* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
I was recently asked to sit on a panel about Women and power "Are we winning the battle, but losing the war?" In preparing for this, I realised that I have never looked at my own professional journey as fighting a series of battles or a war, but rather as climbing a mountain.
I chose a big mountain and a difficult mountain to climb, but one that I look up to every morning with a sense of excitement, of energy and above all with a lot of gratitude. There are of course women and children who are fighting wars every day, and to be able to follow my aspirations and realise my professional journey is a total privilege. I am about a quarter of the way up my mountain, and I hope that we will all live to be 140 years old, hopefully that will be enough time to reach my summit. The summit is often nebulous, but at times when I see it with clarity, it provides me with a sense of focus that keeps me motivated for months.The first part of my journey is an entrepreneurial one. I set up MyBnk eight years ago, working with 11-25 year olds on financial education and enterprise programmes. We reach young people across the youth sector in the UK and have also started to expand internationally from Italy to Uganda.Here are some of the things from my journey of which I am really proud:
- The MyBnk Team: We are driven by a common sense of purpose, I genuinely look forward to spending the majority of my day with them, learning from and growing with them.
- Our work: MyBnk has touched the lives of over 100,000 young people, giving them the knowledge, skills and confidence to effectively manage their money, and accompanying them on their first entrepreneurial journey, preparing them for the world of work.
- Thinking Big: Having measured our impact, and realised that what did, worked. Together with other organisations in our sector, we campaigned to bring Financial education into thecurriculum, which today is compulsory within maintained secondary schools.
During the first stage of the MyBnk journey, there are two things which I did as a female leader worth mentioning in relation to women and power; the first is that I always punched above my weight (with authenticity). In the early days of MyBnk, when our turnover was £4,000, and we were working with only a handful of young people, I was already confidently speaking at International conferences about the MyBnk story. I was able to be authentic because from day one, we spent time both running programmes and measuring their impact. We were able to prove that we were changing young people’s lives, that our work was worth doing, our story was worth telling. By punching above our weight, we quickly developed recognition within our sector, and the MyBnk brand became relatively well known, kick-starting a network which today allows us to reach young people globally.Secondly, of course it was important to build strong relationships, to find role models and mentors, but more importantly it was about asking them the right questions, the hard questions, the questions which put me out of my comfort zone. It took me far too long to ask those questions and had I asked them sooner, I would have grown MyBnk more rapidly, accelerating my career to be a little further up my mountain. The truth is that even today I feel uncomfortable asking some questions, but I know that those are the ones I should be asking. The first part of my journey I was climbing on my own and as of the last two years I have been in great company. I have my husband and my two kids, not to forget the very important presence of Silvia, our babysitter. The most important thing in this phase of the climb, is to choose the right life partner, the right climbing partner. He has his summit, I have mine, we are making deals with each other daily and we know that there will be moments when he takes a pause to allow me to accelerate, and vice versa. The second most important thing is to choose the right employer or indeed become the right employer. In the last two years, we have embraced flexible working at MyBnk and we have gained greatly in productivity, efficiency and in output growth. 40% of our team work part time for one reason or another. Declan, our head of communications for example has a day off a month so that he can pursue his love of DJ-ing. Amy, our Office Assistant spends two days a week writing beautiful plays for the theatre. Today, I am no longer running MyBnk on my own, there are two of us. The amazing Guy Rigden and I working as Co-CEOs, because we want to spend time both working, and with our families. We know how effective parents are at prioritising work, driven by a desire to close deals in time to get home to see the kids. Today, I know that it is smart from a business point of view to give parents good working environments, and to encourage flexible working across the whole team.
The next phase of the journey will require many things including always delighting in taking risks, being prepared to reach the summit, and give it a make-over! Historically, men have been more present on the summit and created an infrastructure more suited to their needs, so as more of us women ascend to our summit, let’s be ready to re-imagine them, to re-build them, to re-animate them with among other things, more playgrounds.
Yesterday was #EqualPayDay, the day from which women effectively start working for free until the new year. Women earn 85p for every pound earned by a man. Following a petition launch in September, The "Mind The Pay Gap" campaign is encouraging people to write to their MP's to enforce section 78 of the equality act. This means employers of staff of more than 250 people, would have to publish anonymous audits of the hourly pay of their male and female staff. Click here to learn more.
Here's to:
No more need for 4th November campaigns!
More mums, dads and DJ’s in the workplace!
More writing blogs with you baby on your lap!
And finally, to all the amazing women who have contributed ideas to this topic, you know who you are.
Enjoy the climb.
Editor's Note: This blog was first published MyBnk's blog.
