What it takes to be a top woman

Despite decades of fighting for the same rights as men, women are still losing out on the top jobs.

According to the Equal Oppor-tunities Commission (EOC), there are nearly 6,000 women "missing" from more than 33,000 top jobs in Britain. Women represent just ten per cent of directors at FTSE 100 companies and unless something is done, it could take 60 years to secure an equal split of company directors.

So what does it take to reach the top?

Gina Citroni, 48, is the tough-talking, charismatic commercial director of electronics engineering company Amplicon in Brighton.

With a turnover in excess of £7.5 million, it's among the largest privately-owned companies in Sussex.

Gina led a management buyout in 2005, and is responsible for 40 staff most of whom are male. Yet she still meets people who think she's the secretary.

"I'm probably the least obvious candidate for engineering," she says. "I've got high heels, long hair and I'm very girlie. I'm not an engineer, I'm a businesswoman. I know what it is we sell, how to sell it and to whom we're selling it."

Gina has been in sales and marketing all her life. She always had the belief she could do anything she wanted and worked her way up the ranks.

She gets up at 5am, does half an hour of yoga ("naked" in her bedroom) and is at work by 7.30am. She leaves at 7.30pm.

"Yoga sets me up for the day," she says. "I'd never describe myself as stressed. I have no kids marriage was never for me. My house has two grumpy old women in it: my 22-year-old cat and me."

As far as the career versus children debate stands, she believes you can't be a success at both.

"I've lost out to promotions in the past because employers assumed I'd be taking time out to have children," she says.

"I'm sick to death of the sexist adverts and comments.

"Engineering is one of those male bastions. People think it's greasy, dirty and horrid but we don't all wander around in boiler suits with grease under our nails. I've got 40 young men working for me and it's a case of step out of my way I'm coming through."

Gina is keen to promote the idea of more "pink engineers".

She believes women are born communicators and even more intuitive than men when it comes to managing staff.

"You have to teach a man to communicate," she argues. "Yes I have a good grasp of the techno-logy we sell but my skill-set is sales and a desire to get to the top. I had no wish to stay at the bottom.

"I am living proof that with a handful of O-Levels you can do anything. My sales engineers have either got it or they haven't and some of my most successful salesmen don't have degrees."

As company director, one of Gina's priorities is bringing out the best in her staff. She does this by motivating them, whether laying on company dinners, driving lessons, tickets for an ABBA tribute band or a night at the dogs.

"It's those sorts of things that matter," she says.

Since taking over the job, she's arranged for a local beautician to come in once a week offering a back, shoulder and head massage. There's reiki and reflexology for anyone prone to stress and when profits were up last year she treated each member of staff to a bottle of champagne.

"The boys describe my management approach as 'preventative chastisement'," she quips.

"It's like working for their mum, only I'm a bit more ferocious."

Her ambition knows no bounds and she is hellbent on increasing the company's £7 million turnover.

"I'm going to make it £10 million in the next two years, 20 in the next five years and 50 in ten years. Then I'm retiring," she says.

"I don't care what it takes, we're going to get there. The boys are young. They want success, I want success and we're going to get it."

Gina's only advice to other women intent on getting ahead in business is to never accept "no".

"You need a very thick skin and one hell of a lot of front. It's all bullshit and mirrors," she laughs and it's difficult to tell if she's joking.

Entrepreneur Penny Streeter, 39, has a completely different outlook towards careers and children.

In 1996, she set up employment agency, Ambition 24hours, from scratch. It now boasts a turnover of £60 million and she recently picked up an OBE for services to women's enterprise and business.

Penny founded the company after her marriage broke down in South Africa. She came to Britain with two young children and a third on the way.

"I was a single parent, living in homeless accomodation," she says.

"I knew I needed to do something or I'd end up as another statistic."

With her knowledge of recruitment, she spotted a gap in the market to supply care staff to remote nursing homes in Sussex and Surrey.

"I set up a company and said, not only can we supply you care staff, we can do it last minute," she explains.

Having had a previous business that went bust owing £20,000 of debts, Penny was unable to secure a bank loan or any outside investment so she raised the extra cash herself, working as a children's entertainer at weekends.

"It's a terrible thing to go through a business failure," she says.

