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WOMEN IN INDUSTRY
Sexism? What Sexism?
Rhonda Ridge was working as financial controller at
a small but successful window and door installer in
Wiltshire. The year was 1995: John Major’s short and
unremarkable term as Prime Minster came to an
end; commuters faced attacks with Sarin nerve gas
on the Tokyo subway; and a computer operating
system called Windows 95 changed the world.
» WINDOWS 95 MARKED A NEW WAY
of working with personal computers,
introducing the Start button, the Taskbar
and it also simplified access to the Internet in
an acknowledgement of the importance the
World Wide Web would have on our day to
day lives.
1995 was also the year that Rhonda Ridge
realised that, with such emerging technologies,
all of the manual and computerised systems by
which her employer ran their business, could
be simplified and unified into one seamlessly
interlinked tool.
Rhonda’s formal training had included
banking and computer programming, skills
that of course would lead to the creation and
success of AdminBase: “All too often one hears
about skills learned early on that have no
bearing on business or career success in later
life,” said Rhonda. “For me the skills I learned
through formal training remain at the core
of what I do now, the success that I and my
company Ab Initio have enjoyed.
“The stroke of good fortune was that I
ended up working for a home improvement
company that sold and installed windows and
doors. I had no affinity for the industry when
I began although I became quite passionate
about it early on, not simply because it gave
me a business opportunity but also because
the people I contacted, that became our
customers, responded positively to my skill set,
to what we offered as a company.”
When highlighting successful women
there is an inevitable inference that they have
become so against a tide of gender bias and
male chauvinism. Rhonda denies that she ever
faced such pressures, although she accepts,
with a smile, that may be due to what she
describes as ‘having a rather strong
nature’. She further explains: “That
meant men either didn’t dare treat me
disrespectfully, or actually I may simply
not have not noticed. Either way sexism is
not something that I feel has held me back.”
It may be that Rhonda’s skill set helped:
“It was certainly true when I first began
working in the window and door industry
in the mid-nineties – and still largely true
now – that the window and door industry
was driven by entrepreneurs, people that ran
their businesses by the seats of their pants.
Their skills were in sales, or installations…they
were not accountants or MBAs running these
businesses and, although many owners showed
exceptional, intuitive business management
skills, they needed people like me to provide
structure for them. When I was managing
their finances and in due course, more of their
business, my role was clear, and I was good at
my job. They didn’t feel the need and probably
didn’t feel qualified, to question what I was
doing or try to tell me what to do. That may
have helped too.
“If I am honest, I do not spend a great deal
of time thinking about the issue of gender
Rhonda Ridge
created AdminBase
equality, perhaps because I have not overtly
faced any disadvantage personally. But today’s
window and door industry seems to be
improving in terms of gender balance, when
compared against society in general.”
And thereby hangs a tale: When asked
if she sees the UK fenestration industry
as a ‘boys club’ Rhonda rolls her eyes:
“Seriously…what decade are we in?!” she
says exasperatedly. “But whilst I say that I
have not been adversely affected by such
things I do accept that other women may
well have done, and I do not want to dilute
their concerns. When ability is stifled for any
reason other than their talent, their ability
and their suitability or not for a role, then
everyone loses out. But neither do I believe
in positive discrimination. The balance has
to come from societal changes, however long
that takes.”
54 » SEP 2020 » CLEARVIEW-UK.COM
Apps were launched last year that took AdminBase into the home