I can often be heard complaining about the relative dearth of women leaders in senior roles and the glacial pace of change to resolve this. But is my venting just a moan, or am I actively working to change this unacceptable situation? The former perspective portrays me as a victim, the latter as a champion for change. I know which label I prefer!

The psychology of victim thinking is that we look to blame others, or external circumstances out of our control, for the things that are not going well in our lives. With regard to the lack of women in senior healthcare positions it is easy to blame employers, the government, or even men! When we do this we are giving our sense of control and power away. This can foster negative feelings such as helplessness, frustration, anger, resentment, anxiety and low self-worth. Inadvertently, we risk portraying women as poor unfortunates who need to be rescued from this stuck, unhappy state!

The reality is we have a choice. We can opt for victim behaviour, and wear people down with our endless tales of woe about how the world has conspired to prevent women getting the roles and opportunities they deserve. Or we can choose the role of change champions, in which we hold ourselves and others to account for helping make the new desired state happen.

As an executive coach I recently completed assignments for two different healthcare leaders. For the purpose of the example I will refer to them as John and Jane. Both were at a similar career level and had applied for appropriate new career positions. Both were unsuccessful. I was struck by the difference in their responses to the situation. John talked earnestly about his situation using phrases like “it’s their loss” and “I’ve spotted an even better job so I am glad I didn’t get it”. When Jane discussed the situation she (initially) told me “I think it was a stitch-up” and “I could tell that they didn’t like me at the interview”.

John instinctively took on the role of change champion. He refused to be a victim to his circumstances, and placed changing the outcome within his locus of control. Jane, however, did the opposite, and displayed victim behaviour by assigning the outcome to factors outside of her control. Clearly, my sample of two people does not constitute scientific evidence! However my observation concurs with research studies which consistently report that men and women do differ in their aspirations, mind-sets and confidence.

To impact on the relative number of women leaders in healthcare, we must ask ourselves what part are we (inadvertently) playing in perpetuating the status quo. Are we thinking from a victim perspective? If like me you sometimes find yourself complaining and blaming others, then we are edging towards victim behaviour. Conversely, when we accept that events are largely a result of our choices and actions, we are likely to be more pro-active in shaping our own lives and helping the talented women around us.

I for one am ready to reject blame and a victim mind-set by accepting responsibility for improving the situation. This is not about minimising situations where people have fallen victim to abysmal or unlawful circumstances. Such circumstances clearly warrant our unreserved empathy, compassion and support. But, to be effective, I know that I must first embrace the belief that we can control the situation and take positive action to improve it. In doing so, I place the issue within my locus of control and acknowledge that I, alongside others, have the power to make change happen. I encourage you to do the same.

[A version of this blog was first published in the HSJ on 8th February 2016]

People have been quick to celebrate the slight increase in the number of women in public sector leadership positions. Call me a killjoy, but someone needs to point out that the pace of change remains shamefully glacial.

More than 100 years ago (in 1903) Emmeline Pankhurst helped found the Suffragettes. Ten years later in 1913 one of her fellow suffragettes, Emily Davison, was killed when she threw herself under the king’s horse at the Derby as a protest at the government’s continued failure to grant women the right to vote. I wonder what Emmeline and Emily would make of the progress we’ve made 100 years on from their gallant efforts?
But am I being fair? How far have we really come, and is it far enough? I think the facts speak for themselves:

In Business: there are now 23.5% of women on FTSE 100 Boards. However, despite this modest improvement, according to Cranfield University there has been little change below board level in the number of women on executive committees. Furthermore there are still 23 FTSE 250 companies that have all male boards. This is reprehensible in 2015.

In Healthcare: despite an 80% female workforce, we barely achieve 35% of women on NHS Boards.

In Local Government: 32% of councillors and only 17% of the Local Government Association leadership are women.

In Politics: the Centre for Women & Democracy recently published ‘Sex and Power; Who runs Britain?’ and reported that there are more male MPs in the House of Commons today (459) than the total number of women ever elected throughout history (450).

In Academia: women hold just 22.4% of professorial positions in the UK.