"There's a big stigma attached to it. I learnt a lot. I took a really prudent approach and didn't draw a salary for the first four years."

With three young children to support, she says she couldn't have done it without the help of her mum, who was by her side throughout. As the business was 24/7, Penny initially had to take all the calls herself.

"I'd be taking phone calls at three o'clock in the morning," she recalls.

"I was on autopilot and just determined not to fail again.

"In the early days, male advisers would often be quite arrogant and assume I was the secretary.

I think women in small businesses, especially, are viewed more suspiciously by their male counterparts."

Her company has since grown beyond all her expectations, with 17 branches across the UK (including Brighton) and South Africa and 250 staff.

Asked what the key is to reaching the top, she says it's being prepared to work every hour there is and being passionate about what you do.

"You have to keep an eye on the market and learn to adapt you can't become complacent," she adds.

"A good boss knows what they want and inspires their staff to follow them."

In contrast to Gina, Penny believes it is possible to bring up children and be a successful businesswoman.

"You can do both you have to do both," she stresses.

"A lot of women are having children later now because they're choosing to have a career first and I, personally, think it doesn't do a child any harm to grow up in an environment where they have hard-working parents."

While Penny was fortunate enough to have the support of her mum, the lack of paid-for child care remains a burning issue for many women, who even on middle-management salaries still struggle to meet the cost.

"The biggest thing is not to let other people put you down," says Penny.

"So often it's the people who think they know you best who say, 'Don't be ridiculous, you can't do that'. I had to deal with that every step of the way and it's hard because it's the people you're closest to who you need to support you most. It just made me more determined. At the end of the day, you have to have a lot of self-belief and be prepared to go it alone."

Self-belief, hard work and networking are all things Pam Alexander, chief executive of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) also attributes to getting ahead.

She is responsible for 300 staff and has played a key role in projects in the South East including the regeneration of Portsmouth.

"I always looked at the top jobs and looked at what I'd have to do to get there," she says.

According to Pam, one of the biggest issues facing business women today is the need for more flexible ways of working not just hours but IT departments enabling more staff to work from home.

At 52, she has never had children of her own (although she has four step-children and four step-grand-children) and feels it probably had some impact on her success.

"I always thought I'd have children. It just didn't happen," she says. "I have probably been able to give up a lot more time as a result but having said that, I thoroughly admire colleagues, male and female, who've brought up children in the time demands they've had."

She adds: "It's not about a glass ceiling, which we have now managed to raise. It's more about managing the danger everyone expects you to be superwoman."

Pam witnessed the gender divide first-hand when she left London to join SEEDA and often found herself one of the few, if not the only, woman in the room.

She also recalls gender being an issue at school when she was discouraged from being a barrister because the training would be "a waste of time" as it was assumed she'd want to have children.

"I haven't let other people's opinions stand in my way since," she says.

Earlier this year she was appointed by Margaret Hodge, Minister of State for industry and the regions, to co-chair the Women's Enterprise Task Force, an initiative designed to encourage more female entrepreneurs and identify the barriers to success.

As Pam points out, if the UK had the same rate of female start-ups as the US, we would have 700,000 more businesses, which could create more than 1.5 million new jobs.

"We have crashed through a lot of barriers in the past few decades but I am disappointed we haven't come further," she says.

"It is going to take decades to get as many women as men in Parliament and the civil service and I don't think we realised it would be such a long, long road.

"Work life balance is a very big issue and I really don't believe we are going to see those sorts of numbers until we tackle it."

Pam works four evenings a week and describes herself as a "midnight finisher". While men tend to bond over a game of golf or football, she has had to find her own ways of networking, forging links with other like-minded business women.

One of the key skills a boss must have is the ability to multi-task and as Pam points out: "Women already have a head start on that."

She adds: "I've always believed what the Roman philosopher Seneca said: luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. I put in the work and searched for the opportunities to come along."

Hard facts

• There are nearly 6,000 women "missing" from more than 33,000 top jobs in Britain.
• These jobs include 233 members of the House of Lords and 217 Civil Service managers, 101 senior police officers and 78 senior judges.
• Women represent just ten per cent of the directors of FTSE 100 companies.
• Reports show it could still take 200 years to get equal representation in Parliament.

Can women combine bringing up a family with a successful career? Leave your views below.