Last week I was at a small private briefing with the Prime Minister and Lord Mandelson, amongst others, who were about to hold an urgent meeting with the CEO’s of Banks. I was happy to learn that the Government not only feels that the IMF is no longer fit for purpose but that stronger and more rigorous checks on behaviour and ethics would be needed in the future to prevent excessive risk taking. I was reminded of what I said last month: ‘'if we had more diversity would we have taken so much risk?' I put to you that the answer is ‘no’. Women generally ask lots of questions to mitigate risk. This gendered cultural (female) norm has been seen as weakness in some corporate cultures and when women have to ‘button up’ to conform they simply leave. Look at organisations who have few women in senior positions and you will know that outdated modes of behaviour still exist and it is time for change! The question is no longer ‘should we change?’ but ‘how do we change?’

It has been interesting form our point of view to see how different companies, Banks in particular, have responded to diversity recently. Some have categorically stated that Culture Change programmes are a luxury and non-essential spend. Others, like Lloyds TSB are still fully committed to creating a more equitable workforce where women and other minority groups can thrive. This attitude has prevailed, as far as I know, for at least the past decade and the results speak for themselves. Can I also make a spurious link that Lloyds TSB have come out of the current crisis in a stronger position than almost all of the Banks? Can it be a coincidence that a more open and people oriented culture gets better results than others?

In the past seven years I have been in the fortunate and privileged position to have had the opportunity to listen to the views of thousands of women in leadership positions within corporations worldwide. Hearing common concerns prompted eve-olution to run its now legendary surveys 'Women Leaders Speak Out' in 2003 and 2005 and, as we anticipated, the research confirmed that women still felt held back by draconian attitudes and corporate cultures. The strongest reason for their non-advancement, they believed, was unconscious stereotypes.

I do believe that we all stereotype and I strongly agree that stereotypes of all kinds hold us back i.e. societal beliefs about women's capabilities and our own adoption of that belief system. However, I want to propose that there has never been a better time for us to step up and take leadership positions. In fact, it is imperative that we do. I believe that the only way to avoid further world catastrophes of the kind we have been seeing is for women to join the party. Whatever that party is for you - your own business maybe, corporate boardroom tables, politics, or the arts. Women need to be involved so that the testosterone is balanced and reason, rather than domination, has a better chance.

And what is the reason for my conviction that there has never been a better time? The world has just had a massive paradigm shift. The old order is dying out and there is a lot of uncertainty. Uncertainty creates opportunity! The irony is that eve-olution has always pushed for culture change, and has sometimes felt like a campaigning organisation, but I was always told that the system worked so why change it?

It seems to me now that the only question left to answer is 'how do we change?'

With Passion
Tracey