Helen Loveless
IS there still a glass ceiling for women when it comes to running businesses and reaching the top?
A second annual report into the number of women on boards, carried out by Cranfield School of Management and published last week, shows that the rate of women being appointed to the boards of FTSE100 has slowed considerably in the past six months, from 44 per cent of new appointments to just 26 per cent.
While over the last decade the rate of female entrepreneurship has grown by 15 per cent, a Government-backed study published in 2011 found growth in the number of female entrepreneurs had stalled. About 14 per cent of small and medium-sized businesses are now run by women,
But there are still many female entrepreneurs flying high in what might be called a man’s world.
Julie White is managing director of D-Drill, a Coventry-based construction company specialising in diamond drilling. She took over the company from her father in 2008 in a management buyout. At the time Julie was also running her own construction business Superfloor UK, a construction company specialising in floor preparation techniques.
Julie, 45, faced obstacles. She says: ‘Before I made my business a success my father didn’t think women should work in construction. Even as managing director I have gone to vital contract meetings where people assumed that as a woman I must be the secretary rather than the boss.’
Shortly after taking over the turnover of the business fell by ‘about 40 per cent’ from £8 million, as the impact of the financial crisis and the collapse in the construction industry hit home.
But since then Julie has restructured and streamlined the business, including renegotiating supplier deals and making necessary redundancies. Turnover is now £5 million and rising and the firm employs 150 people. She has also just appointed the first woman onto the board of the business.
Julie, who to date is the only woman running a business in this specialist sector, says: ‘I actually think the Government is doing a lot to help women reach the top in business, though more needs to be done.
‘I am against quotas for women on boards, however. Women need to believe that they can do anything. I have faced discrimination but it hasn’t stopped me.’
