Anne Wilson is currently (but not for much longer) Head of Careers at Warwick University. We have a shared passion for Gender Equality and amongst other things, Anne has spent her own career furthering the advancement of women by helping them overcome the barriers to success.

So we have much in common!

Her experience in this area is vast. From the late eighties, when she ran a survey in the local paper aimed at understanding what would encourage women returners (spoiler alert *no different to today!) to the programme she managed at Warwick, to help prepare female undergraduates for the work place.

There are many insights and stacks of wisdom in this conversation but three key takeouts

1. Not much has really changed for women in the last 40 years.

2. The challenges for women, internal and external start way before entering the work place

3. It's no good fixing the system without supporting women to better navigate it and vice versa you have to do both!

And if you ever wondered why gilders were all men, apparently it's because women 'lose the knack' after they've had children!

Pam Conway is a former colleague of mine who has not only succeeded but found a way to thrive in male-dominated corporate environments.

Starting out as a Project Manager she is currently Marketing Director at Biffa and has a background in energy and utilities.

In this episode Pam shares her experience and the strategies behind her success including

• Embracing challenge and disagreement in a constructive, non-fearful way
• How to say no without worrying you're being difficult
• Welcome challenge and debate rather than avoiding conflict
• Believe in yourself and don't apologise for your perspectives.
• Changing the language you use can boost your confidence

A Success Story from a Professional Man....because equality is about inclusivity!

Why aren't there more men like you Jeremy??

Jeremy Stockdale, CEO of Ylead, spent, by his own admission, 50 years thinking he was one of the good guys when it came to gender equality. And then with the help of his daughter, a T-shirt and a few good books on the subject he realised he had got it wrong.

If you haven't heard of Jeremy, try searching LinkedIn for "On Wednesday we Smash the Patriarchy" It's the platform Jeremy created to encourage open conversations around the many challenges and some of the taboos, facing women in the work place.

I haven't edited this podcast. The conversation is so rich, not to mention entertaining, I wanted to leave it all in.

In this episode we discuss

• His motivation for creating the platform, what's worked and what hasn't

• Why he thinks it's so important for men to support women in the workplace

• The reasons some men still aren't getting it

• What makes an effective gender ally

• Being trolled by women

• Sleeping less stupid

An edited transcript from this episode will be included in Success Without Compromise: Empowering the next generation of Female Leaders

Now available for pre-order on Amazon