AURORA ANNOUNCES FEMALE FTSE TO WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Britain November 11 2003--Aurora Gender Capital Management, the international women's network and *gender capital campaigner will today announce the Female FTSE results to its 15,000 strong membership. But as the number of women on top British boards rises, Aurora's members argue that real commercial change is a long way off.

At an event to announce the Female FTSE on Tuesday morning at Bloomberg, a panel of senior industry leaders including The Hon. Barbara Thomas, Non-Executive Director, Capital Radio, Ed Smith, Senior Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Glenda Stone CEO of Aurora, will maintain that Britain must realise the benefits of more diverse boardrooms.

Britain must realise the benefits of more diverse boardrooms Whilst, the Female FTSE results show that international business experience is required more of females than their male counterparts, for many women, Britain is the most difficult environment in which to be successful.

As a Member of the UK Government's Accounting for People Taskforce, Ed Smith asserts that Britain's competitiveness is assisted by more diverse boardroom decision-making and that companies must challenge instinctive behaviours and deeply ingrained cultures.

Also present at the event will be Jan Ward, Founder and Managing Director of Corrotherm International, a £30 million metals manufacturer and exporter to the Middle East. Jan has experienced working in both Europe and the Middle East and has experienced more prejudice in the UK than anywhere else.

She says: "Being a woman has been advantageous to doing business internationally. Whilst we perceive the Middle East as being a challenging environment for women, I have encountered more prejudice and resistance in the UK. There must be some serious attitude changes at senior level in our organisations to realise the economic and commercial benefits of effective gender management."


Executive vs. Non Executive
The panellists at Tuesday's Female FTSE seminar also maintain that there are too few women in executive positions on the board.

The Hon. Barbara Thomas who is also Deputy Chairman of Friends' Provident Life Office and Chairman of Private Equity Investor plc comments: "It is gratifying to see that women are making progress in non executive director positions. Real change, however, must come at the executive level where businesses are really being run, rather than merely at the non-executive level where the business is mentored and monitored."

Gender Capital is an economic asset

"Ineffective gender management costs money," says Glenda Stone CEO, Aurora Gender Capital Management.

"Whilst the percentage of women on the board is one indicator of effective gender management, focusing on the board in isolation will create an incomplete picture of how the company develops the rest of its female workforce."

With its network of 15,000 businesswomen, Aurora understands what makes a fair and inclusive workplace and as a result, has developed 20 indicators of gender capital to measure a company's performance. Get these right and businesses will soon see a marked improvement in their gender management and therefore, a more productive business.

Stone continues: "We're seeing a strong trend of `polarisation' emerging. Women are clearly saying `don't work there' or `this company is much better than that one'. Polarisation is occurring because women are being both attracted to, and repelled from, certain organisations. And it is not necessarily the number of women at the top that is the deciding factor."

*Gender capital is the new competitive asset. Gender capital is a company's ability to attract, retain and advance female talent. Companies can measure and benchmark this tangible asset to understand their real competitiveness in the marketplace. A company's gender capital depends on much more than the number of women at the top.

ENDS


About Aurora Gender Capital Management
Aurora Gender Capital Management (www.auroravoice.com) is an independent organisation that develops and measures gender capital as a tangible asset within companies, enabling businesses to attract, retain and promote talented women, increasing productivity and economic performance. Using its network of 15,000 business women, Aurora is able to understand what makes a fair and inclusive workplace and as a result, has developed a tool for businesses to collect, measure, analyse and report a company's performance in developing their female workforce. This analysis tool, also known as 'where women want to work'
(www.www2wk.com) is being used by FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies such as, GE, Microsoft, IBM, HSBC, Citigroup, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Accenture, Shell, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, UBS, BT, British American Tobacco and many more to benchmark their performance in attracting, retaining and advancing women employees. Aurora fundamentally believes that business economically benefits from diverse and inclusive work cultures and that men and women contribute diverse and complementary talent and that this is critical to a company's economic success. That is why Aurora is championing the Female FTSE.

About the Aurora Women's Network
Working for the economic advancement of women, Aurora represents the voice of over 15,000 corporate and entrepreneurial women. The name `Aurora' means `Roman Goddess of the Dawn'. So the network is the first to catch an emerging glimpse of new trends and issues in the gender arena. Aurora knows what women want, what they say, and what their work life preferences are. The Aurora Women's Network was initiated as the Busygirl Network in March 2000.


For more information
Rebecca Oatley
Cherish PR
Tel: 0797 065 5913
Email: Rebecca.Oatley@cherishpr.com

Katie Sheppard
Cherish PR
Tel: 0780 311 8956
Email: Katie.Sheppard@cherishpr.com

Cass Stainton
Cherish PR
Tel: 0779 855 4520
Email: cass.stainton@cherishpr.com




This article courtesy of http://femalebodybuildersinfo.com.
You may freely reprint this article on your website or in
your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author
name and URL remain intact. Links must remain active.

Submit Your Article