How Women Mean Business

WORDS: ELEANOR FITZSIMONS

In the recently published, How Women Mean Business (a follow-up to Why Women Mean Business, co-authored with Alison Maitland in 2009), Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of gender consultancy, 20-First, clearly and comprehensively documents how corporations can best implement strategies to achieve gender balance and attract the best and brightest members of both halves of the talent pool.

I asked the book’s charming and persuasive author how quickly she believes we can hope to affect such seemingly radical change in the workplace. Is it really possible to reverse centuries of discrimination in an acceptable timeframe? Avivah is adamant that such change can and must happen and that enlightened companies are moving away from the old ineffective mindset and adopting radical and viable new strategies.

Perhaps surprisingly she finds the world of Information Technology to be one of the more progressive disciplines. As is the case with many talented young graduates, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox entered the corporate world unprepared for the prevailing lack of gender balance. Despite being one of only two females in a class of two hundred-and-fifty graduating with a degree in maths from the University of Toronto she, “thought those notions of discrimination were gone”. As a computer programmer with L’Oreal she found that her ability was demonstrable, quantifiable and justly rewarded. This early experience helped bolster a conviction that it made perfect business sense to tap into the totality of the talent pool.

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox appeared in the Summer 2010 issue of WMB.