Cherie Blair speaks up for women in business at Harvey Nash Event

It's just after 8:30 and I am in the grand surrounds of the Plaisterers' Hall, City of London for the annual Harvey Nash Business Breakfast. The hall is packed with five hundred or more business leaders ranging from FTSE 250 through to smaller companies. The buzz in the hall quietens as Paul Smith, Harvey Nash, takes to the stand to introduce the event.

The keynote speakers will be speaking to us today about Diversity and Women in Business in the Emerging Economies.

Paul reminded us that over 50% of the worlds population are women, so its stating the obvious how important they are to any economy, and how vital it is that we build an environment that encourages female entrepreneurship and help destroy the glass ceiling that many many women encounter. He pointed out that within Harvey Nash offshore, which is based in Vietnam, 60% of both the workforce and senior management are female. Why? Simply because they are the best people for the job.

So Paul has set the agenda and he hands over to the first speaker, Susan Haird (Deputy CEO of UK Trade & Investment).

Susan gave us a very intensive workout over facts and figures regarding the UK's economy and its place in the business world. Her message was very upbeat although the word 'challenges' did crop up one or twice. She said that when the UKTI are out and about through Britain, unlike the very negative picture that is being painted by the media, they are simply not hearing too much doom and gloom. Challenges for business yes....but doom and gloom no.

One of the statistics that stuck out for me was when Susan said that for every £1 the UKTI spent generates £15 for the UK economy and she made a very strong plea to the audience to use the UKTI whenever they wanted to do business overseas. She rounded off a really thought provoking 15 minutes by telling us all that we should be confident but not complacent about the future. Powerful and to the point.

Next up is the CEO of Harvey Nash, Albert Ellis. He thanked Susan for reminding us how positive 'brand' UK actually is and even reminded us that a good example of this was in one of the big stories in the world today. Where is Nelson Mandela choosing to have his 90th birthday celebrations? Well London of course.

As Cherie was going to be speaking about diversity and women in emerging economies Albert threw out a couple of thoughts to the audience. Firstly in the Nordics, where Harvey Nash has a prominent presence, there are legal requirements about the percentage of women that are needed on companies boards. Might that come over here to the UK? Also that the idea that politics and business are divorced is a nonsense. We have to understand the issues and challenges of diversity and human rights in these new markets in which we operate.

As ever, good points by Albert (and no that's not a career enhancing statement.....honest....)

Cherie Blair raised a smile by saying she was very glad to be speaking about something else other than her recent autobiography. Her rise from being a working class girl from Liverpool to a high court judge is well known to most in the UK and gives her real credibility in talking about diversity and how we can remove the barriers women encounter in the workplace. Although she happily admits the UK has made progress she can still point to the fact that women on average earn 17% less for doing the same job as men. A pretty shocking statistic I'm sure you'll agree.

If that didn't do the trick then how about the fact that only 1 in 10 directors in FTSE 100 companies are women.

Let's go even further..... More women are leaving universities with better qualifications than men but within 3 years are earning less. Cherie is really putting her point over. I know that we can be sceptical about statistics but whatever way you look at it here these stats bring the argument home very powerfully.

She also points out the culture whereby many women look at the choices and sacrifices they may have to make in order to forge a career and then opt out, with all the loss this incurs to the UK economy. Can we really, in the increasingly competitive global business world we operate in, afford to lose these people?

She then went over a range of issues including

• women's role in influencing the economy (think about who makes most of the spending decisions within the home)
• the need for companies to tackle work/life issues (which, in fairness, is not just an issue for women)
• the problem that some companies are still operating, however unintentionally, on the old model of men working and women being at home
• the difficulty women can have returning to work after pregnancy
• cultures within companies being very 'macho'
• the problem many women have with getting to fully take part in the informal networking and mentoring that goes on within companies

The last point was very interesting as it raised the very human problem of it being fine for a male colleague to ask another colleague if they fancied a drink or a coffee to chew over a shared problem but the issues that may surround a female colleague asking the same question to a male colleague.

Although Cherie's points had been mainly focussed on the UK, she then went on to talk about what she'd come across while visiting potentially more hostile working environments for women abroad.

She gave us some examples from visiting places like Poland, Romania, Tanzania and Uganda.

In Romania for example she wondered why she met so many female engineers. Basically the reason is that with Romania previously being Communist the actual important jobs there were in politics and in the party.....therefore very few women in positions of importance in either politics or party but lots in other 'less important' jobs like engineering. Also her experience in Tanzania & Uganda where women found it almost impossible to get bank loans. This was because loans were almost always given based on collateral.....in those instances land......of which due to the culture there was mostly passed down to males - therefore no bank loans which meant very few woman entrepreneurs.

Cherie rounded off by telling the audience that we all need to get involved in resolving these issues. The Economy and indeed Society will be a hugely better place to be if we can harness the qualities of both men and women.......and you can't argue with that.

With that she finished a passionate, clear and very human speech.

Then followed a lively Q&A between the audience and the panel. It was way too quick for this bloggers typing skills but why not make sure you get an invite to the next Harvey Nash business breakfast. You won't be disappointed.