It’s not just about facts and statistics. Gender imbalance impacts on real women every day. One of my close friends is an eminent professor in healthcare. She recently discovered that she is earning significantly less that her male colleagues. This reflects the sad fact that women in academia (as well as other professions) are paid less than their male counterparts.

The public sector should be leading the way on gender equality in senior positions to achieve a more representative leadership of the population they serve. Leaders in the public sector also have a moral responsibility to ensure they get a diverse balance of leadership perspectives to avoid group think and promote strong governance. But in reality the public sector is, as always, lagging behind.

So more than a century after the bold and courageous endeavours of the suffragettes, why do we still have low percentages of women in prominent public sector positions? Why do women still earn less than men working in the same roles? Has the work started by the suffragettes lost pace, and if so what should we do about it? We need to honour the work of the valiant ladies that went before us by shifting the focus from self-congratulation to actions for improvement. I suspect if Emmeline could see where we are today, she would turn in her grave.

These are the types of questions that I will be asking at an event on 21st October 2015 in Birmingham. This AnswerTime® debate is hosted by ‘InformationDaily.TV’ who will be recording it for a TV programme on Women and Leadership in Public Service. As Chair of the event, I will be inviting the panel, and the august audience, to raise questions and suggest actions to expedite the pace of change. Only a few seats remain but if you would like to join us you can find more information here

“Deeds not words” was the suffragette motto.  More than a century later, we should continue to honour this by committing to actions rather than more  fine words.

Babycham, Yorkie, humus?  Unconscious bias takes many forms and conjures an array of images in our minds.  But how does gender bias affect us and what should we do about it?

On my recent holiday I sat down one evening to a sumptuous meal with a group of men and women friends.  I had been lamenting about how small the food portions were that were offered to women, compared to the huge meals served to the men.  The waitress arrived with my delicious pan-fried red snapper and presented me with a 5 cm squared piece of fish.  The table erupted with laughter as I rested my case!  The waitress politely enquired what we were all laughing at and so I asked her why my piece of fish was so small.  She replied without a second thought that it was because I was a woman and women need less!

Unconscious gender bias (as well as other bias) is endemic within us all.  Usually we don’t intend to cause offense, be hurtful or discriminatory, but gender bias is holding women back in society throughout the world.  It is stifling their ambition, opportunity and confidence.  Women in business, sport, acting, and countless other professions still do not have equal pay for doing the same job as a man.  The New York Times recently reported that even nursing, a female dominated profession, does not escape the gender pay gap.

Despite some improvements over the years, we still stereotype women and men in to roles and professions due to our unconscious biases.  This was recently exemplified by a letter on twitter about a female paediatrician who was locked out of a women’s changing room at a gym because everyone with the title of Dr was automatically registered as male.  On a similar note, whilst working in A&E where we all wore ‘scrubs’ I regularly heard patients ask female doctors “when will the doctor be coming to see me”?  Yet even back in 2009  we knew that the increasing percentage of women doctors meant that it would not be long before most doctors were women.
I must admit that it’s not easy to openly discuss and debate gender and unconscious bias.  I run workshops (for men and women) where we do just that.  We usually begin with a light-hearted conversation about unconscious gender bias relating to the food that men and women are purported to like.  People frequently cite beer, steaks and hot curry for men and humus, yoghurt, chocolate and salad for women!  This can be both fun and informative.  In one such workshop, a rather large northern English man proclaimed (from my description, you can guess that my own unconscious bias is already playing out and yielding some of my presumptions about him) that he quite liked “Babycham” but he was too embarrassed to ask for it!  The room erupted in laughter which sometimes helps cut through difficult conversations.

The best way to deal with unconscious bias is to acknowledge it, talk about it, debate it and make it known.  My personal aim is to raise it to the conscious mind and create the possibility of stimulating further conversations in people’s homes, social gatherings and workplace coffee rooms.  If this happens then my job is done.

We all get it wrong from time to time and so we need to make it more conscious and more comfortable to talk about our hidden biases.  Until then, I and countless other women will have to put up with lentil korma, white wine, humus and tiny slithers of pan-fried red snapper!