Work Like A Woman by Mary Portas
“How is it that we have a tax system that allows businesses to write off first-class flights for their executives but doesn’t allow someone who is self-employed to claim a penny for childcare?”
3 Main Messages
Women want and need changes in the workplace, including flexible working and an appreciation of less alpha skills such as empathy and collaboration.
Women are working in a system pitted against them in terms of childcare options and societal expectations.
The people at the top have the power to make big changes, but the people at the top are usually men, who have succeeded as a result of the status quo.
Twenty years ago I had a conversation with my female employer who was complaining about feminism. “The problem,” she said, “is that we used to have one job, which was to look after the family and home but now we have doubled our work because we have to do that AND work full time.” At the time I thought she may have had a point but I was just happy that we had better options than previously; after all, only a generation previously, my own mother had to stop teaching when I was born as maternity leave didn’t exist.
Work Like a Woman references the same idea and focuses on the frustrations Portas has felt in a system which continues to promote ‘alpha male’ characteristics and which frequently prevents women from moving up to higher paid jobs.
Portas shares personal experiences, including her own struggle to juggle work and family. She is vocal about the cost of childcare and how limiting this is, especially when it usually falls to the woman in a house to care for the children and oversee family administration. She shares figures around the cost and implications of childcare which are staggering and suggests that it is this ‘alpha male’ culture which has created our current environment and defined the behaviour and general codes which constitute success.
She writes that everyday sexism is so deeply entrenched in our culture that it is the norm and that it’s usually subconscious. As humans we are tribal and naturally enjoy the company of those who share similar behaviours and values to us and so, she writes: “Call it the old boys’ network or straightforward networking, it enables those with power to pass it on to successors who share their values.” Her complaint is that women’s circumstances and interests frequently act as a hidden barrier to promotion.
Portas writes that woman often feel the need to adapt their behaviour and appearance in order to survive and be recognised and promoted in a predominantly male environment. She also argues that society financially rewards those jobs which have been previously considered to be more ‘male’, while predominantly female professions, such as teaching and nursing, are not as financially valued. She believes that, in order to change the way society values different traits, behaviours and working habits, females need to transform the culture themselves.
As someone who has always been innovative and inventive (like when she replaced Harvey Nichols’ traditionally sumptuous and decadent Christmas window display with a bare window containing a simple sign naming the charity they had donated to) it was interesting to read about how Portas has also changed the culture and practices in her own company.
Staff working at Portas benefit from funded travel and museum passes to stimulate creativity. They hold ‘People of Portas’ meetings which host a variety of different speakers and ‘What Got Me Here’ meetings to encourage conversation and ideas and to build empathy and rapport amongst the team. They also allocate a ‘fun fund’ to a junior member of staff to arrange and coordinate events to lift the team spirit. Perhaps most importantly, they permit children and pets in the office, which lightens the mood and helps colleagues to see each other as more human.
All of these are possible in any setting and build empathy, creativity and collegiality. This, argues Portas, is how you work like a woman: by bringing more feelings to work; taking on female apprentices; offering free advice and internships and allowing fathers to give more support at home. She also observes that Millennials are leading the way in terms of opting for more balance in their lives and a different perspective of ‘success’.
The book finishes with a guide containing the advice which Portas would give her younger self at different stages of her career. This was perhaps my favourite part of the book, with sage words from which we can all benefit. She provides suggestions for how to survive within the current system and how to change it to promote females in the workplace. This is a truly inspiring alternative to traditional ways of working and hopefully one which will shift perspectives and values to enable to finally find the balance between our work and home lives.
