Women’s progression to the boardroom
Even though the sun was blazing there was no temptation to miss being part of this debate at Coutts last night. After networking, champagne and canapés in Coutts’ delightful Garden Court in the Strand, an impressive panel of women prepared to give their views on what...98 years? You have to be joking!
So, if we leave everything to chance our great grand daughters, or is it great, great, will be the ones who finally have equality of pay with men. Well, I bet those young women of 2109 will thank you for allowing that legacy of unfairness to continue as long as...
Dita Von Teese (1972 -)
The innate struggle of so many women is to be recognized for their assets and not their ‘Assets’. Yet here I am, someone who has always railed against the male inability to see past breasts, admitting that I am truly, madly in love with Dita Von Teese. Yes, she uses...Ann Daniels
I was delighted to meet Ann Daniels recently. She looked fantastic in purple dress and matching high heels, in contrast to her normal working outfits on the ice. We were both shocked to discover hours had passed while we were talking. My only concern about telling her...
Teresa Graham CBE
It is with great delight that we present to you our next inspirational Wonderful Woman – Teresa Graham CBE, who will take up the position of Chair of the Women of the Year organisation in January 2011. Teresa is also possibly the best networker we have ever...
Cleopatra VII Philopator (69BC – 30BC)
Cleopatra, immortalized by Shakespeare, a lover of great men, an iconic ruler in her own right. She was the last person to rule Egypt as a Pharaoh, originally in unison with her father and then her brothers, until she eventually cemented her personal rule through her...
Claire Smith
Non Exec Director for Mott MacDonald, a firm she considers to be ‘ethical, decent, highly professional, quietly improving lives worldwide through transforming infrastructure and services. Claire retired early from the Diplomatic Service in 2007, having joined in 1979,...
Orlando – A Biography (Woolf)
If there’s anyone you can rely on to have created a character worth noting, it’s Virginia Woolf, and in Orlando we are not disappointed. This character transcends gender, genre and time, and goes through life experiencing it to the full, in a way the rest of us can...
Ma Joad – The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
Ma Joad is an unlikely candidate to be lauded as an inspiring woman. In as much as Steinbeck can be said to write heroes and heroines into his dark, gritty works, she is not one of them, and in fact could probably be seen as a secondary character, unimportant other...Camila Batmanghelidjh (1963 – )
Camila Batmanghelidjh was born in Tehran, Iran. There she lived what she has described as an “unbelievably sheltered” life, protected by the social standing of her wealthy Iranian father and Belgian mother, until the age of 11, when she moved to England, where she...