Hands up if you’re old enough to remember the Spice Girls?
Even if you only admit to seeing them on vintage videos, you’ll know what they want, what they really, really want. Yes, “zigazig ah”!
They also wanted gender equality and a brighter future for women.
As Geri Halliwell, aka Ginger Spice, said: “Spice Girls is about unifying the world – every age, every gender, everyone. It’s woman power, it’s an essence, a tribe.”
Sadly, that tribe disbanded some time ago and today just one in four higher-rate taxpayers are women.
This is despite political drives to attract more female business leaders into boardrooms.
A new study of data from HMRC shows only 1.26 million of the 4.64 million people paying the 40% tax rate are females – and that 27 % ratio has not changed for five years.
There is hope: the percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards increased from 11% in 2010 to 21% in 2014.
And some companies have set their own targets. Last year Lloyd’s Banking Group announced it wanted at least 40% of all senior management roles to be filled by women by the end of the decade.
So how do we persuade more companies to appoint women as executives and managers?
And when you’re gunning for those top roles on s1jobs, how do you persuade your new employer you’re the right woman for the job?
Well, we can start by highlighting just some of the many factors that show women are the best boardroom members any company can have.
Firstly, most of us can quite naturally get in tune with our colleagues and the workforce because we value honest-to-goodness relationships.
Having a strong understanding of what drives and motivates those around us means we can monitor, encourage and reward performance.
Secondly – and this may sound like a cliché but only because it’s true – women are natural multi-taskers.
Our ability to handle different tasks or problems at the same time is an invaluable skill for successful leadership.
Female directors also bring diversification: having a broader set of life skills and experience to call upon means a company can enjoy improved corporate performance.
In fact, studies show firms with at least one woman on the board have a better return on equity, higher earnings and a stronger growth than those with all-male boards.
Finally, diversity drives diversity. Companies with female leaders are more likely to boost recruitment of female candidates.
And that’s good news for girls and boys.
Show the world what you really, really want with an Executive role from s1jobs