A journalist asked me to comment on a poignant matter today. Evidently, according to City psychologist Julia Noakes, “The problem in finance is that there is too much thrusting individualism and not enough femininity”. Noakes adds that “A lot of women are deterred from striving from senior management positions because they don’t want to deny 50% of their personalities”. So would we be in the same mess now if women had held more sway in The City.
My reply was that women bring three important qualities to the corporate environment. The ability to empathise means they often don’t operate with the same blinkered attitudes of many men. This doesn’t make them any less formidable competitors – quite the reverse, in understanding what others are thinking lies the ability to plan to counter. Their lack of ego means decisions are made for wider and more long term benefit. And finally their multitasking skills genuinely do keep balls in the air.
And The City is resounding with the thuds of dropping balls at the moment…
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