The spirit of woman

"What would men be without women?
Scarce, Sir...mighty scarce."
Mark Twain

I came across this quote in Hannah Pakula's "The Last Empress," a biography of Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, and liked it so much. I thought it was appropriate that it was revealed to me at a women's conference!

A few weeks ago, I had the fortunate chance to be part of the Women's Summit seminar organised by the Women's Ministry. When I entered the Sime Darby Convention hall, I was just awe-struck by the number of women there. The "hebat-hebat" ones -- all dressed in their power suits, coiffed hair, and generating an unmistakable aura of confidence -- were all seated in the first few rows. They greeted each other with kisses on the cheeks and seemed to know one another very well.

The lesser mortals like moi occupied rows further along the back, shrinking away from the limelight but...hoping the scent of success from further up would waft over and rub off on me as well!

Nevertheless, the air was filled with a great vibe -- woman power! Actually, I loathe to use that phrase because it comes with some negative connotations to it. Perhaps "the spirit of woman" or "a womanly aura" would be much better expressions!

Attending the conference made me think back to my college days when my friend Liza and I would agonise over our career paths and how we would take the corporate world by storm. Heh! I still remember that street-side cafe chat we had about how we were going to make it in a man's world! Those days, it seemed like you had to be "one of the guys" to succeed. Hence, training courses for women to assert themselves were the trend, as were seminars, coaching sessions and mentoring programmes to make a woman become or think more like a "man."

Women consumerism

However, this year's women's summit (the 8th edition) gave some refreshing views on the whole issue. Women no longer need to be "a man in a skirt" to succeed to the top rungs. Given that women these days have purchasing power and make many consumer decisions (for themselves and for their husbands/families), more and more organisations are recognising the fact that they need women on board -- and in top decision-making posts at that -- in order to reach out to this increasingly strong consumer group.

Here's one for the guys: think about the times when it was your wife/girlfriend/sister who made the decision over where to eat, what clothes you should wear, which school to send the kids to, where to go for holidays -- and you'll probably agree that your female half has quite a huge influence in your life. In fact, some studies have shown that women make 80% of the decisions when it comes to consumer goods purchases, i.e. food, cars, computers, electronices, real estate, etc.

Multinational companies, especially, are eager to engage with women in the boardroom because they understand that the consumer demographics are changing drastically. They realise that having female managers on board with them enable them to have the female perspective for the creation of better products and services for this growing target market.

(I look forward to the day when cars would be made with a special compartment just for our handbags and restaurants would have tables with handbag hooks on them!)

Feminine leadership

But beyond creating consumer relationships, gender equality in the workplace, especially in senior posts, are important for the health of the organisation as well. Study after study have shown that organisations with female representation at the top have emerged more successful than those without. When the Lehman Brothers, an investment firm in the US, filed for bankruptcy (the biggest in US history), triggering a global financial panic, the joke that went around later in certain circles was that the Lehman Brothers wouldn't have failed if it had been the Lehman Sisters!

Women have better communications skills and are better at relationship management, demonstrating a strong interpersonal skill. Women leaders take on a more nurturing role, are more likely to promote personal and professional development among staff and are generally more creative.

Gender-balancing

But what's better than a female-only leadership is the gender-balanced management where skills sets of both men and women contribute to make a more effective whole.

Although it's easy enough to say that women are better at this and men are better at that, some quarters are refraining from making it a gender issue. Their argument is that these skill traits cannot be compartmentalised based on sex. Instead, they believe that it's a matter of identifying feminine and masculine traits which both men and women display to varying degrees.

Changing roles of men and women

I'd like to agree with this, too. There shouldn't be such a gender-based argument in the corporate world...or in any other "world" for that matter. I believe both genders need to complement each other -- at work and in the home.

Like what one of the presenters Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of 20-First, a company focused on achieving gender-balance at the corporate level, said, "It's not a women's issue but an economic issue to help facilitate the current realities of our world of both parents working."

Because here's the current reality: there are women out there who are raising families but also crave the fulfilment that comes from having a healthy career. And let's not forget the men either. There are men who would much rather be home with the children, taking on an active role in the nurturing of their families, and who would be content with their wives being the breadwinner of the family.

The view that men should work and women should stay home is being challenged even more these days. It's time we fought less on this matter and fight more for the support of the choices we want to make, regardless of our gender.

Perhaps then, when companies develop flexi time, work-from-home or job-sharing work options, these should be offered to the men, too.

Perhaps then, when it comes time for a promotion at work, women can be equally considered for the job.

Perhaps then, the Women's Summit can be renamed the Women and Men's Summit and its focus changed to meeting the needs of the new man and woman at work and at home.

So, to end, and to reflect that we both do need each other, perhaps Mr. Twain would want to make a slight addition to his earlier quote:

"And what would women be without men? Just as scarce, Sir!"