discrimination to jettison extra women onto the board and balance the association ’ s the gender divide .

During a session on women in leadership , she joined Sophie Holt , managing director of Explori and Trixie Loh Mirmand executive vice president at Dubai World Trade Centre to speak about the exhibitions industry ’ s glass ceiling .

Despite a majority female workforce in exhibitions a mere 11 % of the c-suite are women .

Larkin said everyone in the industry had a job to do to make women feel more welcome in the top jobs .

“ As I went up through the ranks I realised there was a bias , a boys ’ network ,” she said .

“ My frustration is that we still have to have these conversations .

“ When women reach a certain level there is a perception that men are

waiting for them to fail , but they are also being watched by other women .

Holt added : “ There ’ s no point pushing up the ladder if you get to the place but don ’ t feel welcome and included .”

Holt said that at Explori they had offered flexibility in every single role since long before the pandemic and recently employed someone who was six months pregnant .

She said there needed to be an attitude change across the industry .

“ If we try to work with something that has created structural inequality , no matter how many women you ask to lean in , try harder , to want it more ( and this applies with other demographics and neurodiversity will be an increasing issue in future ), you are setting people up either to fail or to have to work 10 , 20 , 50 times harder

“ There ’ s no point pushing up the ladder if you get to the place but don ’ t feel welcome and included .”

to reach the same level of success .”

Loh Mirmand ’ s comments proved more divisive . As a female leader in the UAE she had to make “ difficult decisions , but it ’ s how badly you want it .”

“ Women can be emotional ,” she said . “ It ’ s a sweeping statement , but generally . Sometimes woman can be overly collaborative . I always believe there ’ s no way you can get to the top if you don ’ t put in the hours , man or woman .

“ A lot of women exit the workforce after a while . We lose a lot of amazing

potential female leaders .

“ You have to make very uncomfortable decisions if you want to choose any career . When I divorced my son was only two-years-old . I chose to let my son stay with the father because I knew if I want to have a career it ’ s very difficult for me to devote the same amount of time . That was a personal decision but for me that was the best way to pivot , so I could put enough time in my work .”

Setting out the global exhibitions industry and it ’ s association ’ s gender divide , Larkin , said in her opening address to the congress : “ We have made some progress and 24 % of the UFI is now female . That doesn ’ t sound like much but that is an improvement .”

Read more about the content from the UFI Global Congress at exhibitionnews . net . EN

December — 55