Last week I attended a congress for women by women. Not only Dutch Queen Maxima spoke, also Neelie Kroes, Uberhead at Uber and previously President of Europe and several women entrepreneurs. And the message from all these ladies were the same. Women still have less career chances, earn less compared to men and women need to help each other.
And the so called glass ceiling is still firmly in place – rightly so corrected by saying, there is no glass ceiling, there is a thick layer of men who prevent women to get to the top.
Interesting question is, do we, women, want to break through that ceiling? Why should we want that? If you look at developing countries, you see in small businesses women are the best entrepreneurs. Why is big always better, why not look at work, entrepreneurship and earning money in a different way?
Everyone looks from the point of view – this is the way we have always done it, and how we do it. But maybe we should not look at the status quo as it is but create a new way of working and start building it from scratch. Just like all these new start-ups do by challenging these oldish white men in their big boardrooms and making them nowadays pretty nervous.
I am convinced that women look differently at work, careers and making money. Women look more at the tribe as a whole than the individual. The feminine skills are more in the lead, which means that vision and goals can be different. And there is nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, I believe that’s what the world needs more of.
So let’s become more entrepreneurial, but with our own set of rules, not looking at the definition made years ago by men in suits but by following our heart and instinct. And if we all help each other we will grow a new revolution which will run next to the male dominated companies. And in time these male dominated companies want to start working together, just like they want to work with the lean and mean start-ups.
And if you work at a company where the meeting room is dominated by oldish white men in grey suits, you might want to consider creating an environment where women can work and grow. I truly believe in women and men working together, both have their strengths and weaknesses.
Diversity is the cornerstone of creativity, and that’s something companies nowadays need more than ever. Let’s put it on the agenda.