The women bosses who power York

So is the glass ceiling a thing of the past? Or is York simply more open to allowing women to rise to the top?

We asked eight of York’s most successful women…

Denise Stuart

DENISE Stuart didn’t take the conventional route to business success. For the best part of 20 years, she was very much the stay-at-home mum.

Born and brought up on the south coast, she left school at 16 and got a job with American Express. Within five years she had risen to become a section leader.

But then she decided to have children. And there was to be no juggling work and family for her. “I wanted to look after my children,” she says.

Starting from the age of 21, she had three, now aged 28, 26 and 20. It was to be 16 years before she returned to full-time work.

She doesn’t regret it. “I felt it was the right thing to do.” And she did manage to launch her own child-minding business from home. But by the time she was in her mid-thirties, and with the family now living in York, she was beginning to feel something was missing. Her youngest child was eight. “And I thought: this is not what I want for the rest of my life.”

She took computer courses at York College, and signed up with a recruitment agency. Before long, she had landed a job as assistant PA to the managing partner of Langleys. When the PA left, she found herself effectively working as an office manager – and was given charge of a £2-3 million project to refit the company headquarters, Queens House, in Micklegate.

From there, she moved to become manager of the Forsyth Business Centre at Clifton Moor, and then Forsyth’s northern regional manager, before joining the York inward investment organisation york-england.com, where she is now chief executive.

She is divorced from her first husband – although that was nothing to do with her going back to work, she says. “We stayed together until the youngest finished her GCSEs.”

The business world is a tough place for women, she admits. “We have to be spot on the whole time. We can’t afford to be seen to make mistakes.” But York is a very female-friendly business environment. “I think perhaps because we have so many women in senior positions, it is accepted in the city that women are good leaders. There aren’t the same gender barriers.”

There is also an excellent informal support network of senior women in the city, Women Without Walls. “It is made up of senior business women in York who support each other. That’s hugely important.”

Dianne Willcocks

DIANNE Willcocks doesn’t have much time for people – usually men – who moan about family-friendly workplace legislation killing small businesses.

If we want to make the most of talented people, we have to help them balance the needs of work and family life, she says.

And if there are private firms that won’t take on young women because they think they are going to want time off to have children? “All we can do is use available legislation to identify people who are breaching human rights,” she says.

As an employer herself, the vice chancellor of York St John University appreciates that sometimes it can be frustrating when an employee needs time off to look after children.

But that is the price society pays if we want people to have full family lives and contribute in the workplace, too.

She went to a carol service at Christmas. “I spotted one of my younger employees with her three children and husband. And I said to my PA, ‘Look, there are those three maternity leaves’. But we coped, and we have an employee who is talented, and is really part of the York St John community.”

Things have changed enormously since she had her own children, 64-year-old Prof Willcocks admits.

Brought up in Herefordshire, she fell for Pete, a member of a local college rock band, and at 18 followed him to London.

They married when she was 20, and she got a job at a department store, moving into market research.

When she was 24, however, she gave up work to have the children – first Ellie then, two years later, Jenny.

But when Jenny was two, she decided she wanted more, and went to Surrey University to study sociology, philosophy and psychology.

She was 28. One of her friends was a child-minder, and Pete’s work meant he was often at home. Even so, she launched a petition for a crèche at the university. The reaction was one of total incomprehension.

“I went to a queue at a bank to ask people to sign the petition, and all these chaps were bemused. They couldn’t understand why the university needed a crèche,” she says.

Nearly 40 years later, things have improved, but there is still a long way to go, Prof Willcocks says. “No matter where you look, at the top, middle or bottom, women still earn less. Women are still, for the most part, seen as being responsible for the caring role – that is not inevitable at all. And the workplace could be more woman-friendly.”

Nicola Spence

YORK has an increasingly good mix of men and women in senior roles, believes Nicola Spence.

“It does appear that we are doing better than other parts of the country,” she says. “Maybe there are more opportunities that are accessible to women, or maybe women in York are more prepared to put themselves forward.

“Whatever the reason, it is great to see such a good balance of men and women.”

After six years at the Central Science Laboratory, Professor Spence this month takes over the reins as chief executive at Science City York.

