Entrepreneurship: a solution or response to the glass ceiling?

Business Reporter reported on new statistic which showed that entrepreneurship is growing three times faster amongst women than men. The magazine postulated that the difficulties women can face in the workplace have led to more starting up their own businesses.

Ayesha Vardag, who founded Vardags in 2005 and in ten years transformed it into the top firm in family law explained that her experiences matched this theory. “I had had some tough employment situations as a mother,” she said. “One boss told me ‘there’s no f***ing maternity leave here’. When in a chat over lunch at another place I revealed I had children, the man who hired me admonished me: ‘Well that wasn’t on your CV!’ It was crystal clear that, despite my middle-aged male companions all happily discussing their children, the fact that I, as a woman, had some of my own diminished me in their eyes. Sure enough, later my boss there told me that they didn’t see how I was going to go to the top of my profession as a divorced mother with children.”

Ayesha went on to explain how she found success through her own business. “If you build your own business you make your own rules and you stand on your own achievements,” she added.  “I became successful because I won some really big cases, proving myself to my end user market. And I was human, and empathetic, and poured my own passion and individuality into my work. I could take stands and be fearless and challenging because no-one grey and conservative and fearful was above me crushing out my creativity or pressing me to be more banal.  And guess what – let a bright, creative woman do her own thing and you get record-breaking, law-making, life-changing results.”