In recent years, cracks have begun to show in the invisible demographic barrier known as the glass ceiling. Businesses have received influxes of discontent regarding the premise of long-established gender disparity in the workplace, and amounting pressure has finally surpassed the ceiling.
Jermyn Street Design are pioneers in enabling strong women take on the world of work, with an expertly designed range of corporate uniforms, tailored with a longevity to match the female ambition, worn daily by colleagues of some of the UK’s biggest businesses such as Pandora and Jet 2. Let’s delve into the world of powerful women in business with this selection.
Sheryl Sandberg
While holding her position as Chief Operating Officer at Facebook since 2008, Sheryl Sandberg is also the founder of Leanin.org, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to helping women accomplish their own goals worldwide.
Often included in the Time 100 list, Sandberg shot up through the ranks at Facebook after a chance encounter with CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg at a Christmas party in 2007. Continuing her rise through the ranks, she was elected to Facebook’s board of directors. becoming the first woman to serve on its board, a huge revolutionary moment in the history of Facebook.
Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel has been a powerhouse in European politics ever since she began her position as Chancellor of Germany in 2005, and she plans to bring her time in office to a close in 2021 after 16 years. Merkel wields significant power within the European Union, influencing a lot of key decisions as well as leading on certain strategies. Being described as the ‘de facto’ leader, with rumours circulating that she is to replace Juncker as the next President at the May 2019 European Elections, leading a new “pro-Europe coalition”.
The political strength she has accumulated will be a daunting measure to meet for her successor, after she faced a lengthy recession with fierce determination and battled through the larger global economic crisis with finesse.
Indra Nooyi
Power is not an unfamiliar concept to the award winning and honorary chairman of PepsiCo, in fact voted second most powerful woman in the world in 2015 and making consecutive appearances on the top 20 of the World’s Most Powerful Women since 2006, Indra Nooyi has harnessed her influence rather well.
At the helm of the world’s second largest food and beverage business in the world by net revenue, she managed to boost profits from $2.7 billion to $6.5 billion. She is applauded by her industry fellows for making the products healthier, removing sugar, certain acids and more sweeteners that went into the drinks. Categorising her products into three separate slogans; “fun for you”, “better for you” and “good for you”, the latter being items such as oats from the merger with Quaker Oats Company.
With plans to end her lengthy 25-year career set for early 2019, she leaves an unshakeable legacy as both chairwoman and CEO of the brand.
Oprah Winfrey
It wouldn’t be realistic to list all of Oprah Winfrey’s achievements in just one go, you’d be nearly out of breath by the time you’d gotten half way through everything associated with the “Queen of Media”. To list just a few, Winfrey is the richest African American of the 20thcentury, North America’s first black multi-billionaire and the greatest black philanthropist in American history. Her own investments have been a financial lifeline for otherwise spiraling businesses, such as Weight Watchers.
Millions of viewers tune in to Winfrey’s self-titled television show, and she is known for her extremely intimate interviewer/interviewee dynamic, an achievement which has revolutionised media. Despite receiving some criticisms that she created a confession culture centered around emotion, she is praised for breaking 20thcentury taboos and allowed for the mainstream acceptance of LGBT through frequent broadcasting appearances. In early 2018, in support of sexual assault victims that lead to the fall of many high profile males, Oprah delivered an inspiring and influential speechat the Golden Globes .
Marissa Mayer
The youngest woman ever to be listed in Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women in Business gets an honorable mention on this list, at age 43 Marissa Mayer has accumulated her own sphere of influence. Google’s 20themployee, known to be prominent for the development of several of Google’s branches such as Images, News, Maps, Books and Gmail, she went on to become president and CEO of Yahoo.
Despite a later resignation from Yahoo due to company culture discrepancies, she dd not go out without a bang. She stated upon her last day that under her leadership, Yahoo’s stock tripled, significantly grew mobile users to over 650 million and a range of other achievements.