Are women overpowered by men in their careers?
This week Nikkita and Ebony (Young Advisors) have done some interviews with some leading female executives. So far we have only had one female Young Mayor (Siobhan Bell, 2006-07) despite the fact that most of the Young Advisors are young women.
“We interviewed some women to see what they think about our statements.”
Nikkita
“I thought it was good”
Ebony
Interview 1
What do you do and how do you do it?
I work for the government office for London but I am actually seconded from a charity called Ground Work and seconded means that you have a normal job and they pay your salary but the government officers have borrowed me for a period of time.
My job is to make sure that schools and local authorities like Lewisham for example deliver services and I do that for one year but my job at government for London is that I am a environmental educator.
Do you think that being a woman has effected you in your career?
I don’t know, I feel that the area of work I am in there is a fair amount of women All of my jobs tend to be very woman dominated. The jobs that I do are very much about working with people and making sure that good relationships are made and I think that that is something which perhaps women are better at.
I think that being a women hasn’t had an impact, I also don’t feel that my progression upwards is hindered by the fact that I am female.
Do you think that there could be any reason why there has only been one female young mayor?
Maybe it could be that our role models are in positions of power for example prime ministers for the past years have been male dominated. You have had all male cabinet members apart from one woman and you’ve had lots and lots of female role models in positions of high authority which might be something which has been influential.
I also wonder how many women run. Maybe they didn’t want to run or didn’t think they would get in.
Maybe it’s up to us to change that and get the women in.
And my last question is what do you know about young participation projects in London?
Well, I know quite a lot. I know the LDA and I know about the British Youth Council. I think that these provide quite a lot of opportunities to participate. I do worry that these might not be maintained for very long but I think that there is certainly quite a lot from what I understand. I have delivered quite a lot and I know what it’s like to be on the other end and its something which I have had a lot of experience with. There have been some really interesting programmes which give young people a real opportunity to prove themselves in the work place.
Interview 2
What do you do?
At the moment I am a external consultant but I have managed the Young Mayor’s scheme in Tower Hamlets for two years.
How do you do it?
Pretty similar to everyone else and they have probably said the same. The Young Mayor’s scheme in Tower Hamlets ,they have elections throughout the borough and the last one we had 49.9% turn out.
Young people vote for who they want to be Young Mayor.
Do you enjoy it?
I love it , I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t. You have to. It’s part of the job.
What do you think works well?
Keeping it real, so making sure that the young people come from all sections of the community because they’ve been there and they know what its like. That’s the bit that works best.
What do you think doesn’t work well?
The money. There’s not enough of it and there is a lot of paperwork. Most of my time I spent filling out applications in the office or updating databases.
Interview 3
What do you do and how do you do it?
I work in the Home Office and I also work to protect violence against women and girls like domestic violence. I also have a responsibility for hate crime used against somebody on the grounds of their race, gender or sexuality and also police equality like thinking about how we work with the Metropolitan Police.
Do you enjoy what you do?
Yeah , the things I like about is that its quite intellectually simulating. You tend to move every two years so you get to work on lots of different projects and you have to learn new things and think about what is the best way to get a better understanding.
Also you feel like you’re giving something back and making people feel safer where they live.
Do you think that being a woman has effected you in your career?
I don’t feel that I have been held back because I am a woman and I think the Civil Service people are treated quite equally, so I don’t feel that I have been at a disadvantage.
Do you think that there could be any reason why their has only been one female Young Mayor ?
I don’t know really. Well when I was younger it wouldn’t be the kind of thing that I would put myself up for and I think it probably comes down to confidence and the thoughts that ‘will people take you seriously?’ and ‘can I be a good leader?’ so maybe it comes down to confidence in the first place and maybe females aren’t willing to take that step and put themselves forward. It’s quite interesting and I am not quite sure why that is.
Interview 4
Do you think that there is any reason why there has only been one female Young Mayor?
Well there could be so many different reasons, for example, recruitment wise. The girls might not run as much as boys do.
Maybe it’s the title ‘Young Mayor’. It sounds like it’s a male job and a male thing to do, More boys could apply then girls.
As a woman in your job have you ever felt empowered or held back?
I think when I joined I didn’t feel empowered then but I think as I have grown older in the job I would say now that I feel more empowered than I have in a long time.
What do you think doesn’t work well within your job?
Well due to the change of government we aren’t sure what is going to happen to us.
But I think that there is a lack of communication which doesn’t work well.
If you were queen for a day what would you change?
There’s not one such thing, I would probably give everyone an extra bank holiday and I’d love to get Labour back in.
So what is it that you know about young peoples participation projects in Lewisham?
I’m so out of the loop now but before there was a project for young people that went all around London and it funded boroughs for young people to take part in activities during the holidays. This is the only project I’m aware about. I don’t know if it still exists though.
Interview 5
What do you do?
I work for the Government Office for London. We represent the government throughout the region. Our job as a whole is to report and challenge local authorities.
Do you enjoy your job?
I do, I really like it.
