Gold Magazine February - March 2013, Issue 23 | Page 10

EDITORIAL Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves I t used to be called the “glass ceiling”, the invisible yet unbreachable barrier that kept women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements. It still exists to a greater or lesser degree all over the world but while one might expect that, in a patriarchal society such as Cyprus, women would not have equal opportunities in many sectors of the economy, things are nowhere near as bad as they once were. It is a fact that women are under-represented in Cypriot politics and, as the majority of the 50 female professionals featured in this month’s cover story told us, the proportion of women CEOs, Chairpersons and Senior Partners continues to be unfairly low. The glass ceiling may have been cracked but it still remains to be completely shattered. That said, the role of women in the business community of Cyprus has been growing steadily and they have especially proved themselves in the services sector, nowhere more impressively than in the legal profession where the numbers of lawyers and judges are almost equal. While many of the practising lawyers who spoke to Gold were happy to admit that a good blend of men and women in a firm tends to make for the best outcome in negotiations, they were also keen to point out that in this so-called “man’s world”, women possess unique qualities that make them if not superior then certainly equal to their male counterparts. The descriptions of women’s particular traits that you will find in our cover story include “proficient at multi-tasking, possessing intuition, great emotional intelligence, excellent communication and managerial skills, being less aggressive, less competitive, better organised, more pragmatic, thorough, persuasive, honest and hardworking than men, having a calm and consistent approach and displaying greater perseverance…” The list, if not endless, is extremely long and one cannot help but wonder why it has taken women so long to get where they are today (and, of course, we all know the three-letter answer: men). Our feature on women in the professional services sector focuses on just 50 individuals. Were it not for space and time constrictions, we could easily have found 500 successful women entrepreneurs, company owners, high-ranking lawyers, accountants and financial consultants. The professional services sector is not only the one that is currently driving growth in the economy; it is also the one in which women are best represented in comparison with their male counterparts. Whether this is merely a coincidence or something more significant is a question for the sociologists. What it certainly does show is that more and more young women in Cyprus are studying subjects at university that were once considered an exclusively male domain and they are subsequently using their academic qualifications to carve out a successful career. There is probably more than meets the eye to Christine Lagarde’s amusing remark of three years ago that “Ιf Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters, today’s economic crisis clearly would look quite different”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel may not be everyone’s favourite, even in her own country, but the mere fact that she is the leader of the most powerful country in the European Union says a great deal for Germany’s electorate. We look forward to the day when Cyprus, too, will have high-profile women politicians. For now, we are pleased and proud to pay tribute to at least some of the women who, thanks to their professional abilities and skills, are making a major contribution to the country’s prospects and prosperity. John Vickers, Chief Editor [email protected] BROUGHT TO YOU BY Get Gold on your tablet! PUBLISHED BY IMH ISSN 1986 - 3543 MANAGING DIRECTOR: George Michail GENERAL MANAGER: Daphne Roditou Tang MEDIA MANAGER: Elena Leontiou EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: John Vickers SENIOR EDITOR: Kyproula Papachristodoulou CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE: Irene Demetriou, Peter Economides, Persella Ioannides, Mike McCormac, Chloe Panayides, Glen Richards, Viktoria Soltesz. ART DIRECTION: Anna Theodosiou SENIOR DESIGNER: Maria Kyriakou PHOTOGRAPHY: Olesia Constantinou, Jo Michaelides MARKETING EXECUTIVE: Kevi Chishios SALES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE: Phivos Karayiannis ADVERTISING EXECUTIVES: Irene Georgiou, Christopher Constantinou OPERATIONS MANAGER: Voulla Nicolaou SUBSCRIPTIONS: Kevi Chishios PRINTERS: Cassoulides Masterprinters CONTACT: 5 Aigaleo St., Strovolos 2057, Nicosia, Cyprus Mailing address: P.O.Box 21185, 1503, Nicosia, Cyprus Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone] e-mail: [email protected] website: www.goldmagazine.com.cy subscriptions: [email protected] 8 Gold THE INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENT, FINANCE & PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MAGAZINE OF CYPRUS editorial.indd 8 01/02/2013 12:28