Women in retail: It’s a man’s world

Here’s a short exercise. Reel off 10 high-profile retail chief executives that spring to mind. Now, narrow that list down to those who are female. If you are left with one, if any, it would be surprising.

To have a woman at the helm of a retail organisation is rare. And yet if you look at the facts, this is difficult to explain. It may be a generalisation but by and large, shopping is a female domain and in most households it is the women who make the key purchasing decisions.

The retail industry employs more women than men – the ratio is 60:40 – and more women than men start their graduate careers in retail. Many women decide to stop at middle management when they have families, but there are still plenty who sit on retail operating boards. So why is it so rare that women make it to the top jobs once they have reached a senior level?

Examples such as Kate Swann at WHSmith, Sara Weller an Argos and Lisa Morgan at Game show it is possible for women to make it to the top. But the challenges facing women determined to make it as chief executives are greater than those encountered by men, both professionally and personally.

Argos managing director Sara Weller points out that many women would rather avoid the reputation that can accompany a female leader. “You have to be strong, decisive and make difficult decisions. It’s hard to do that without being accused of being hard and unfeminine,” she says. “Somehow, being perceived as a hard nut is fine if you’re a man, but not if you’re a woman.”

It has a lot to do with individual choice. Reaching director level on the operating board is senior enough for many women; they don’t want everything that comes with being a chief executive – not least being a figurehead and dealing with the resultant intense media interest. While some male chief executives may revel in a high media profile, women with young families would often rather avoid it.

In many ways, it is easier for women to opt out of the battle for a chief executive post. No one would question a successful female director if she said the prospect of a leadership lifestyle didn’t appeal. Yet some might question the commitment and drive of a talented, successful male director if he said the same.

Perception problem

There is a danger that women’s lack of interest in chief executive posts is because they start to believe others’ assumptions. Moira Benigson, founder of Moira Benigson Executive Search, says she is amazed Kate Bostock’s name never crops up in conversations about Stuart Rose’s potential successor at Marks & Spencer. She may say she is more interested in product than a chief executive badge, but how many other women say exactly the same, simply because other people have pigeonholed them as “product people”?

Many women also lack self-belief. As Theo Fennell managing director Barbara Snoad says: “Some women can be a little too self-effacing.”

Exley Harvey Executive Search managing director Lesley Exley says a tendency to be self-deprecating is problematic at the shortlisted interview stage. “Some people think it’s human to present a rounded picture but, in general, men maximise their strengths and minimise their weaknesses and, when it comes to the crunch, men sometimes win because they project themselves with more confidence,” she explains.

Benigson agrees. “In some ways, women create their own glass ceiling because they don’t think they can do it. They’re less good at promoting themselves and they don’t want to be in amid what can be perceived to be a rugby scrum for a job,” she says.

Many might say the reason there are so few female chief executives is simply that those who have secured the roles are the best people for the job. But many women aren’t even getting through to the shortlists because those making the recruitment decisions are nearly always men.

It’s not that they don’t respect women and it’s not that they don’t think they can do the job but, as Weller says: “Convention does come into it. The people making those decisions tend to be more conservative and slightly older.” Perhaps there is a subconscious element of thinking that being chief executive is a man’s game and it should stay that way. Fortnum & Mason chief executive Beverly Aspinall says: “Retail is an old industry and these things take time to change.”

Weller believes the typical chief executive job specification does not work in women’s favour either. “There is undoubtedly a stereotypical view of what good leadership looks like. Strong, determined, able to take calculated risks: those are more often than not male characteristics,” she says. By default, men fit the job profiles better because such descriptions omit other qualities – such as teamwork – that are equally vital but instinctively less macho.

Another issue, says Exley, is that during the recruitment process, some men are likely to shy away from an overconfident female candidate as much as they would from someone who wasn’t 100 per cent sure of her capabilities. In short, sometimes women can’t win.

The situation is a catch-22. If recruitment decisions sometimes favour men, this isn’t going to change unless there are more women on the main boards. But the sheer amount of testosterone in the boardroom is likely to act as a deterrent to women.

Crabtree & Evelyn managing director Catie Callender agrees that a predominantly male environment is not always appealing. “There is a bit of boys’ banter. I give as good as I get, but sometimes you hear some outrageous chauvinism, even if it’s joking. I think to myself: ‘I didn’t think that existed past the 1980s’.”

