It's out there

As soon as you start thinking about it there's loads of food for thought for working women out there...

I will confess that I am a bit of a Radio 4 junkie and on Monday Woman's Hour had a forum on Women in Business.  They covered some really interesting topics including life/work balance, starting your own business and presenting yourself in business circles.  Dawn Gibbins, the founder of international flooring experts, Flowcrete was one of the speakers and had some great insights into working in the 'man's world' of construction.  She pointed out something which I learnt from my first boss - men like you to be direct, no fluffy stuff, talk in bullet points.  It's really good advice and I recommend a listen.
This is the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01d0ky8


Dawn's best comments were prompted by a question from Chrissi McCarthy who heads Constructing Equality in Liverpool.  They are a consultancy specialising in encouraging equality and diversity in the Construction industry - Yay!!  I've sent them the link to this blog and they are interested in articles from us for their newsletter so let me know if you would like to contribute.  Melanie and I are going to pull the information on "What's important for a Good Workplace" together with this and the AJ in mind.


Finally, a blog in ArchDaily by Christopher N Henry - "Women in Architecture - We need them" -  infact, after calling for more women in architecture he backtracks saying men can have all the qualities women have and there's really no need to make a point of hiring a woman over a man it's just that if architects started valuing "empathetic and sympathetic" skills there would magically be more women than there are now.  As a cheeky sixth-former said to me at a school disco - top marks for effort.  However, how do we start valuing empathy and sympathy more?  How do we see or measure these qualities?  What does he mean?... Do you have any ideas?