The Company Secretary

Gender split
In my profession, at the senior level the gender breakdown is about 80% men and 20% women; at the entry level, it’s about 50:50.

Sometimes at work I’m inevitably treated differently than a man but I don’t think I’ve been discriminated against because I am a woman; sometimes being female has distinct advantages, although I’ve never overtly used my status as a woman to get what I want. Women tend to have the ability to focus on a number of different tasks at the same time. They also tend to become less ‘stressed out’ at the prospect of many deadlines looming at the same time.

I was educated in a very academically focused all-girls’ school, where we were encouraged to think of ourselves as able people, rather than girls. I knew lots of boys socially, but was not pitched against them in an academic environment (until university). So I did not feel held back or intimidated by them. Also, my parents have always been very supportive of anything I, or my sister, wanted to do and have never made us feel that we should or shouldn’t do anything because we happen to be women.

I think that discrimination can often be encouraged by the state of mind of women; I try very hard not to think of myself as any different in terms of ability and dedication than a man. However, it is relatively easy for me to act in the same way as a man at work as I don’t have any children and I have a very supportive and domesticated fiance´.

The perks
The best things about my job are variety, autonomy and the pay.

The pits
The worst thing is the long hours and need to spend much of the day concentrating hard – if I get it wrong, the Company could suffer badly.