Tough decisions

One of the most obvious reasons why there are so few female chief executives in the business world is the difficulty with juggling family commitments. Andas retail is a seven-days-a-week operation, it is even more pressurised than other sectors.

Retail salaries for women in relatively junior positions are another issue; often it’s not worth their while coming back to work after having a child, resulting in a drain of young talent. And a career break makes it very difficult to get back on the ladder. Aspinall says: “It was a tough decision to go straight back to work, because for a while, I was barely making any money when you take childcare into consideration. I always focused on the long-term – what I wanted to be doing 10 years down the line. I needed to stay working to get there.”

Snoad doesn’t have children. “I have stepchildren, so I’ve done it the easy way,” she laughs. “I don’t know if I would have found it more difficult to get where I have if I’d had children, but it must be very hard for people who have to juggle that with motherhood and I greatly admire those who do it.” She adds that she has become “very obsessive” about her job. “Perhaps I’ve been able to devote more time to it than some mothers with children would have been able to. It must be terribly hard to say: ‘Right, I’ve got to go home now’.”

Evening events also come with the turf. Such networking opportunities are a valuable opportunity to help forge contacts. However, the wives of many men in senior positions don’t work so are free to look after the children, which makes it a lot easier for their husbands to give up out-of-hours time. And, if a woman is able to attend events regularly, there is the worry that some people might question her commitment to her children.

In 2001, when the now-Jaeger chief executive Belinda Earl was at the helm of Debenhams, the fact that she was the first chief executive of a leading public company to go on maternity leave made national headlines. Six weeks later, she made the headlines again when she returned. She says she was surprised by the public interest her pregnancy caused. “I’d already had one child and didn’t want my first child to be an only child because of my job,” she says.

She points out that it was also entirely media furore, rather than a business issue. “I had the full support of my board, but the press didn’t help, particularly if you don’t court that publicity,” she says.

Standard maternity leave of about six to nine months is not an option for women who want to remain in their leadership roles, which is another factor that prompts many to question whether the sacrifice is worth it. When Weller went on maternity leave with one of her children while working at an FMCG business, she left work one Thursday, had the baby on the Saturday and returned to work three weeks later. “I had a fabulous job that I didn’t want anyone else to have,” she recalls.

Callender says that when she went back to work three months after the birth of her first child, it was probably too soon. “I thought I had to be the superwoman, but it’s impossible to take a year out. You have to understand what’s right for the business,” she says. For many women, dedication to their job is simply not strong enough to make them want to do it.

A woman’s touch

Just as women bring a different dimension to the operating board, they also bring a different dimension to company leadership. It may sound stereotypical, but there is truth in the view that women are good at empathising and multitasking. Some people also believe that women are often less egotistical and better at sharing success. But equally, they can be less gung-ho and less confident at leading from the front. Whether male or female, every good chief executive needs to have drive, self-belief and ambition – and some might question whether every woman on the operating board has this in abundance, particularly if they have a family.

There is a risk that female chief executives of tomorrow will look at today’s successful female retailers and question whether they want to make that level of commitment. Weller says this would be a pity. “It would be a great shame, because running a business is a terrific thing to do. I look at young female leaders with talent and think: ‘You’d love this job, but you have to go through the pain barrier’,” she says.

Tesco is making a concerted effort to help the career progression of its female senior managers. In September, it launched its Women’s Network – an internal web site. Through this and monthly themed events, it aims to provide a support network that it hopes will help utilise talent and improve recruitment and retention. Project manager Sharon Kyle says that establishing a structured network was necessary for its female employees because men tend to create their own informal networks. Although there was “some initial resistance” to the idea, she says that senior male employees have now recognised the business case and are supportive of the initiative, “because they believe we are missing out on an important pool of talent”.

Earl says that “taking each opportunity as it arises” has been key to her success, yet women are often subconsciously dissuaded from going for the top jobs. Whether this is because of company culture, a lack of self-belief, or fear of losing a healthy work/life balance, it needs to be addressed.

It is also true that most women love shopping and, in some businesses, it may make good business sense to utilise this at the top. Ann Summers chief executive Jacqueline Gold says: “When you’re talking about retail, women know far more than men. It makes complete sense that when you’re trying to sell to women, you have women calling the shots in the boardroom.”

But when seeking to redress the balance, the key has to be choosing the best person, regardless of their sex. Weller says: “The last thing we need is someone thinking they’re doing women a favour.”