U.K. retail expert expounds benefits of women-only environment
Women will have a greater chance for success in business if they don't work with men, according to a British retail expert.
Without men, workplaces are more fun and women aren't intimidated by their superiors, Jacqueline Gold, chief executive of British adult retailer Ann Summers, told delegates at the Public Sector People Managers' Association conference.
In her time at Ann Summers, Gold has increased profits from $196,905 in 1987 to $351 million in 2007. She credits that increase with employing a predominately female workforce in its 141 retail stores and all of the 7,500 party planners are women.
Apart from a couple of exceptions, men are only employed at the company's head office. And even there the ratio is 60-40 women-men. But Gold justified this tactic by explaining that banishing men from most aspects of the organisation had created an environment in which women could thrive.
"Women [at other companies] will often say that they've had a fantastic idea, but they feel intimidated," she said. "The fact that we've got a female chief executive and a female managing director means we don't have that problem."
Without men, workplaces are more fun and women aren't intimidated by their superiors, Jacqueline Gold, chief executive of British adult retailer Ann Summers, told delegates at the Public Sector People Managers' Association conference.
In her time at Ann Summers, Gold has increased profits from $196,905 in 1987 to $351 million in 2007. She credits that increase with employing a predominately female workforce in its 141 retail stores and all of the 7,500 party planners are women.
Apart from a couple of exceptions, men are only employed at the company's head office. And even there the ratio is 60-40 women-men. But Gold justified this tactic by explaining that banishing men from most aspects of the organisation had created an environment in which women could thrive.
"Women [at other companies] will often say that they've had a fantastic idea, but they feel intimidated," she said. "The fact that we've got a female chief executive and a female managing director means we don't have that problem."
