Hampshire: Business women urged to make their influence felt

Women in Hampshire were called upon to take more influential roles in business and politics at an event attended by more than 40 leading female decision makers.

Leading the call were Eastleigh MP Mims Davies together with Aly Taylor, whose company Taylor Made Computer Solutions, sponsored the evening entitled “Driving Women in Power,” which was held at the Hendy FordStore in the town’s Leigh Road.

“Our country needs the very best talent and women have to make sure they make their voices heard,” said Davies, who said that men still dominated the benches in in the House of Commons and boardrooms across the UK.

Davies, who sits on the Women and Equalities Committee, said: “Evenings like this are very important – the challenge is how we address that inequality and ensure women have their voices heard, both in the public and private sector.”

She explained that since 1918 there had only ever been 459 female MPs – she was number 380. “The fact is there are still more male MPs in the Commons today than there have been female MPs in the whole of the country’s history.”

Turning to industry and commerce she said the STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – were particularly important to youngsters as these areas would be where the jobs were in the future.

Taylor Made’s HR director Aly Taylor, gave her view of the challenges facing women in IT. Findings from the Tech Partnership’s Women in IT Scorecard reveal that just 17% of technology specialists in the UK are women and less than one in 10 of these are in leadership roles.

Taylor says the statistics show that the sector is missing out on valuable talent, which could bring about greater diversity and help technology firms to develop. “Encouraging women to consider roles in the IT sector is something we’re incredibly passionate about at Taylor Made. If you have what it takes please get in touch…” she said and added: “Like Mims we are determined to encourage youngsters to adopt the STEM subjects so they are fully equipped to come into our sector and play their part in this fast growing and exciting industry.”

Mark Busby, the commercial director at Hendy, which hosted the event, gave an insight into why women buy cars. “The research shows that women are really excited about the prospect of going into a showroom to buy a car – but sadly are often disappointed by the level of engagement they find.

“At Hendy we are committed to looking after our customers whatever their gender so we have introduced geniuses to help people chose the right car for them. Interestingly the majority of our geniuses are women which probably speaks volumes.”