadership styles with women tending to be drawn to the latter. Research confirmed that women cluster in the caring integrated boards, especially the boards of major cultural flagships, whose profile would give clear signals of change.
Summing up, Robertson offered the following
points of consensus:
• more research to establish a fuller picture of
the state of play
• investigation of different models that offer
innovative and flexible ways of working
• valuing and sustaining existing leadership
programmes such as the City University MA,
the Clore and Cultural Leadership Programme
• intervention from the top to create change,
with particular reference to boards and
governing bodies
• dedicated networks as important support to
women on their route to the top
• better work in primary and secondary
schools so that girls have a true picture of their
full range of choices
• successful women given more visibility as
role models.
The CLP Women at the Top debate focussed on the wider question of leadership and how it is exercised, on the nature of a leader, and on the culture of management and the price it extorts. It expressed impatience at the slow pace of change but also sought practical ways forward. The debate was both wide in its scope and precise in its detail, grounded though the lessons learned by a notably experienced and knowledgeable body of people – on the platform and in the packed hall itself.
Naseem Khan
CLP Dialogues on Leadership are being summarised for publication. Add your views to: [email protected]
Please refer to the PDF on this page to read: Women at the Top - A Provocation Piece by John Holden and Helen McCarthy
