Here at Webgains we live to champion all of our clients and take their businesses to leadership positions within their respective industries.

So with International Women’s Day approaching, I thought I would give my own thoughts on how we can also champion women and female business leaders.

The #metoo movement, gender equality, racial equality… My, what a long way we have come, with the Oscars this year going to a number of black actors too.

Growing up in the 90s I recall how incredibly controversial it was then to support a non-white or female regime, positive discrimination efforts from the likes of the BBC were de rigueur too.

I also recall how an unnamed advertising agency deliberately chose a female and diverse team to win what was back then the pretty lucrative account for the Commission for Racial Equality.

This sort of tactic doesn’t get the column inches anymore in this day and age as there seems to be plenty of female and diverse leaders in all industries.

But does this observation of equality only run skin deep? Is it just lip service and PCness that is being carried out here as it is the ‘right thing to do’?

Scratch the surface and you may find there are still individuals and companies out there that prefer the old guard and the old boys club. There are at least a few individuals in many organisations who still steal away male clients and partners for a jaunt to a ‘gentleman’s nightclub’. Or observe the masculine one-upmanship that occurs in a meeting of like-minded souls but that may make a sole female attendee very uncomfortable.

There may be more women in the boardroom but we are not there to be given the ‘hot potatoes’ (our current PM’s predicament being an example of this). It’s not enough to be in the boardroom, we also need more female leaders running companies like modern day Boudicas, with the added impressiveness of juggling husbands, children and pets.

Our work is not done till women are given the same opportunities to accelerate up the ladder as their male counterparts purely on their own merit, despite lack of experience. In days gone by our male counterparts would be given the chance to lead a company despite lacking full experience with this.  Whilst a woman would have to painstakingly prove herself time and time again meticulously jumping through every hoop required. (In fact, if you are female and in a racial minority this last point gets some extra hoops to be added to jump through.)

Let’s work together to stop this inequality here and now – if a woman has to jump through many hoops to get that deserved promotion then so should a man.

We champion women on International Women’s Day, as we champion all our clients at Webgains every single day.