The Insider Power 100 is out this month. It’s 14 months since the last Power 100 list was published in November 2010 which was also roughly the same time as the Western Mail published their ridiculous sexy lists for 2010, inviting a quick flick through the lists to see whether anybody featured in both. Sexy, powerful AND Welsh -there’s a thought! To save you the bother given the delay between the lists, I can tell you that there is only one person who features in both the Sexy lists for 2011 and the Power 100 list for 2012 namely Richard Parks (number 9 in the sexy list, number 92 in the Power list).
I have been running a one woman campaign in this blog to persuade the Western Mail to ditch the sexy lists and do “Wonderful Welsh People” lists instead. I doubt this is going to be successful since more people find the Superwoman blog by googling (and not in an ironic way either) those sexy lists than find it any other way. In relation to the Power 100 list, my blogs have given the Insider a little bit of gyp about the limited number of women on the list. This year I blog slightly self consciously about the Power 100 list because I am a new entry, in at number 94. Is this perhaps a way of neutralising me – put me in it so I don’t blog about it? I doubt that -my comments have not been particularly barbed – although I was a bit sarky in last year’s blog about the absence of Laura Tenison from the list. Last year’s list ranked “the most powerful people in Wales seen from a business perspective” and this year it tracks “the most influential people in Wales as seen through a business lens.” I think what that means is that there are more people in the list this year that have no power whatsoever but who like to bump our gums about those that do. What has certainly made me smile is not that I am a new entry in the Power 100 list but that Laura Tenison is, at number 66.
But I’m not smiling much at all because THE WOMEN ARE GOING THE WRONG WAY!. There were 12 women in the last Power 100 list and there are only nine this year! That’s a 25% reduction. I set out below the nine women listed, five of which are in politics or government:
5. Edwina Hart, Minister for Business, Enterprise, Technology and Science, up from 67 last list when she was Health Minister;
6. Cheryl Gillan, Secretary of State for Wales – no change
11. Jane Hutt, business and budget minister – no change
18. Dame Gillian Morgan, permanent secretary – down from 13
19. Sian Lloyd Jones, chief executive Finance Wales – down from 14
66. Laura Tenison, MD JoJo Maman Bebe -new entry
71. Hayley Parsons, founder Go Compare – up from 82
73. Kirsty Williams, Liberal Democtrate leader – down from 71
94. Bethan Darwin, founder Darwin Gray and Superwoman – new entry
These were the women featured in the previous list:
6. Cheryl Gillan – Secretary of State for Wales – new
11. Jane Hutt – business and budget minister (rising from 87 )
13. Dame Gillian Morgan – Permanent Secretary, WAG (down from 11)
14. Sian Lloyd Jones – Chief Executive Finance Wales (up from 17)
38. Jane Davidson – Environment, Sustainability and Housing Minister (up from 56)
58. Menna Richards – Controller, BBC Wales (down from 8 as Ms Richards had announced her departure from BBC)
63. Jocelyn Davies – Deputy Minster for Housing and Regeneration – new
67. Edwina Hart – Health Minister (down from 12 in the previous list when she was tied in 12th place with Huw Lewis and Carwyn Jones as the Labour leadership had not been decided at the time)
71. Kirsty Williams – Liberal Democrat Leader (up from 86)
74. Lesley Griffiths – deputy minister for science, innovation and skills – new
82. Hayley Parsons – founder, Go Compare – new
100. Elizabeth Hayward – director South East Wales Economic Forum -new
Some of the women missing in action from the lists should be reinstated including Elizabeth Hayward who has recently been appointed by Ms Hart to chair a task and finish group on a Cardiff City region and Ann Beynon, Wales Commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights and BT Director of Wales. Others not previously on lists should be included such as Professor Laura McAllister, Chair of Sport Wales. Including just these three, who are all very influential in Wales, would at least have meant that the number of women on the list stayed constant rather than falling.
If I have any influence at all in Wales this is what I would like to achieve the next time there’s a Power 100 list. That the list of women should be getting longer rather than shorter! That all the superwomen in Wales (and there are hundreds of you; I know; you come to Superwoman) email the Insider and tell them what you are achieving and how you are achieving it – that you shout out loud about your achievements and not hide your lights under bushels; that you MAKE A BIG NOISE ABOUT HOW GOOD YOU ARE. Let’s make it 13 women for 2013. And if while you’re at it, you also think the sexy lists are shallow and not doing us as Welsh people any favours, tell the Western Mail that too.
January 7, 2012 at 12:22 pm |
Who rates the WM? Some of those women are names with no substance there are plenty of powerful women in Wales who because they just get on with it and are nor media darlings get no visibility
make our own and challenge the male dominated WM
February 2, 2012 at 9:05 pm |
We’ve only got a few women in the top 100 so please let’s not undermine the ones that are there but find the dozens that aren’t.