NOT EVERYONE CAN BE LIKE GILLIAN BOWLER

The founder of Budget Travel & chairwoman of Irish Life & Permanent —
the first woman to achieve that position on an Irish plc

WORDS: DEARBHAIL McDONALD — Dearbhail is Legal Editor of the Irish Independent

BY 2012, women will make up the majority of business, legal and professional jobs in Ireland. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) prediction is heartening, save for the caveat that of that majority, most will still earn up to 25% less than their male counterparts do. Even where they do adopt managerial roles, it does not necessarily mean that women will smash through glass ceilings in the boardroom.

Even less will reap the rewards of smashing not one, but a whole superstructure of glass ceilings, and only a minute proportion of Ireland’s female workforce will go to sleep at night with the comfort of millions in the bank. In other words, not everyone can be like Gillian Bowler. The founder of Budget Travel and Chairwoman of Irish Life and Permanent — the first woman to achieve that position on an Irish plc — is remarkably candid about the great “can women have it all?” debate that fills acres of newsprint and weaves tapestries of angst by guilty working mums on internet chat boards.

“Look at what is involved in getting to the top,” says Bowler, the Chairwoman of Fáilte Ireland who was executing stg£10m contracts at the age of 17. “You are talking about very long hours. If you really want to succeed and certainly, if you run your own business, you are talking about 60 and 70 hour weeks. You are working all the time if you run your own business. “The major decision women make is when to have children, which is a really important job. But it does take a big chunk out of your professional life and when women return to work it is not at the same level”.

Bowler, who supports job sharing and stay-at-home fathers — the breadwinner does not necessarily have to be the man — knows all about sacrifices required by those who make it to the top. However, she says that the absence of women in the upper echelons of business may be because women have more choices than men do. “Men have choices too,” says Bowler, who has known women to turn down €250,000 a year jobs and survive on one income in order to spend time with their families.

“Women’s brains work in different ways. We accept that it is not all about status and leadership; we have a more holistic approach and reckon having a little bit of everything is best. “Organisations don’t promote women because they are women. Talented women make it to the top, but I think a lot of women probably choose not to”.

Gillian Bowler chose to make it. Had fate not intervened when she was a teenager, the Isle of Wight native may have followed into her grandfather’s footsteps as a portrait painter. Alternatively, Bowler wanted to pursue a career in politics and had her heart set on studying philosophy, politics and economics (PPE) at the London School of Economics. But a life-threatening kidney disorder thwarted Bowler’s formal education as she left secondary school at 14 rather than face the “complete humiliation” of dropping back a year to catch up following her illness.

Read more about Gillian Bowlerin the April | May 2008 issue of WMB, on newsstands now.