Work Like a Woman: A Manifesto For Change

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The creation of her own organisation allowed her to shape a culture of compassion, her decision to change her role in the same organisation again giving her the freedom to do the kind of work that she wanted. I did not (really) know Mary Portas before, so it may have startled me more than an English person would have been startled by it? Work Like a Woman: A Manifesto for Change is more memoir than instruction for any working woman entering the corporate world of work. Her clients, however, shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking she and her company are two separate entities. The people who looked after her kids are clearly very important to her, and it’s appropriate in a book that argues for better acknowledgement of the labour exchange in retail that she should demonstrate those principles as an employer of child care, cleaning and household management professionals.

Work Like a Woman: A Manifesto for Change Book - Oliver Bonas

Portas takes inspiration from her own experiences as she acknowledges the struggles faced by many women to climb the career ladder in a world ruled by men. Instead, we should start seeing our relationships as a lot more equal than many of them are right now. Both are smart, plucky business women, driven by their careers, who learn as they grow their families the importance of balancing work and motherhood. The Government, retailers and the public supported her plan, and Mary’s work has been a catalyst for community regeneration, and the re-visioning of high streets across the country.But luck determines whether you're born in a prosperous city with more career inspiration, whether you have an inspiring network of good peers/teachers/role models around you at a time when you can be receptive to their advice, whether you stumble into a career that compliments your personality and stretches you without leading to burnout. They also saw an alpha male management culture that rewarded those who were loud or aggressive in pursuing their career, leaving others behind. however, I learned that she is also a huge ambassador for many charities and champions a lot of smaller charities who you may not have even heard of before, whilst she also set one up herself! I remember that AA Gill [the late TV critic of the Sunday Times] knew, and he wrote a very hinting piece about me striding around and stuff.

Work Like a Woman - Penguin Books UK

And what they implicitly communicated to their employees by focusing so heavily on design and gym facilities was that beauty – be it the building’s or the staff’s – was important. She will also track her evolution as a business leader and the decision to rebuild her company from the ground up on a model that today embraces female values.I hope more people read this manifesto and get angry too, and then make changes up and down the country to make things better rather than putting up with the status quo. If, say, there were just a few of us in the workforce and the rest of us were sitting around posting pictures of cushion covers on our Pinterest boards I could maybe grasp why adapting our working culture to better reflect and reward women’s strengths might not be considered a priority. The other day, she went to the funeral of a friend of her father’s, someone she knew as Uncle Harry; long ago, the two men had come to England together from Ireland to work on the buses.

Mary Portas: ‘It was a question of how do I want to work as a

I’m tempted to take off my whole outfit and start again as I stand in front of the mirror, dithering. I figured I could both use a refresher on how offices work and thought this one on how they could be improved would be a good place to start. Perhaps unsurprisingly given my own circumstances, my biggest takeaways are that it’s absolutely OK to walk away from work that others see as successful and set up independently; that the workplace really is tough for women (and especially working class women), and that it’s tougher the more old boys’ rooms you have to enter to do business.

My favourite part was actually at the end where Portas gives women at various stages of their career words of advice - she is almost like a feminist mentor for your career here and I think we all need that.

Work Like a Woman by Mary Portas | Waterstones

They won’t see me often because I’m behind-the-scenes creative, and they shouldn’t expect me to network and have nice lunches with them because that’s a waste of time, and something that I hate, and I’m not going to do it just to make them feel good. Some of her anecdotes were interesting and helpful, other times it felt a bit like an autobiography which is not what I signed up for (maybe I’m being a bit harsh). I don’t want to lean into a system that is entrenched in a working world that’s quite frankly dated, limited and controlling. Portas travelled here this afternoon on a Limobike, a mode of transport she favours for its efficiency and, perhaps, its style. The main premise is that the the Lean In concept is kind of bullshit — that instead of changing ourselves to fit into office culture, office culture needs to change to meet the skills and needs of women.

Work Like a Woman is a memoir-cum-self-help manual in which Portas aims to show how businesses might become less “alpha” and more woman-friendly, a process she began to put into practice at her own company five years ago, when she stepped down as its CEO, having decided she would be better deployed as its chief creative officer. Towards the end of the book there is a statement that if you aren’t a mother by your 30/40’s don’t worry- we all come to these things in time. Widely recognized as the UK’s foremost authority on retail and brand communication, Mary Portas has a multitude of expertise; business woman, advertising executive, retail expert, Government adviser, broadcaster and consumer champion. I'm happy they have both have had successful careers and I'm sure inspired many other women with their success. She has been a regular on our TV screens, advised the government on the future of high streets and developed a fashion label.