RetailEXPO Virtual Conference focuses on women in retail

Gender diversity progress is being made within the retail sector, but more work needs to be done in terms of leaders and role models so the next generation of women feel comfortable about stepping into top jobs.

That was a key takeaway from a women in retail discussion panel at RetailEXPO Virtual Conference.

Helen Galletley, Service Transformation Manager, Tesco, observed that, during the early days of her career, she didn’t see other leadership examples ahead of her.

“I didn’t fit the mode of being argumentative or bossy or ordering people around. There was a perception that was what you needed to be like, but that has changed. It can still be a battle to be heard but there are more role models now,” she said.

Chloe Bebbington, Social Media Marketing Manager, River Island, commented: “We’re encouraged to celebrate our diversity at River Island and talk about what we’re doing and who we are as people within the business. The company is very much about employees first and really celebrating difference.”

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Galletley noted that attitudes towards family are changing. “In the early days of my career, female leaders would talk about how their husbands didn’t work or they had nannies. My wife also works, we share child raising duties.”

Eiko Kawano, Group Experience Director, Publicis Sapient, added that job postings need to be more human to encourage women. She believes leadership skills also need to be weighted as highly as technical skills.

Galletley said she would be devastated if she got a job just because she was a women.“The focus should be about empowering women to be at their best during interviews and tailor roles to encourage women to apply for them so there is a level playing field.”

Mentoring programmes

Kawano said that at Publicis Sapiem, “we are very lucky to have an amazing woman running the office in our region. We have a women’s leadership network and mentoring programmes. And we sponsor events to ensure that our voices are getting out there, for instance, last year we held a women in digital event.”

It’s about empowering the younger generations to feel that they can be in senior roles, she added. Walmart Canada, with whom Kawano works, has many women in senior roles “so that really helps younger women realise their potential.”

In terms of mentoring schemes, these are important but they can also be very tricky, according to Galletley.

“You need to feel safe with the mentor and that you can trust them. The best mentor I had was completely unconnected to the role I had. Once a quarter she would take me out of my environment, with store and head office visits. It wasn’t necessarily structured to help me advance my career, it was more for personal development.”

Bebbington added: “We work with the Fashion Retail Academy and have a scheme set up. The difficult part is allocating people. If the mentor is super keen to give information, the mentee also has to be super keen as to what they want to get out of it. Everyone involved has to be agreeable parties.”

Kawano agreed that mentoring is most effective when it happens in an organic way.

Ultimately, not everyone is the loudest person in the room. It’s important to show that there is a path for the less vocal out there. “It’s very much about reminding people what they’re doing is worthy and good and you don’t have to be loud to get to the top,” Bebbington stated.

The retail sector has made considerable strides over the past 20 years or so, but there remains a gender pay gap and there are still more men in senior roles. It takes time for initiatives, programmes etc to produce results.

Final word to Kawano: “In general, I’d say being a woman in retail technology gets better every year. Earlier in my career when I was just starting out, I did feel like I had to constantly prove myself. When I did speak up, it was often the case that someone would speak over me.”

“We encourage younger women to speak up and be vocal. We really have to be on the lookout for other people speaking over them. I think that’s a massive issue.”