A mother of two, she admits she spent several years balancing life as a mum with her full-time job.

“It was exhausting at first. Working full time when you have small children who wake up at night can be tough for anyone. I managed to keep in touch with work while I was on maternity leave and regularly came into work, so it was much easier to get back into the routine when I returned.”

She acknowledges that a career break would have made it difficult to maintain her research career.

“As a scientist, having any kind of break can affect your publication record. So I think my career slowed down for about three years and I had to wait longer for promotion.

“However, it made me determined to catch up and in the long run I have progressed further than most of my male colleagues.”

From personal experience, Professor Spence knows the importance for new mothers of enjoying time off before and after the baby is born.

“I encourage women to make the most of their maternity leave. However, I know how difficult it can be to return to work so I try to ensure they have help, support and access to good childcare.”

She believes the way to the top is through role models and mentors who give support and encouragement. “Often women are less likely to have the confidence to step forward for senior roles because they fear that they may not be able to deliver. Maybe women are more risk-averse and therefore less likely to choose to put themselves forward.”

Liz Page

YORK is gaining a reputation as a city in which women can succeed, believes Liz Page – which in turn encourages more talented women to come here.

“I think York is such a great place to live that key vacancies attract a wide range of candidates, including some very able women,” she says.

Liz, former editor of The Press in the days when it was still the Evening Press, is now the National Trust’s new general manager for properties in and around York. She was the first (and still only) female president of the Society of Editors – even thought when she started, women reporters rarely scaled such dizzy heights.

“I think we should encourage women to believe in themselves more and to have the confidence to go for senior positions,” she says. “Successful women should also act as mentors to help others succeed.”

Liz has two grown-up daughters, Claire and Jessica. She took a career break to bring them up before returning to part-time work at our sister newspaper, The Northern Echo. She returned to full-time work once her children had settled into school.

“Happily it did not affect my career. I was lucky to go back full-time when there were opportunities opening up for women and being a mum was not a barrier.

“Going back to work was tough at first, but when we moved to York my journalist husband, Brian, went freelance and he worked from home.

“It meant he could pick up the children from school and provide holiday cover while I worked all hours editing the paper.

“When a big story broke, for example the death of Princess Diana, I could head into the office knowing the children were safe and cared for.”

Liz believes women should be encouraged to take maternity leave to spend as much time as possible with their baby. “A career is a long-term proposition and there’s time to make up any lost ground.”

Liz Philips

PATIENCE is the quality Liz Philips singles out as a way of helping women break through the glass ceiling.

Research suggests that successful people peak in their 40s, but Liz suspects it is later for women.

“In their 30s, many women are busy having kids and bringing them up,” said Liz, 49, mother to Matthew, 19 and Thomas, 17.

As principal of Askham Bryan College, Liz has first-hand experience of dealing with staff going on maternity leave. “It can be inconvenient, but it doesn’t worry me. I am just patient.”

She says she understands the need to hold on to valued staff, the “stars of the future” – partly because she has been through it herself.

Both her sons went to a childminder at 12 weeks old because she returned to work full time. Any regrets? “It’s good to go through life and not have a rear-view mirror otherwise you can regret lots of things. I do ask them if they want to trade me in, especially when I miss things, but they haven’t yet.”

When the boys were at primary school, Liz reduced her hours. However, once they were in bed, she was busy again – this time studying for a business studies degree.

Liz says it wasn’t until her father died nine years ago that she felt spurred on in her career. “It made me realise life isn’t a dress rehearsal.”

At the time, Liz was a lecturer at Bishop Burton college. She took a secondment and travelled the country, visiting other institutions to study best practice. It was an eye-opener; she met college heads and realised they weren’t that different to her.

Liz’s big break came when she stepped up to cover for a manager on long-term sick leave. “Nobody came along and asked me to do it, I just stepped up to the plate. You have to look for opportunities and create them.”

Susie Cawood

SUSIE Cawood is a woman who lunches – and breakfasts and dines too.

As the York head of the Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, her job is to bring business together, often over a slap-up meal.

