Category Archives: The Glass Ceiling

My Heroes: Unity Dow, Botswana

Empowering People, Leadership, The Glass Ceiling

Sydney, Friday 4th March 2011, UN International Women’s Day Centenary Breakfast.

I was among 1,700 people who were blown away by Unity Dow and her story. Humble and funny, quiet and determined, a village girl who took on the constitution and existing national culture and won. When her American husband went back to college and became a dependent, their children were then deemed to have become non-Botswanan citizens. If it had been the other way round, that would not have been the case.

So Unity gave her government 30 days’ notice that she was going to sue them, did so, and won every stage of the legal arguments over the next 5 years.

To their great credit, the government then accepted that there was something wrong with their constitution and started a national consultation exercise. One village chief was incensed by the perceived weakness of her husband in allowing her to be the head of her family … so came down strongly in favour of allowing the constitution to be changed to give women equal status, as she had proved that this was now the reality!

Unity is now Botswana’s first female High Court judge and a living example of how to combine traditional values, respect, and citizenship with a burning sense of justice – and success in changing things permanently for the better. My hero!

Sexism on Wall St

Business Coaching, The Glass Ceiling

I thought we had made more progress than this!

Shocking levels of sexist discrimination apparently continue to exist on Wall Street. And what is most shocking is the level of blinkered unawareness of the (allegedly) guilty parties. These people seem to be completely blind and deaf and can’t recognise their own crass stupidity, which is depriving companies and whole economies of a whole raft of talent, and deeply affecting the lives of those who have been unfairly treated.

Is it the same in ‘developed’ economies everywhere? I know for sure that the sly practice of excluding women from key business meetings happens in Australia and the UK.

In my view the only way to blast through these closed attitudes is to introduce quotas, giving companies and organisations sufficient notice to give them time to train and hire diverse talent for Boardroom and senior management positions. The issue has to be forced, as people who are completely unaware that they have a problem will voluntarily change! They will continue to blame others (especially women) rather than take responsibility for making things improve.

See Susan Antilla’s article from the Sydney Morning Herald on 10th April 2010 for fascinating stories and evidence:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/sexism-alive-and-well-on-wall-street-20100409-rymk.html