What do you think works well?
Well there is a lot of really interesting programmes going on across London and they are national programmes so it works well.
Each region gets money which then goes to each borough and what it aims to is make schools healthier. For example they put water dispensers in schools, healthier food in the canteen, they make sure that the children do lots of exercise and when healthy schools achieve a number of things which make them healthy schools they get a certificate to say that they are healthy so it is quite a good programme. 85% of the schools in London are healthy schools now.
We also do stuff around sexual health and we also have a really cool programme called
What do you think doesn’t work well?
Sometimes it’s difficult to know what’s going on when your from the Government Office and when we visit places they will try and make things look okay but really they aren’t okay at all. So sometimes that can be tricky and there is quite a few challenges around healthy weight and obesity and also teenage pregnancy .
Do you think being a woman has effected your career?
I don’t know really. I never really think about it. I just do what I want to do and I’m not particularly bothered.
Sometimes in meetings especially if you like to wear makeup and dress differently or wear funky earrings I think that you get looked at differently by the older people and they might not take you seriously although you have good ideas and can really contribute to the meeting.
Interview 6
What do you do?
I work with directors, children and services which helps child poverty and vulnerable young people and it is very widely in tune.
What do you think works well within your job?
The process of improving lives of young people.
What do you think doesn’t work well?
What is frustrating is that gathering information takes a long time and the whole process is so big.
Do you think that being a woman has effected you in your career?
I think that it has effected me a little bit because I think that the job I do is quite male dominated but then other jobs are female dominated for example social workers are mostly female. Although you do feel that there is a glass ceiling.
What would you change if you were queen for a day?
I don’t know I’m not very good at doing that , I’m a bit unimaginative
In young mayors there has only been one female, do you think that there is a reason for that?
I think that girls might not have the confidence and wouldn’t want to put themselves forward.
Whereas I think that males generally think ‘of course I can do it’ and they are less cautious.
Nikkita and Ebony also interviewed a few people from behind the scenes of the Young Mayor project.
Interview 7
What do you do?
I work in The Campaign Company. We’ve been involved in the last few years in working with Lewisham and help set up the Young Mayor programme and the Young Mayor Network which is bringing together all the Young Mayors in London and across the country. I work to co-ordinate that network.
How do you do it?
Well working with you and by doing things like the day to day running of meetings
And when we get asked to go and speak at things they have to be Young Mayor linked discussions for example maybe the Young Mayor needed to go and present something to the Mayor of London and basically do the day to day stuff.
Do you enjoy it?
Yeah, I think so, Personally I really like working with young people because I find them a lot easier to get along with. There are a lot of adults who just generally seem to just talk talk talk and with young people I tend to find that they are upfront. If they’ve got a problem they will let you know about it and will tell you to your face, that’s what I love about this job!
What do you think works well ?
In terms of Young Mayors? I think that Young Mayors work well because of the way it’s worked over the years. You’ve got the Young Mayor, Young Advisors, Young Citizens Panel and there are a lot of people involved in that.
And people from all boroughs are coming together and making a difference. That’s what is great about it.
What do you think doesn’t work well?
I think it would be great to see more Young Mayors!
Interview 8
What do You Do?
I work for a company called The Campaign Company, we work with Malcolm and Katy in Lewisham to help run the Young Mayors Election. We also help with training for the Young Mayor candidates. We help them with things like public speaking, how to write a manifesto and help them to make their videos that go up on the website. I also go around schools trying to raise awareness get people voting in the elections. The second thing we do with Malcolm and Katy is the Young Mayor Network where all the Young Mayors and their Advisors can get together and discuss any issues they may have and combine any common causes for example gun and knife crime is one of Jacob’s key points - same as the Young Mayors of Newham, Tower Hamlets and Lambeth. Using this we could arrange a meeting with the head of the Metropolitan Police in London.
How do you do it?
The actual Young Mayor Network is quite difficult because all the Young Mayors work in slightly different ways. It can be quite difficult because they each have different things they want to achieve, One of the things Jacob wants to do is change the media perception of Young People, which is different from the other Young Mayors, so we have to work with them all individually which involves a lot of meetings and talking.
Do you enjoy what you do?
I do, it’s quite a good job. I love working with the Young Mayors. As you can already tell Jacob gets quite passionate and excited when he talks about things he wants to do. I do enjoy it, I think I would enjoy it even more if people took a genuine interest in the opinions of young people and didn’t think that they had nothing constructive to say.
What works well?
I think the whole Young Mayor project works well, but you guys are in a much better position than me to tell me that. I think the election process works well in the same way people get excited with X-Factor because they’re voting for a winner, the one personality you think will do the best job. Also the budget works well, Jacob has £30,000 which will help him make some constructive changes in Lewisham.
What do you think doesn’t work well
I think it’s the point that a lot of people don’t really think young people have anything constructive to say and it seems to be very trendy to show that you listen to young people especially in councils and in government trying to listen to the ‘next generation’ but I think a lot of them don’t really think any of them have anything useful to say.