International Women's Day

Baroness Stowell of Beeston Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My Lords, I echo the congratulations given to the noble Baroness, Lady Gould of Potternewton, on securing this debate. It is a real privilege to participate in it with so many distinguished noble Baronesses. I confess that until recently I did not know that there was such a thing as International Women’s Day. When I found out about it, I was a bit disappointed, because to my mind every day is women’s day. If it is not, it should be.

Women are different from men, and I state the obvious because we as women are underselling that fact as our USP. In the recent report by the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Abersoch, about women on boards, the most interesting aspect, which did not get enough attention when the report was published, was not that more women should be on boards but that having more experienced and successful women on boards is important to business. The answer, it seems, is that more of us equals more commercial success.

I will not repeat the evidence in that report, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Howe of Idlicote, referred, but it showed that we women bring not just equal ability but something different to the table. When we get on to those boards, or arrive anywhere, what is it about us that makes a difference? The noble Lord, Lord Sugar, perhaps gave us a clue when he talked about his experience of women executives being more focused and lacking in ego in the way that they made their contributions to his organisations. Perhaps we will never have a clear answer to the question, and the simple fact that we make a positive impact might be reason enough.

However, something is getting in the way of us achieving the access that we need to make a difference in more of those major corporations—a difference that would be in everyone’s interest. There is recent evidence from research taken among women managers already working in big organisations that low self-confidence is creating a barrier to their chances of reaching the boardroom. However, the same cannot be said for all women. Indeed, increasing numbers of younger women in particular are aspiring to run their own businesses.

It seems that when we can control the criteria that determine our success, little gets in our way. I do not think that we as women need more self-confidence in our ability, we just need to be more confident that the choices we make and the priorities we have as women reinforce what makes us different, and therefore valuable. We also need more confidence that those who control the channels of opportunity, especially in big business, want successful and able women from all backgrounds to put themselves forward.

Finally, I will mention a small group of women in Nottingham who I know well. So that they know I am talking about them, because they tell me that they are following my progress, I shall share with noble Lords the name they jokingly give themselves. They call themselves the riff-raff girls. Between them they have won battles with cancer, and they have coped with widowhood, some of them at a young age when they still had young families, with the loss of close family members in tragic circumstances, some of them including their children, and with the other kinds of everyday trials and tribulations that ordinary women with modest incomes face and cope with all the time. What makes these ladies so special—and I stress the word “ladies”, as these women, most of whom are pensioners, are most certainly not riff-raff—is their zest and joy for life. These women face challenges every day, but they never let that get in the way of having an honest good time. I would like to dedicate my speech in this debate about women to those very special ladies.