A recent Guardian article has cited the steady rise of female-led record labels as evidence that the notoriously testosterone-fuelled music business is undergoing a long-overdue sea change.
Often taking the form of boutique firms that focus mainly on female talent, these labels have stemmed from women going it alone to seek outlets for their frustration with the industry’s highly prescriptive, male-dominated outlook.
Indeed, one of the figures featured in the piece is Victoria Hesketh – known more widely as recording artist Little Boots – who fled an enviable, ‘360-degree’ deal with Atlantic Records to set up her own label, securing instant control over her master tapes and image.
But it’s not just by striking out on their own that women can gain greater recognition for their skills – and leadership ambitions.
Days after the Guardian article emerged, professional development firm Everywoman Network unveiled details of its efforts to help boost the share of female leaders and managers at its client Virgin Media, which has committed to a target of 40% by 2018.
As Virgin Media culture and inclusion manager Eleanor Brett pointed out, a company survey showed that many of her firm’s female employees within a particular management grade “were more likely to move away from the company, rather than see their careers move upwards within it”.
The partnership has spurred a significant rise in female engagement, driven by closer internal networking. So, are employee networks ever more crucial for helping women to fulfil their potential?
“Increasing female engagement at senior levels in organisations is not simply about men moving over to leave women in exactly the same structures, with the same politics and the same approached to managing and leading,” says The Institute of Leadership and Management's head or research, policy and standards, Kate Cooper.
“Professor Sue Vinnicombe – a renowned expert in this field – has argued since the 1990s that the classic, organisational template is not always the type of setup in which women feel comfortable to work. She also points out that women are much more likely than men to start their own businesses. My own personal view is that women can find overtly rigid organisational hierarchies off-putting, or even alienating.”
Cooper explains: “There’s evidence that women like to speak to each other in far more collaborative terms than men do, and are more likely to use their conversations as a means of sharing information, rather than extending competitive behaviour. Women’s networks certainly help to create more nourishing spaces in which to focus on those collaborative efforts and move away from the more political aspects of the workplace that can cause discomfort. Office-supplies giant 3M, for example, has done a lot of work to engage females in female-only spaces, via its global Women’s Leadership Forum.”
However, she adds, “another valuable take on this field comes from Professor Cary Cooper. He proposed that, while women-only pathways for management development were very on-trend in the 1990s, colleagues will always need to work together in mixed teams, in the end. So perhaps the issue doesn’t lie with those female, trainee managers – but the male hierarchies around them. It’s important to bear that in mind when we build realistic expectations of our daily contact with colleagues.
“I fully support the efforts of women’s networks if they facilitate the growth of connections around the organisation, and are genuinely supportive. A lot of anecdotal evidence suggests that this is very much the case. Ultimately, though, women and men have to work together, and each has to accommodate the other – so making it an exclusively male or female problem isn’t really going to get us to an enduring solution.
“Interestingly, the Everywoman Network points out that 10% of its members are men. That clearly signposts the direction in which we should be heading.”
For further thoughts on the need for social sensitivity in the workplace, check out this learning item from the Institute