This week sees the launch of a new BBC show- High Street Dreams, in which successful entrepreneur Jo Malone helps budding businesses launch their new products successfully in a competitive retail environment.
This show is significant at the current time. Providing support for small businesses is all the more important in a hostile economic environment, as such enterprises can provide lifeblood to a thirsty economy. They have the ability to be adaptable, and agile, evolving to meet changing requirements, and as such are less reliant on for example huge turnovers, or a high number of corporate accounts, or simply things staying exactly as they are, to survive and grow.
But more importantly for me, I'm hoping this show providing us with another high profile female role model in retail business, where we still have so few. This is particularly troubling as retail has a majority of women at lower levels of organisations (employing women to men in a ratio of 60:40), but somewhere along the way they are not making it to the top jobs- despite the fact that arguably "shopping is a female domain and in most households it is the women who make the key purchasing decisions". Retail Week
Of course, as is the case in most industries, this is likely to in part be because women make lifestyle choices (in terms of taking time out, or reduced work commitment to have children or manage family life) that preclude them, either by choice or involuntarily, from the most senior of posts. The retail environment, and certainly lower level retail salaries, are still less supportive of the sort of flexible arrangements that family women require to be able to take career breaks or reduce hours to support family life, whilst also, or subesquently, progressing their careers to the most senior of levels.
But there are probably other issues at play in our industry. There may be a perception issue, such that women are predominatly seen as 'product people', with more to offer in the range selection and creative decision-making processes, than on the Board. It is likely that a lack of self-belief, which is more common in women than men, may also preclude them from putting themselves forward for the most key rules.
Perhaps it's also the fact that the status quo of male-dominated Boards and recruitment processes also put women at a disadvantage when trying to break through the glass ceiling, and proving that they can be as tough as men when it comes to the difficult decisions, and also in demonstrating that the unique qualities that women can bring to senior management, in terms of empathy, thoughtfulness and so on, are equally as valuable.
Or perhaps the guys on the Board are simply the best for the jobs out there currently?!
Anyway. This is not to say that we cannot be proud of many very successful women in our industry. Women like Kate Bostock at M&S, Kate Swann of WHSmith, Jane Shepherdson at Whistles, Mary Portas, Michelle Mone of Ultimo, all spring to mind as shining examples of women at the top of their game in retail, which brings me back to my original excitement at seeing Jo Malone on TV this week.
The more successful female role models we have in retail, proving that with hard work, self-belief, and of course talent, women can rise to the top, the easier it is for the rest of us- to be motivated to achieve, to believe we can do it, and to challenge the status quo, for a brighter future for women in retail.
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