The Token Woman

Welcome to this week’s Discuss HR.

Recently my fellow columnists and I had a virtual gathering to discuss future articles.  I think they were all secretly delighted my microphone stopped working half way through (no comments please about this being the longest period I’ve been silent!).  Clearly they did not need me as they have come up with some excellent ideas moving forward.  I am not going to give too much away about future articles, but I do feel you will find them most interesting.  This week’s article is written by Sheena McLullich and is a direct result of this meeting.  Sheena is an experienced HR professional who has worked at Director level on a number of occasions.  Today, she reminisces about how her fellow male Board members viewed her and HR. (Ed Scrivener)

The Token Woman



Who appointed their first female Board member in 1986? Who is she? (answers below)



It can be Lonely at the Top

There has been a lot of discussion recently surrounding gender diversity on corporate boards.  A recent ILM survey refers to the ‘glacial progress the UK is making towards gender equality’ and Lord Davies stated that ‘this pace of change is not good enough’.   Although he stopped short of recommending the imposition of quotas, Lord Davies urged Chairmen and Chief Executives to take action to increase the number of women in board-level positions.

Admirable sentiments have been expressed but what does it feel like to be the only woman among a group of male directors?  I’ve experienced this twice (so far!) in my career and, whilst I don’t have a problem with this situation, it seems to me that plenty of other people do …

My first embarrassing story concerns a waiter in an Italian restaurant somewhere in the Home Counties.  Twelve of us had arrived for a dinner, drinks and team-building evening for the 6-strong UK Board of Directors and a contingent from our French parent-company.  I was the only woman in the group and things were going well until the waiter got to me as he handed out the menus.  “Madam, you have many husbands” he remarked to my total, seething fury.  I glared at him which provoked the French-speaking IT Director sitting next to me to ask for a translation of what he had said.  In the true spirit of ‘entente-cordiale’, things were quickly smoothed over, but I was livid at being singled out and several of my colleagues told me that they were embarrassed by the waiter’s comment.

The second occasion was with a different company when we again went to a restaurant, this time to welcome a new Director to the team.  This was a middle-eastern style restaurant which also provided entertainment in the form of dancers who encouraged diners to get up and dance with them during the meal.  Like the rest of the group, I choked with laughter watching the Marketing Director gyrating with one of the dance troupe.  I choked for a different reason when he came back to the table, looked straight at me and announced that he had no doubt that a female HR Director would take a very dim view of such sexy goings-on and that he was fully expecting to face the consequences back in the office!  I had no such intentions – I thought the dancing effort was, in fact, hilarious and didn’t participate myself only because I have more care for my digestive system!

Again I’d been singled out on the assumption that my sex made me different to everyone else in the group which, in my view, is patently unfair.  In fact those particular episodes left me feeling reluctant to attend other social events, just in case it happened again.

Actually in the Board-room itself, I was simply ‘one of the boys’.  Luckily I can hold my own in a pre-meeting discussion on rugby, cricket or football (just – I’m Scottish, which only complicates sporting matters!) When we (finally) got down to the business aspects of a Board meeting, I was recognised as the HR specialist and treated just the same as everyone else.

That’s how it should be.  I neither want nor expect different treatment on the grounds of my sex.  I’m the HR Director first, a Board member second and the fact that I’m also a woman comes a long way down the list.   That’s the main reason that I’m opposed to quotas.  I would hate to think that I’d gained a coveted seat on the Board simply because of my sex.  Surely professional expertise and experience should be the main criteria for Board level appointments.  As with general recruitment, we are looking to select the best person for the job. I don’t think that falsely engineering the composition of the Board will do anything to encourage women further down the organisation to aim for the top job.

Of course I recognise that diversity can and does enrich an organisation.  Lord Davies’ report says that boards make better decisions where a range of voices, drawing on different life experiences, can be heard.  However I don’t think that my life experiences are too different from any man who has followed a similar career path to my own. 

Having said that, I have experienced sexism in the workplace.  I have been treated differently and unfairly on occasions, usually by individuals who have seen me as a threat to their status and have used my sex as the first weapon they can think of to attack me with.  That’s the risk that goes with being the only person with a particular characteristic in a senior role.  Sometimes I wish I’d had a ‘sister’ to share and deflect some of that risk….

I’d be very interested to hear your views on this subject.  Have you ever been in a similar situation?  Do you support the idea of using quotas to increase the representation of women and other groups on UK boards?

Answers: Wal-Mart; Hilary Clinton

About the author

Sheena has worked at a senior level in HR for the past 14 years, including 6 years as an HR Director, following a successful career transition from training & development. Working mainly for small/medium organisations in a variety of sectors, she has acquired a strong reputation for effecting change and for "getting things done". She is now working as a freelance HR Consultant.

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Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK.  Next week’s Discuss HR will be published on Thursday 31st March and will be written by Training Consultant Jill Hart-Sanderson.