Thursday 9 September 2012 at 21:00
BBC Two
A BBC Open University Partnership
Before I begin, a slight warning that this blog post is certainly coming from a female perspective!
There is a degree of anger in me about how women are treated in comparison to men within the working environment, eg. the noticable difference in wages. So I watched this programme to learn more about the situation in the modern world.
I also watched the programme because I was worried.
Is there much point in me even attempting to break into the male-dominated television industry I so desire to work in? Should I just give up now and work on my cooking and cleaning skills?
Absolutely not.
This programme provided fascinating insight into why modern working environments are so male-dominated, and the reasons all seemed tangible.
Hilary Devey started up her own business, Pall-Ex, and is currently the only female on the senior board with 10 male directors.
Hilary says, "I didn't let being a woman stand in my way."
And too right. But Hilary was also surprised when one of her female employees, Holly, said she'd rather focus on her family than her career. And I have to agree with Holly there.
But that is no reason for women to avoid breaking into business in the first place.
An experiment conducted in the programme - involving 3 groups attempting to build a paper tower of impressive height and strong enough to hold a glass - highlighted how the modern working environment should operate.
The first group consisted of only men, the second, only women, and the third consisted of an equal mix of both genders. And there's no prizes for guessing which group's tower was the tallest and strongest.
Within the male group, they were all quietly competing for the position of leader. In the female group, everyone wanted to contribute equally, which was not productive. And in the mixed group, everyone listened to one another, worked together to select the best idea and build the tower, all whilst having a laugh at the same time.
The experiment proved that men and women are at their most productive when working together. If companies took this on board, they could increase workflow and profit.
But the experiment also showed why women find it difficult to work as a single entity within a men's team - the way the two teams interact is so different.
An interesting investigation provided other reasons for this difficulty that women face - the way jobs are advertised in the first place.
Words like, "gravitas," and phrases such as, "exceptional individual" are considered to be more associated with the male sex, as women are more likely to question their own abilities than men.
The effect of using these terms not only deters many women from applying for the role in the first place, but will also distort the views of the people that are hiring, as these male-associated words and phrases are going to draw them towards hiring a man over a woman.
But Hilary is an exception to the majority of the female sex, and that is what causes her to be such an inspiration.
The part of the programme I enjoyed most involved Hilary showing her feisty personality that gained her her high position in business.
She met Chris Bull, CEO, McBride plc, and grilled him about the way women are discriminated in business, even accusing him of hypothetically not leaving a meeting to attend his child's parents evening, as he would expect his wife to do.
It's safe to say that Chris certainly wasn't anything near the dominating male in that room.
Image from: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01ml90w/Hilary_Deveys_Women_at_the_Top_Episode_1/
