Women with balls of steel

For those who decide they are company-women first and family-women second, Scottish Power’s corporate affairs director, Sue Clark, is a good pin-up. In 1998 Clark saw through a £4.5 billion business deal, while experiencing birth contractions. Even when her waters broke she still refused to leave her desk, and stayed glued to the phone, until the deal was clinched. ‘There were still things I needed to sort out. I think working actually helped take my mind off the labour,’ she said later.

‘People would actually refer to the idea of taking ‘macho’ maternity leave,’ says Smithson. ‘Being off for as little time as possible and coming straight back to work full-time.’

It just goes to show, no matter how macho the persona a woman can project in the workplace, at some point, biology may well get in her way. Dame Rennie Fritchie, a consultant on organisational change was sent to the US to study the policy and working practices of the two countries’ corporations, in her capacity as the Commissioner for Public Appointments. She describes the hoops that American women in the upper echelons of power have to jump through as ‘The Merchant of Venice Factor’.

‘Corporate America demands its pound of flesh, which means women have to operate as if driven by testosterone by joining the locker-room culture and by having their babies strictly in accordance with company policy.’

Do it your way
‘There is no doubt that despite the fact that it’s against the law, people do discriminate against young women,’ says Nicola Horlick. ‘Especially if they’ve just got married and are likely to have children soon.’

Horlick says she walked into the City with her eyes wide open. Before she even considered accepting a job, she carefully vetted the company, speaking to other women who work there and making sure they espoused ‘relatively enlightened’ family-friendly policies, so that she wouldn’t end up having to choose between her family and her career.

The senior women and CEOs polled for Breaking the Barriers agreed it’s best for women to have clearly defined career goals if they want to get anywhere. ‘To succeed you must focus on what you want,’ says Horlick. ‘What sort of company do you want to work for? When you’ve answered those questions, go out and find them.’

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