Regardless of the issue in question, public discourse usually follows a similar pattern.
Take female representation in business. The status quo is challenged (“why don’t we see more women in senior level roles?”) and momentum gathers for tackling it (“we need more women on boards!”). But then a backlash ensues (“don’t we believe in a meritocracy?”).
What happens from there can depend on the subject matter. Laurence Fox’s Question Time spectacle suggested “anti-woke” celebrities are threatening the liberal consensus. As one author observed in the Guardian last week, “progressives need to wise up to the fact that they are losing the argument and decide what to do in response”.
In the case of women in the workplace, Amber Rudd wrote an insightful editorial in The Sunday Times that neatly summarised where we are now.
It’s all very well, the former Cabinet minister wrote, to suggest that we want the best person for the job regardless of gender, race or ethnicity. But if the best candidate is repeatedly a man, “it has to be challenged. It can’t be a coincidence every time.”
Rudd pivots the debate towards the benefits of diversity. It fosters a “broader mix of experience and priorities, leading to better outcomes.” And in politics, “no one is going to fight for women like a woman”. Hear hear. Rudd writes in the context of the forthcoming reshuffle and the rumours that half of the women in Cabinet may lose their jobs.
But with the news last week that one in three board positions at the UK’s biggest companies is now held by a woman, Rudd’s comments could equally be applied to business. The Hampton-Alexander Review found that 349 women currently sit on the boards at FTSE 100 firms.
Not only will increased representation help tackle unconscious bias and gender stereotypes around what a leader should look like, but if Rudd is right, these women will commit to boosting other women in business. This desire to pay it forward is apparent in the Female Founders Forum, where members give up precious time to champion, advise and even mentor fledgling female entrepreneurs.
Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom was right to point out that businesses had achieved this target voluntarily and without the need for legislation or fines. Perhaps the spotlight on diversity alone has changed the behaviour of big firms. Countless studies have found that it fosters innovation, creativity and empathy in ways that homogeneous environments seldom do.
Both Rudd and Leadsom have been criticised in a vitriolic, asinine article that insolently dismisses the role diversity can play in avoiding groupthink, ignores the importance of role models, and paternalistically seeks to tell women what they want – especially when they become mothers.
We need reasoned debate, because all is not rosy. There remains a lack of women in senior and executive roles: they make up just 15% of finance directors, for example. 33% isn’t 50%. But rather than cry foul over discrimination, or shrug nonchalantly (or write deplorable blogs) when there is still a way to go before we achieve gender equality in the leadership of British firms, we should strive for balanced discourse that at once accepts progress made, and work yet to do.
Read more about the Hampton-Alexander Review here. And our views on Women in Leadership here and here.