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