being a woman and being in business is
not worthy of remark it is not
exceptional nor is it extraordinary
let me explain so a few years ago I
attended a women in business event held
by the company that I worked for at the
time and I'd been really looking forward
to the event it was to be held at a
trendy bar in the city with drinks and
canapes and would all been speaking
about in the office we arrived and our
CEO opened the event and
enthusiastically congratulated all of us
for our achievements as women in finance
he noted how remarkable it was to see
how well all of us were doing in the
industry but during his talk I remember
thinking wait what what is actually
happening because at the time I worked
in quite a large team and it was pretty
much a 50/50 male/female split so we all
worked on the same project we all did
the same stuff day to day but only the
women were receiving praise and it
wasn't even for what we were doing or
how we were performing we were being
congratulated for being women and for
being in finance not because we were
good at our jobs or smart or capable but
because we were women and I remember
thinking why why am I feeling
uncomfortable here
why is this weird to me because I know
that women have not always had the
opportunities that I have had I know
that for a long time they were no women
in positions of power I know that women
do still face workplace discrimination
unequal pay and I know that for so many
women there is still a long way to go
that I am standing here today is a
testament to the courage and to the
resolve of the many women who have come
before me I know all this and I still
felt uncomfortable and I could see how
much time effort energy had gone into
planning the event and to making it an
enjoyable evening I was enjoying myself
but there was something
something that just wasn't sitting right
with me we celebrate achievement of
women in business because women and
business are seen as a high achieving
exception which is contrary to the norm
I think people believe that glorifying
women in business is the right thing to
do it's the way to be progressive but
actually when you really start to think
about it when I really started to think
about it I felt it was pretty
condescending so I have three amazing
beautiful wonderful nieces who I love so
much and I want to see them grow up in a
world where gender has as much
significance both in business and
society as eye color or shoe size where
they are judged on their ability and not
their gender where they are viewed as
exceptional because they are genuinely
exceptional now I know that this is not
a discussion that we can have in all
parts of the world but today here and
now in a progressive and
institutionalized democracy which should
guarantee the equal enjoyment of human
rights I think the context has shifted
and now I think it's time to call it the
existence of women in business networks
events organizations may inadvertently
be perpetuating the very bias that they
seek to overcome and now I think it's
time to ask ourselves what harm might
these groups be doing and why is it that
we think that they are even necessary
have these groups which once did help
women gain equal footing now become a
crutch I feel that for as long as we
talk about women and business women on
boards women in finance we continue to
perceive them there as something that is
different but not something that is
ordinary banal normal boring and
accepted essentially I think we separate
women out and we put them into a box and
we base it on membership of a certain
group
so it's almost like the more we talk
about it the worse we make it because we
constantly highlight and reiterate that
divide and there are certain instances
where this is becoming less remarkable
so kevin o'leary of shark tank recently
discovered that the majority of his most
profitable companies across multiple
industries are run by women with no
intervention from himself and there was
a study done of Olympic medal winners
which found that countries with smaller
gender equality gaps in terms of things
like earning and education tend to win
more medals now this wasn't just because
the female athletes were winning more
medals the men were as well and this is
this could be because there was a wider
pool of talent to draw from so think
about that equality not only benefits
the previously unequal but society as a
whole and so of course the quality is
our goal it is just perhaps the means to
that end
that we should question so how do we go
about making this a non conversation a
non-issue let's really look at the way
we speak about it because language is so
powerful so there was recently a
controversy in South Africa where I'm
from about an advertisement which read
look like a girl act like a lady think
like a man
and work like a boss think about the
influence that that perception can have
so writer and author Gillian Tett
attended a banking conference with an
all-female panel and she noted how
remarkable it was because it's so
visibly challenged the all-male panel
norm
she said that while the mores of Western
culture have shifted to accept the idea
that some women can exercise executive
power our cultural assumptions do not
expect that this could be distributed on
an equal basis or that women might call
the shots so we really need to try and
reach a point at which or female panels
or female boards are nothing out of the
ordinary
merely representative of high achieving
individuals and guys that stop cutting
men out of the picture the exclusion of
men reinforces the idea that they are
something else do I have any fans of the
Netflix series orange is the new black
in the house tonight I reminded of the
scene where the lead character Piper is
trying to fix a microwave and a man says
to her and you can fix that all by
yourself honey to which she replies I
sure can if I concentrate extra hard
with my lady brain so excluding men
causes them to disengage from a fuller
understanding of the various and often
subtle ways in which the subordination
of women is reproduced equality is not a
woman's problem it is everyone's problem
imagine walking into a boardroom and not
noticing whether the people around the
table were male or female so let's shift
the focus from gender to skills and
performance as objective criteria while
still maintaining an open and
inclusionary dialogue so if I've thought
about this I really started to wonder
why it is that we feel we should
participate in these organizations these
networks these events do we feel that we
need extra support guidance extra
recognition do women today still require
a different kind of mentorship or do we
just think that we do let's ask
ourselves these difficult questions and
really think about how we view ourselves
and our position in society and be open
to changing roles to women in the
workplace to men in the home to
diversity and leadership positions after
a lot of thought I have now decided to
resign as member of women and business
networks and to no longer attend women
and business events and this has been a
very tough decision because I really
have gained value from and enjoyed the
events that I've attended
but I think that for as long as we
celebrate achievement based on race
gender sexual orientation or any other
constructed identity we unintentionally
do a disservice to the overall amount of
those groups in society and so I'm going
to take the position that it is no great
achievement that I am a woman and I am
in business thank you