Women in Business

An interview with Niamh Corbett.

Niamh Corbett is Vice President of the Equity Capital Markets division at Morgan Stanley and a mentor to a number of start-up businesses. She is a steering committee member of the Thirty Percent Club, a campaign group established in 2009 which aims to get 30% women on FTSE 100 boards by 2015. She also sits on the Global Advisory Board of Astia – a not-for-profit organisation committed to building women leaders and helping women-led start-ups across the world.



Do you think women ever will rule?

I think we are in a time where it is very important to have a balance. As some of the data behind the Thirty Percent Club initiative shows, the momentum is there (when the club started in 2009, there were 12.5% of women on boards; the figure now stands at 22.3%), but getting to the point where we have 100% of women in control is almost the flip side of the argument. What we are saying now is that we have too many men in power, a phenomenon which creates group-think and a single-minded train of thought driven by a very masculine approach to leadership.

If you flip that around to a position where you have 100% female leadership, 100% women ruling, you simply find yourself dealing with the same argument. We’re arguing for balance and equality. If you have a greater representation of women, then you have a better balance in the boardroom, which should in turn help to decrease group-thinking and allow for different leadership styles to really come to the fore.

Is it always a good thing to have variety in a leadership body, or is there an argument for having a unified force instead of a fragmented approach?

The data shows that companies which have more women on their boards – more than 25% female representation – outperform companies that don't. For example, there are two surveys, one by Credit Suisse and one by the think tank Catalyst, both of which have categorically found that from the point of view of shareholder returns, companies with more women on their boards outperform companies that don't.

If you look at some of the funds that are being set up in the US right now, they are actually tracking companies which have female leadership or which have a greater representation of women on their boards – it shows that balance is an attractive proposition.

In fact, as a number of social commentators have already pointed out, you could argue that one of the reasons for the financial crisis was because the banking industry was being run by men who were mirror images of each other. The lack of diversity and different ways of thinking combined with the fact that it was a very machismo, risk-taking environment... You could argue that, had there been more women present, perhaps the crisis wouldn't have cut quite as deeply as indeed it did.

When you say that having men and women on a board leads to a broader spectrum of leadership styles and approaches does that mean you think that there are inherent differences between men and women?

Continue reading

Enjoy unlimited access to the world's leading thinkers.

Start by exploring our subscription options or joining our mailing list today.

Start Free Trial

Already a subscriber? Log in

Latest Releases
Join the conversation

lexira meteroib 28 May 2021

A woman needs to know a little more than a man to get a job. I do not know why this happens. I was recently looking for a job. And I noticed that there were more men than women at the interview.
Of course, the first selection of applicants is a selection based on a resume. Poetmow, I prepared myself at once. My resume was put together in ResumeGets. This is a team of certified professional resume writers. These guys know how to draw attention to the applicant and what keywords to use in the resume https://resumegets.com/help-with-resume-wording
I am very grateful to the ResumeGets team. They helped me get what I wanted

varikouz tremitren 27 May 2021

Unfortunately, the problem of gender equality now remains. For men, there are more opportunities in business and in getting a better position. Employers give preference to men

tanow7194 httptuan 8 May 2021

in the modern world, anyone can open their own business or launch their own startup, but here it is important to remember about biggest startup mistakes https://jetruby.com/blog/biggest-startup-mistakes/ . And if you're trying to generally improve your startup's chances of success, try to minimize all of these mistakes as much as possible.

lifeso4029 goqoez 6 May 2021

every entrepreneur tries to find the best way out

ximeno6706 goqoez 6 May 2021

There are several ways of development development, the main thing is to understand what exactly is required for your business. For example, for more effective development of my business, I decided to order software development in Webspace https://webspaceteam.com/ . The team of this company has extensive experience in the development of software solutions. They offer a full cycle of creation, including design, development, testing, deployment, further support and upgrades.

erditreb lazzar 6 May 2021

Gender inequalities in the health workforce remain a serious problem: the number of women making important decisions and in leadership roles is too small. For example, women make up 70% of the health workforce, but only 25% are in leadership positions.
It is more difficult for a woman to get a promotion than for men.

lifeso4029 goqoez 6 May 2021

I recently decided to open an online store and in order to increase efficiency I decided to take part in the ATN affiliate program https://www.atncorp.com/affiliate-program . A person (owner of an Internet resource or partner) participating in the affiliate program receives a small reward for any transaction carried out on his recommendation.