Beyond Finance: The CFO’s Role in Leadership, Ethics, and Governance with Kate Cooper, CFO at the Institute of Directors

Mm-hmm.

And moving on to something that I know is close to your heart, women in senior finance positions.

Um, there's been, there's been movement, hasn't there, and obviously we're, we're working on Her Finance Circle to try and promote it even further.

Um, what do you think, though, what barriers do still exist?

I think there's a few things.

So, um, you know, COVID made great strides forward in terms of access and flexibility, and I think, you know, the reality is in society, um, women do typically still bear the brunt of kind of, um, parental responsibilities.

And as leaders, you know, we are, it's our duty to ensure that we remove those barriers.

So things like flexible working.

When I say flexible working, I don't mean working less or working part-time.

I mean kind of allowing people to work when and where works best for them.

You know, it's not about being in the office till 7:00 PM, 8:00 PM and, and going home.

You know, creating an environment and a culture where it's okay and acceptable to walk out the door at 5:00.

And also equally acceptable to log on at 9:00 once your kids are in bed to finish off what you want to do.

You know, all of that.

There's a lot of taboo in, um, you know- You know, I think that's created a lot of guilt for particularly, um, you know, mothers, uh, and parents, you know, of, of either gender around just taking that flexibility.

Um, and I think equally it's down to, to women to, um, lead the charge of that and lead with confidence.

You know, we are ...

So often I hear women and, and in my teams as well, you know, apologizing for, you know, taking their kid to the doctor's or, or going to the, um, Christmas play or, you know, "Oh, I'm sorry, I've got to do this, and I'll, I'll make up the time here." And, you know, guys don't do that in my experience.

Mm.

They just say, "I'm doing this, and that's all I'm doing.

And, you know, I'm, I'm gonna get this done then." They just don't have the same, um, guilt around it, and I think, you know, we really just need to let go of that as well.

How do, how do businesses help that to happen though? 'Cause you m- y- that, that word confidence I think is key, isn't it? And we've talked about that a lot in male fin- finance leader or leaders generally, and, and female leaders generally.

That that is a confidence thing.

Guys tend to, oh, you know, "I'm, I can do this," and, and that's how we're brought up.

Um, women sometimes, you know, it's very look after the children and things like that.