Q&A WITH GILL

Q&A from BOOKS etc with Gill Whitty-Collins

How exciting to have your first book published, we’re so delighted to have it as our book of the month at BOOKS etc. please can you tell us a little bit about your inspiration to write Why Men Win at Work?

Thank you so much for making ‘Why Men Win At Work’ your book of the month! I was inspired to write it by my experience as a Senior Vice President in a multinational company, when I found myself in a male dominant culture for the first time in my career (in my life in fact!) I saw the impact this had on the few women at that level, including me, and on their ability to perform – I was fascinated by it and started to read about and study it. That’s when I realized the extent of it, that it wasn’t about me, or my company, it was impacting women everywhere – every organization, every country. Women are 50% of the world’s population, intelligence and capability and yet over 90% of leadership positions are men. I wanted to lay out why this happens and, based on this, what we can do to change things and make inequality history.

Do you think that all men win at work ?

Of course all men don’t win at work, there are many men who recognize and associate with the experiences of women that I share in the book and also don’t feel comfortable and confident to perform in a male dominant culture. And what’s interesting is that the men who do, on the surface, appear to be winning at work are not really winning either. Businesses and organizations are stronger and perform better when they have gender equality at all levels. Gender equality also drives stronger relationships, families, societies. So we are all losing in a world where we don’t have equality, including men.

What is your main advice to women in the workplace?

My number one piece of advice is to be aware. I hope one day we will live in an equal world, but we are a long way from it so you need to be aware of the issues and barriers you are going to face (many of which will be invisible, sub-conscious and unintended) so that you are prepared and can manage them well. You need to be aware of and understand ‘the invisible power of culture’, ‘the competence vs confidence equation’ and ‘the umbrella theory’ and ensure you are maximizing your potential in these contexts.

Who is your target audience? Who do you think should read your book?

I believe ‘Why Men Win At Work’ is a book that should be read by everyone who works, whatever their gender. It is written for men as much as for women, because men have as much to gain from equality as women do. And we need men to sign up as ‘feMANists’ – we won’t make progress without men on the team.

The last year has been difficult for everyone with the Covid-19 pandemic, do you think the pandemic has suppressed the progression of gender equality?

The pandemic has been a disaster for women. It has brought to the surface inequality issues that were always there – and further worsened them. Women have always generally carried most of the burden of unpaid work for the family, even if they also have a paid job – and there has been even more of it because of working from home and home schooling. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day for women to do all this AND their work AND the necessary networking and self-marketing to make their work and themselves visible. As a result, women are losing jobs, missing out on promotions and pay rises – and many are considering giving up on their careers because they can’t manage it all. We were stuck on gender equality before Covid, now we are seriously in reverse. My hope is that this crisis is making visible issues that have long needed fixing and will force us to fix them. A world or business where women are held back from working and performing is not one anyone will win in.

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