The Institute of British Geographers' Conference: Women find femininity is best tactic for City success

A FASCINATING picture of what it takes for a woman to get to the top in the City of London was revealed to the conference.

Dr Linda McDowell, of Cambridge University, is undertaking research into how gender affects the career opportunities and everyday social relations of women in merchant banks. Her paper was based on interviews with staff at 400 banks in the City, and research which indicated that just 3 per cent of women were able to reach the highest positions.

Her survey, with Dr Gillian Court of the Open University, found that just 3 per cent of women were directors or strategic managers, compared with 17 per cent of men.

At the other end of the scale, women took up 70 per cent of the lowly clerical posts, compared with 32 per cent of men.

But it was the face-to-face interviews which were perhaps most revealing. These illuminated the character roles which high-flying women found they had to adopt to succeed.

Often, they had begun their City careers as 'honorary men' but had later decided to use their femininity. Many of the most successful women were not English and attributed their ability to climb the career ladder in part to the fact that they were not like the men's wives. They could play on their femininity to ask naff, wild or cheeky questions, Dr McDowell said.

One woman told how, when she had joined the bank, she had decided to dress like a man and wear a suit, with her hair screwed back. She told the interviewers: 'I was never going to be as successful as a man, so I decided to use my femininity.' She found the softer image began to open more doors. Other successful women spoke of the need to 'seduce' clients in a metaphorical sense, using their feminine charms to help in their relations with customers.

The essential preoccupation in the banks was whether or not individuals fitted the organisational culture, Dr McDowell said. One woman in a very blue-blooded bank commented: 'I don't fit in this bank - I am not interested in beagles; I don't care who wins Wimbledon; when I go to opera it doesn't have to be Glyndebourne because I listen to the music.'

Yet for all the the ribaldry, blue jokes and sexual harassment, Dr McDowell found the men she interviewed were the epitome of helpfulness and charm. Most of the 400 banks had equal opportunities policies and regarded women as good workers, who were highly skilled and people whom they could ill afford to lose.