With a background in hotel hospitality, Susie became events manager for the chamber seven years ago – after taking a career break to raise her two children, Rob, 18, and Annabel, 16.

Originally working part time, Susie’s role grew and she eventually took over the running of the York operation when it merged with Leeds 18 months ago.

It’s the most challenging role she’s had to date, but not her biggest achievement. “That would be my two children,” says Susie, 48 this week, who is married to Adrian.

When the children were small, Susie set up her own business selling books for a publisher. But when Annabel was about to leave primary school, she was ready for a new challenge and joined the chamber.

She believes women can have it all: a career and family. “You have to be very organised,” she said.

Although she can’t explain the plethora of women in top jobs in York, she says one thing is for sure: they got there on merit.

“Whether male or female, you have got to be good at what you are doing,” she said.

Strong female role models are important to encourage young women to succeed. The Government could always do more to help with affordable child care too, she says.

But women shouldn’t be concerned about putting their careers on hold to start a family. If anything, becoming a mother can enhance what you can offer to the workplace.

“If you can negotiate with a stroppy toddler you can certainly negotiate with some of the people you have to deal with at work.”

Kersten England

THERE are a lot of women in senior positions in York and North Yorkshire, agrees Kersten England. But do women bosses necessarily make for a more family-friendly workplace?

“I think that’s a rather lazy analysis,” the 48-year-old mother of three says. Yes, some women bosses encourage family-friendly work practices, just as some men bosses do. “But you also get some women who are very tough and pull the ladder up behind them.”

Nevertheless, having a lot of women in senior positions is good for York, she says. “Having a gender balance in leadership positions means we have a more rounded perspective.”

A public organisation such as the city council should reflect the make-up of the community it serves, Ms England believes. The council is ultimately responsible for the well-being of children in the city, so almost has a duty to promote family-friendly work-practices.

“Parents are doing a job when they are at home looking after children. They are contributing to the future well-being of the city by bringing their children up well.”

She had her first child when she was 23 and doing postgraduate research at Manchester University. Her then-husband worked for the Church of England and was fairly flexible. Kersten taught in the evening and was at home much of the day. She was also able to share child-care with a friend doing a Ph.D who had a baby.

By the time her son was 18 months old, she had started working for a parental support project in Stockport. “Occasionally, I used to take him to work on a bike. When he was about four, he would help with the photocopying.”

The two younger children came along about a decade later. By this time, Kersten was in a council job in Kirklees. She took five months’ maternity leave for each child, but kept in touch with work.

There were times when she wishes she could have gone to more school assemblies, and when the children themselves wished they could have a regular mum.

But her children are proud of what she does. “They like the fact that I know what’s going on, and that I can talk about grit supplies not being as high as they have been.”

Local authorities are quite family-friendly places to work, she admits. Private sector companies often have different priorities.

But there are things that can be done to make the private sector more family friendly too. A better support framework, for a start, so that businesses can be more flexible about their working arrangements. “And good quality nurseries within easy walking distance of businesses would help.”

Sue Gradwell

SUE Gradwell has been a careers adviser; she has run her own education publishing business, a research agency and a career management business. She is now the executive director at North Yorkshire Business Education Partnership (NYBEP) which strives to bring schools and industry together.

Why does she think there are a lot of successful women in York?

“Women seem to do very well in public sector oriented roles; I guess there are still far fewer female business leaders. Even though NYBEP is run as a business, we are primarily publicly funded.”

Sue has two children and has always worked full time, taking just two brief periods of maternity leave.

“Having a family has not affected my career, but I wonder if it would have been so in other sectors. I think keeping the balance between personal and professional is really important, but it is hard to do. Sometimes you have to make compromises, but it’s the old cliché of ‘juggling’ – something that lots of women are very good at.”

As a boss, Sue believes maternity leave should be accommodated without affecting career prospects.

“I do understand that this can be disruptive for businesses. People have time out for lots of other reasons though, and it may give an opportunity for someone else to progress and develop.”

What does Sue think could be done to help more women get to the top?

“I think it is more to do with the attitude and aspiration of women than any prejudicial attitudes on the part of employers. Positive role models are crucial, but it is about confidence and belief in yourself.”