Action needed to close gender gap

As a major report exposes a dearth of women in the boardroom, North East businesses have been warned there is still a long way to go before the gender gap in the region is closed.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) this week criticised businesses around the world for failing to create an equal balance of men and women in high places.

The Corporate Gender Gap Report found that many of the world’s biggest firms had failed to address equal pay and were losing female talent.

In the UK, female employees made up 40% of the workforce – compared to 52% in the US, 48% in Spain and 26% in Canada.

Meanwhile, the WEF said women employees were concentrated in entry- or middle-level positions “and remain scarce in senior management or board positions in most countries and industries.”

Of the 600 companies surveyed by the WEF across 20 countries, fewer than 5% had women chief executives.

According to some of the North East’s top female business leaders, the North East is also failing to provide enough senior opportunities for women.

“We have quite a way to go for better equality of professional females in the region holding down senior positions,” said Sharon Kell, founder of fast-growing dating agency Coco Moon.

“I would really like to see local businesses be more flexible when they are recruiting and developing their workforce.

“In my experience the technical sector [in the North East] seems to be heavily dominated by men, IT in particular. I have rarely come across females operating in this field so for obvious reasons, there seem to be very few women who have made it to board level in this sector,” she added.

Kari Owers, who runs Newcastle-based PR and marketing firm O Communications, also said the North East business landscape is far from balanced in terms of gender.

However, she did concede that the PR industry in the region is actually suffering a shortage of men.

She said: “More businesses need to embrace inviting women onto their board to drive their companies forward, by introducing working practices that make that realistic – especially for working mothers.

“It’s not about the time they put in, but what they do when they’re there. I’d like to see more emphasis on careers advice in communicating to girls about the range of opportunities they can achieve here - particularly with the future jobs this region will offer in fields like green technologies or science.

According to the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, one of the most effective ways of smashing through the glass ceiling could be for women to go it alone in business.

Chief executive Carole Beverley said: “By taking control of their own destiny and running their own businesses, they are in a position to set their own ceiling and are only limited by ambition and aspiration in terms of what they can achieve.”