Girl Power

Library House reported some depressing statistics this week in their newsletter. Comparing the numbers of male to female business leaders, Library House demonstrated that women are not just lagging behind in the career stakes - they seem to have fallen off the scale all together.

The article left me wondering where all the girl power had gone.... The low lights of the article included that 95 per cent of the chief executives at venture-backed companies were men and even worse, in 2006, 97 per cent of newly appointed chief executives were men.

Despite being woefully out numbered the stats did point out that when a women was in the driving seat the company performed better. Female chief executives delivered higher revenues using less capital and the average company run by a woman had annual revenues of €12.5m last year compared to €11m for those run by men! Hooray - a ray of light.

So where has all the girl power gone? Since working for Connect Yorkshire I have often wondered why the technology business sector is so dominated by men. Very rarely do we come across a female entrepreneur and even less likely is a female investor. You only have to turn up to one of our Investment Forums to see just have out numbered the girls are.

Maybe it's because in the past there have been few role models. Women who have taken on the business world and really succeeded without being viewed as cold hearted (or of having an unhealthy obsession with shoulder pads) were few and far between.

I certainly do think that the generation of female 20 and 30 some things now coming have the positive role models needed and more critically have the confidence to know that they are just as likely to achieve as their male counterparts. Coupled with flexible working conditions that make it easier to achieve work/life balance I hope that when Library House repeats the stats in 5 - 10 years time it will show a completely different story.