Dame Helena Morrissey has been described as the UK’s own superwoman thanks to the fact that she balances a high-flying City career as a financier with bringing up nine children. She’s also a rarity in the finance sector as a proud Brexiteer. So, I’m delighted to have Helena as my guest on the latest episode of Women with Balls.
In the interview, Morrissey talks about what it is like being a lone voice on Brexit in her industry:
‘I, maybe naively, had taken the logical extension of the work I’d done on encouraging diversity in the boardroom to mean that diversity of thought on issues like the EU referendum was to be welcomed.
It became very shouty very quickly and very confrontational the whole run up to the referendum and then subsequently. I think that is a real miss and it clearly shows me as well that we’re not extrapolating from the idea of having diverse boardrooms and businesses and women in politics to actually thinking we need to embrace more viewpoints. I am quite opposed to illiberal liberalism.’
Morrissey also discusses the perks of being passed over for a promotion early in her career on the grounds that she was a mother:
‘I am, in some strange way, grateful my boss was so overt about passing me over for a promotion because I’d had a baby – I knew where I stood.’
We hope you’ll enjoy the latest addition to Spectator Radio. And if there’s someone you think we should feature, please do send in suggestions.
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