Financial crisis prompted ‘seismic shift’ in role of women

The financial crisis prompted a “seismic shift” in the way big businesses view the role of women in their organisations, particularly senior female executives at board level, according to one of Britain’s most successful female bosses.

However, at the same time women could still be getting passed over for promotion at work, possibly because they have children, said Helena Morrissey, one of London's few female chief executives.

Ms Morrissey is the chief executive of Newton, a London-based global investment management subsidiary of the Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, where she oversees investments worth more than £51 billion.

She is also a mother of nine and founder of the 30% Club, an initiative aiming to have 30 per cent female representation on UK boards by 2015.

Ms Morrissey believes the collapse of global financial markets has created a tsunami of sorts in corporate board rooms and forced a major rethink about what an effective board should look like.

When she launched the 30% club in 2010 there was 12.6 per cent female representation on FTSE 100 boards - it is currently sitting at 22.6 per cent.

"There has been a huge change in a relatively short time about what a senior board should look like; there is a better understanding of how the diversity of a board and the perspective of a board can influence decisions," she said.

Diversity
"Big businesses realise it is in their own interests to have women on boards – they outperform their rivals. This isn't a feminist issue or a women's issue it is a business issue because balance and diversity are good for any business."

Yesterday she was in Belfast to promote her 30 per cent mission to a mainly female and already "on board" audience at the International Business Women's Conference.

Although she welcomes the progress that her initiative has made and the shift in corporate attitudes of late, she says there are many companies and organisations that still do not realise the value of having women on their boards or in senior positions.

She says evidence compiled on several occasions for the 30% Club shows that the battle is not yet won. Among the research is a report that shows a man at the beginning of his career in a FTSE 100 company is 4.5 times more likely to arrive at the organisation's executive committee than a woman who sits next to him in the office.

Local economy
Ms Morrissey says there is also research which shows highlights how a man is 10 times more likely to make partner at a London city law firm than a woman.

“A lot of women could go further in their careers and sometimes they don’t because they jump out of the equation themselves but sometimes that is not their choice.

“I believe that women have much more capability - I think they also may have more doubts about their capability then men who can appear more confident but also don’t believe that we should have positive discrimination to solve one injustice by creating another,” Ms Morrissey added.

The North’s Minister for Enterprise told the conference that the North should embrace the “significant potential” of women to help rebuild and grow the local economy.

"In the past a country's competitiveness was deemed to be based on its natural resources, but today the most critical factor in growing and rebuilding global economies is talent," Arlene Foster said.

Latest local labour market statistics released yesterday show that the number of women in employment recently hit a record high.

According to Richard Ramsey, chief economist, Northern Ireland, Ulster Bank, there has been a rise in the number of women who are employed and have set up their own businesses.

“The number of females in self-employment in Q1 2014 was the highest figure for the same three-month period since the survey began in 1992. Furthermore, the number of females in self-employment has increased by 46 per cent over the last six years,” he said.

“Both the Northern Ireland female economic activity rate (those actively seeking work whether in employment or unemployment) and employment rates are higher now than they were before the recession.”

“Furthermore, Northern Ireland’s female employment rate hit a record high of 64.5 per cent in the three months to February,” Mr Ramsey said.