High Heels in the White House? Whatever next...

By Ruth Ward on Apr 24, 08 07:45 AM in General

It's been an interesting week for women in positions of power. Firstly, Silvio Berlusconi angered his European neighbours (and a few others besides), by claiming that the Spanish Cabinet was "too pink", suggesting that the number of women would make it difficult to lead.

On the other side of the pond, Hillary Clinton declared 'the tide is turning', after winning the Pennsylvania primary on Tuesday. This announcement was brought to me via a news item on a commercial radio station, which chirperly announced, "The sound of high heels could soon be heard around the Oval Office."

OK, so I wasn't expecting in-depth political analysis from this particular broadcaster, but these images of woman appear so out-dated and superficial, and beg the question: how far have we really moved on in the past 100 years?

Birmingham has its share of exceptionally talented women across all sectors, but do they achieve the external recognition that they deserve, and do we have enough women in leading roles within our City?

Last year, Birmingham Future and The Birmingham Post published the first Power 50 list, designed to highlight "the people in and around Birmingham who have the most influence on the future shape and direction of the city." Out of 50 names, only 4 were female. At the time, this caused some degree of reflection, but the fact that more women did not even feature on the radar is concerning. If this is truly illustrative of our influence in the city, then it's a slightly depressing state of affairs.

The Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who declares himself a feminist, passed a law shortly after coming into power which made it compulsory for electoral lists and company boards to have at least 40% representation from women. I'm not suggesting that this is the right way forward, as I'm a firm believer that people should succeed on merit, but how can we start to make Birmingham more "pink"?

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3 Comments

Charlotte Carey said:

Hi Ruth
Pleased you flag this up especially given it being on the Posts site.
Here is my response to last years Power 50 at the time. Like you I was suprised at how few women made it to the list. I had a bit of a creative inds perspective.

At the time it provoked various responses as whether or not to have a female only list (not my vote). I wonder what influence these various discussions will have on this years list.

Cheers
Charlotte

April 24, 2008 11:23 AM

Ruth Ward said:

Thanks Charlotte! I saw your blog post when I was trying to research the full list again - some very interesting comments on there. I was at the event last year when the names were being read out in nail-biting reverse order, and was disappointed in the lack of female representation, particularly as there were a number of women in the room who I felt deserved to be on the list. Birmingham Future has recently had two very strong female Chairs in Sarah Gee and Alex Bishop, and continues to have a good female presence on its Leadership Team which I'm lucky enough to be part of, so lets hope the future holds something more representative not just for 'lists of power' but for the City in general.

April 24, 2008 11:47 AM

Paul Groves said:

I think it is safe to say - given the examples you cite and many others that could have been listed - that women have moved on in giant leaps in the last 100 years. Alas, the media in general hasn't.
The media is still stuck in the last century.
So when the Italian PM makes his comments, he isn't really challenged in the media at all - more likely, it is shrugged off as "Silvio being Silvio".
Equally, the high heels reference to Mrs Clinton's election campaign is par for the course - even for some of the more supposedly considered and high-brow media outlets.
This out-of-date approach, pandering to stereotypes rather than progressing forward can be seen in so many other aspects of media reporting on so many other subjects.
How do you challenge it?
Blog posts like this help, as does the reaction to last year's Power 50.
My only concern is that it is only chipping away at the problem. But creating women-only Power 50 lists, for example, just serves to reinforce the divisions.
As ever it boils down to changing attitudes and that is never easy.

April 24, 2008 2:41 PM