(In photo: Angela Parry, president of the International Women’s Club of Bermuda)
It is not hard to find examples of successful women in business in Bermuda, including high-flyers at the very top.
The recent merger of Argus and BF&M insurance companies saw one female CEO, Abigail Clifford, replace another, Alison Hill.
Several firms in the international business sector have women heading their C-suite: Hiscox Re + ILS and QBE Re Bermuda, to name a couple.
In the public sector, the Bermuda Tourism Authority and the Bermuda Gaming Commission are both run by women.
And yet …
A CLEAR TREND
As far as women have come in the workplace in recent decades, they remain in a minority in Hamilton boardrooms and in senior positions overall, particularly if they are black.
A 2019 survey by the Association of Bermuda International Companies put the IB workforce composition at 30 per cent black women, 26 per cent white women, 24 per cent white men and ten per cent black men.
Yet only three per cent of executives were black women, with 22 per cent white women, 63 per cent white men and ten per cent black men.
Across the wider workforce, women complain of more discrimination and harassment.
The Human Rights Commission’s 2023 annual report revealed that females represented 53 per cent of those complaining of discrimination because of their sex in employment, compared with men at 33 per cent. Those remaining selected ‘other’ or did not state their sex.
Female complainants represented 55 per cent of those alleging harassment within the workplace, while male complainants represented 27 per cent. Those remaining did not share their sex.
GENDER-BASED DISCRIMINATION
Tawana Tannock, managing director of Skuld Bermuda, former HRC chair, and private and public sector board executive, said the statistics were unsurprising.
When she chaired the HRC board, most complaints she saw were about gender-based discrimination.
She said: “What I saw as a common thread through complaints … was actually with regards to women’s issues: women being let go from work when they were pregnant, so their companies – usually smaller companies — did not have to pay maternity leave … or women being passed over for promotion because the promotion time comes up when they are on maternity leave.
“I chaired two cases of women being harassed in the workplace.”
Ms Tannock said her own experiences in the corporate world taught her “there are always things that are going to impact women. When you add the layer of motherhood, that goes further.
“Have I seen it impact me? Yes. Have I made changes that I don’t think a man would have to make? Of course.”
Ms Tannock recalled a job she applied for years ago at an exempt company which involved 11 interviews. A male coach told her he would have walked away after four.
“I felt as a woman that I had to do it,” she said. “It got to the point that I realised that they kept waiting for me to make a mistake.”
She puts her willingness to undergo those interviews down to the fact that “options and opportunities present themselves more readily for males”.
THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY
Angela Parry, president of the International Women’s Club of Bermuda, suggested women can lack the confidence exhibited by men when seeking leadership roles.
“You have to really negotiate, and I think a lot of women don’t believe in themselves,” she said.
“Don’t they say that women will apply for a job if they can tick every single box on the advert and a guy will apply if he ticks maybe not even half of them?”
She added: “I think women will always have to work harder, because they have more guilt associated with their family as well.”
Ms Parry, an accountant, pointed out that it was hard to get a clear picture of equality in business without transparency about salaries.
“In the UK, [companies with 250 or more employees] have to disclose [their] gender pay gap,” she said. “I’m not aware of there being any requirement on employers to do that [here].
“We could have our suspicions, but often people don’t talk about what they earn.”
She felt there “definitely” should be a requirement for companies to share the information.
CREATING A FAIRER FUTURE
Ms Tannock agreed, but said a “change of culture” more widely was needed to ensure a fairer future.
She described discrimination as often “insidious”, noting that in Bermuda there are many male work-permit holders in senior positions in business whose female spouses don’t have the right to work here and so provide full-time support at home.
“If your partner is not working, you get the opportunity to focus and concentrate on work in a way that somebody who doesn’t have a stay-at-home partner doesn’t,” she explained.
“When you think about … why might it be that men in senior positions don’t [always] understand or appreciate or have more flexibility, it might be because it is literally a blind spot.”
Ms Tannock believes women have a “social minefield” to navigate as they progress their careers, because their behaviour is often scrutinised and judged more harshly than that of their male colleagues.
“You could be considered as a colleague on equal footing, but that does not mean that you can act or be like one of the guys because there are different rules,” she said.
“The classic example is Rugby Week. [There is] the culture of drinking and partying and getting untidy.
“It is a joke and it’s funny for [men] and you come to work the next day and it’s fine for them. Those are not the rules for us.”
She added: “As women, we are judged by our worst moments.”
Ms Tannock sees great value in female leaders helping other women find their voice, citing We Speak as an example of an organisation offering opportunities for public speaking and honing leadership skills.
She said recently she has noticed “more opportunities for women, especially younger women, in more senior management career-track roles”.
But she said that didn’t mean it was a level playing field yet. “My experience, when I do speak with younger women, is that they are still just as frustrated ….
“They don’t feel that they might have the same inclusion or opportunities as their male colleagues.”
