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This month we have a guest writer for our current thinking article. The author is much younger than our usual contributors and it is very interesting to learn how times of changed since the fight for equality at work really began in the late 1960s/early 1970s.
I came into that arena as a teenager when lack of equality was a real problem. Women were paid less to do the same job. National Insurance payments were the same but the benefits were not. Men both at home and in business expected that women would be doing the menial work.
A new view point is very refreshing and has made me look twice at the situation. Do women expect to be treated differently at work now? And should they?
AW-Editor
A comfy chair and a nail file?
So, I’ve been thinking, what is it that people actually want from a work environment, or indeed a social one?
Have you noticed how there are many social clubs for business men? And indeed business women?
Why not business people? Why is the term ‘Chairman’ no longer acceptable? It’s now just ‘Chair’, whilst the term chairman does indeed seem to refer to a man, it’s a title. A chair is a piece of furniture, not the person who leads a meeting, surely?
I respect the need for equality, ‘Chairwoman’ would work as well as ‘Chairman’ wouldn’t it? So why just ‘Chair’? And this got me thinking about what women need from a social club that men don’t, and what men need that women don’t.
And I honestly don’t know anymore, better facilities? More facilities? In the context of a business person’s social group, the conversation can’t be that dissimilar. You might assume the women would rather stand around gossiping and men would rather talk about football, but in a business situation people don’t gather to catch up! It’s business, it’s networking, it’s serious, it’s getting your face and your name out there and everyone has the same goal, to get the business done!
But the genders aren’t that different, we all have the same basic needs and every single individual has their own creature comforts and they are not all accommodated for! I’m sure you would rather go into work in your slippers some days, I know I would!
And another thing (I will name no names), why is it that on the top floor of a busy office building (the floor where most men in the building work in fact) there are no male toilets? Because they have changed it into a second ladies room!
It’s not even like they did anything other than change the sign on the door except men now have to go downstairs to go to the toilet and spend more time away from their desk which means they will get less work done in a day than a women who goes to the toilet the same number of times!
So the women are doing more work it would seem. You might ask yourself why the office in question have done this, the answer is unknown to me but I would venture that it has a lot to do with the ratio of men to women in the office.
There are admittedly a lot of women in this work place but not so many more than men that it warrants another toilet. Another toilet that has been taken away from the male staff!
 Men and women are very different social creatures after all and in a social environment will feel more comfortable and behave differently from one another.
Which would explain the gender divide in social groups, but what is it that we need that’s so different?
A comfy chair and a nail file?
(The author has asked to remain anonymous - Ed)
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Are we looking at people like Richard Branson or Lord Sugar? They are thought of as current leaders but they are too old to be classed as modern leaders by the young of the day. Can you only be a leader when you’re old and grizzled? 
