Karren Brady - Strong Woman: The Truth About Getting to the Top

Canaps at Number 10 might not spark a eureka moment for every visitor, but they did for me. It was at a reception to mark International Womens Day at Downing Street that I realised I had to write this book. As a British businesswoman with a public profile, I am invited to many networking events and it must have been about the tenth year that I had gone along to this one. But what struck me this time alarmed me, even was that it was all the same faces yet again, year in, year out. Where was the new generation of women leaders, snapping at our heels? The new inventors? The new charity workers? The new scientists and lawyers? Where were the young women who were going to change the world? I was left with the distinct feeling that someone needed to inspire this generation of women, to get them going and help them through hand on the baton, if you like.

My own career has seen me become, at the age of 23, the youngest managing director of a PLC in the UK, run two Premier League football clubs, sit on the boards of companies including Channel 4, Mothercare and Arcadia, and join the BBC show The Apprentice . Meanwhile Ive got married, had two children and undergone brain surgery. Writing a book about my own experiences, I decided, telling things as they really have been for me, without glossing over any of the difficulties or pretending that it was easy, might help other women to think about developing their own road maps to success.

I want women to know they should never feel guilty about championing their own career while being a mother and should never ever be afraid to be ambitious. For women, that means considering the core values you need to succeed; visualising the place you want to work and the type of company and people you want to work for, or the type of business leader you want to be; then setting out to achieve this.

Ultimately, I want to change fundamentally the way people perceive working women. Even now, you know that if someone talks about an ambitious man , you immediately conjure up the image of a dynamic go-getter, someone you want to know, someone whose company youd relish. Someone in control; a man going places; someone to admire. Yet exactly the opposite happens if you mention an ambitious woman . If theyre honest, a lot of people immediately think, I bet shes a right hard-nosed bitch!

I shouldnt have to spell this out, but I will: being an ambitious woman certainly doesnt mean youre a bitch. We have to change that thinking. In the same way, we have to change the perception of feminism . Feminism has become a dirty word, so much so that, through stereotyping and media spin, few people like to be associated with anything to do with it. But a feminist is not someone who burns her bras and hates men. A feminist is simply someone who actively promotes the belief that women are equal to men. I hope, by the end of this book, you will embrace that belief and all that it means, too.

So, why am I so keen to see other women climb the ladder? Its simple. I love my career. Ive combined it with being a mother, and I think Ive been a success at both. Thats why the description I think suits me best, more than chairperson, vice-chairperson or CEO, is working mother. That is what I am a mother who works. My work and my children are the most important things in my life.

But there have been times when it has been very tough. I hope this book contains experiences and advice that will make the path easier for other women, and that it can offer some kind of inspiration when its needed. It also signals my commitment to try to encourage, help and champion women from all different walks of life to achieve their potential. Thats a promise.

I feel a personal responsibility in this, too. I have a teenage daughter, Sophia, who will soon take her first steps into a career. There have been a lot of changes for women at work in the 25 years since I was in Sophias shoes not all of them good but changes still need to be made to support her and all young women.

Heres one of my pet hates. Companies will pay a lot of lip service to wanting more women to soar through the ranks, but they dont do anything about it. Theyll say theyre flexible when it comes to helping women combine work and home life, but when push comes to shove, its a different story. A lot of businesses are only flexible when it suits them. But the best companies are those that are diverse. If you want different types of women, with different types of experiences and backgrounds, you just have to accept that they might have a family. Youve got to provide the flexibility and support to allow them to succeed and, most importantly, understand that, although they may try, they cant be in two places at once.

Another niggle. When policymakers and the media talk about women in the workplace, we hear a lot about the glass ceiling. Many people seem to think that every working woman wants to run a huge banking conglomerate and that if they dont theyve somehow failed. But, actually, Ive discovered that that isnt what most women in business want. They want a job they enjoy that pays enough for them to afford high-quality childcare and in which they are respected. Many women have a common aim: to fit a career around a family. Yes, we have to juggle and, yes, sometimes we have to leave work early because our family needs us, but that should not, and does not, affect our commitment and loyalty to our employers and our careers.

Why does this point need to be made, decades after women entered the modern workplace in their droves? Most business leaders are still male, and most male chief executives, chairmen or managers have a wife. And its the wife who sorts out the school uniforms, who does the weekly supermarket shop, who gets the call from school when a child needs to go home sick, and all this allows the man a relatively stress-free path to the top. Good for them. The downside for their female employees is that when a woman says, My daughters not well, Ive got to go home, there is little understanding. Women fear, with reason, they will meet a stony response, which makes them believe they cant combine a career with a family.

Its certainly far harder for women than for men to combine a career with children. Some of my male colleagues feel no compunction about going for a golfing weekend, or a boys weekend, or a team-building weekend, or they dont bother to go and watch their son play football on a Saturday because they want a lie-in. Meanwhile I spend all my time at work or with my family. I could never say to my family, Im going on a pampering weekend I just wouldnt feel comfortable thinking it, let alone saying it. The reality is that women who run companies are under far more scrutiny from their families about what theyre doing when theyre not with them than any of their male counterparts.

And in a way, this is understandable. In many cases women are more connected to their children than men are. But that does mean men dont tend to carry the same level of guilt. So women will want to be perfect mothers but perhaps they also want to run a business. And companies will increasingly have to accommodate that, because if they dont, women will leave and set up on their own: that way they can run the company the way they want to.

I do recognise that, in many ways, combining work and a family is easier for someone like me than it is for a woman who has a rigid nine-to-five job. I have reached the point in my career where I can be flexible. If theres a crisis at home and I need to be with my children, I can be Im the boss. But it wasnt always like that. I definitely didnt feel there was much flexibility when I had to go to work after three days maternity leave. In fact, I was miserable.