Background
THE BUSINESS CASE
In 2004, Business in the Community carried out research into the role of women in 16 of Northern Ireland’s Top 100 companies. The report showed that, according to Chief Executives in companies where women had started to make inroads into senior management and the more traditional male professions, there was a compelling business case to increase women’s representation at these levels, including:
- Improved customer service – women interface better with customers
- Improved business results – women bring a different and unique perspective to decision making
- Improved efficiency – women are more precise and make fewer mistakes
- Demographics – women are a large and growing percentage of the available workforce in Northern Ireland.
Other research findings have echoed this last point. Material originally published in People Management on 27 October 2005 and reproduced here with permission, indicated that
“Demographic trends show that the pool from which UK leadership has traditionally been drawn – men under the age of 45 – is shrinking. In seven years’ time, this group will account for barely a third of the workforce.”
The People Management article also commented on the research that:
“ …. masculine and feminine styles of leadership complement each other, and the authors argue that companies that strike a balance between these qualities on their boards will gain competitive advantage by becoming more dynamic.”
Both sets of research findings relate to the private sector, but they are equally relevant to the business case for increasing the representation of women at senior levels and in non-traditional roles within the local government service.
The most persuasive case for increasing the representation of women at any level is, quite simply, that women constitute a large part of the talent pool and organisations that can attract the best mix of employees and then manage and motivate them will be best placed to compete in the new environment.
In the district councils, from 1998 to 2005 the percentage of women increased from 5% to 16% in senior management positions and from 36% to 44% in middle management. In all other grades the figure remained constant at 40%.
While the increase over seven years in senior management is encouraging, the figure of 16% clearly indicates that much remains to be done. Equally, there is considerable room for greater representation of women in politics.
Following the May 2005 elections 22% of councillors were women and of those councillors elected for the first time in 2005 the figure was higher at 31%. However, the percentage of MLAs elected to the Assembly in 2003 was just under 17%.
In a paper commissioned by the Review of Public Administration Team, Bronagh Hinds and Dr Ann Marie Gray referred to the 2002 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey which found that:
“57% of people in Northern Ireland believe that things would improve if there were more women in politics” and
“74% of people believe that political parties should be either required or encouraged to put forward a proportion of women candidates.”
Two further relevant quotes from the paper are:
“The survey also found women’s attributes more closely matched those that people desired in their politicians. Male politicians were regarded as ‘aggressive, ruthless, ambitious and crafty’, and women as ‘approachable, compromising, honest and level-headed’. People said they wanted politicians who were ‘honest, compromising, hard working and approachable’.“ and
“Women from all sectors believed that reaching a gender-balanced Council is essential to a comfortable working environment for senior female officers and staff, better relations with civic organisations representing women and better policy outcomes for society as a whole.”
In the public sector the moral and business imperative to reflect the community which it serves is well recognised. It cannot hope to adequately serve the needs of 50% of the population if women are not represented at all levels of the organisation and in the political environment.
