Challenging Corporate Sexism: A Women on Boards Conversation With Alison Rose

Dame Alison Rose changed the face of British Banking when she became NatWest Group’s CEO in 2019. As the first woman to take the helm of a major UK bank, she crafted plans that would see women finally balance the scales towards equal opportunity in business, changing the lives of female founders across the UK.

Today, Alison often speaks about the ways that women can overcome roadblocks in business, including in an interview at a Women on Boards event. During this thought-provoking interview, Alison voices some of the challenges women in business face, from accessing venture capital funding to experiencing corporate sexism.

Here are some highlights from the interview.

The Expectation for Women to Juggle Careers and Children

Dame Alison Rose has been interviewed many times. Having balanced parenthood with running a major bank, she is often asked how she juggles her life commitments. Her response is that “men never get asked that question.”

There is still an expectation that mothers will take on more family-care responsibilities than fathers, even if they have careers to uphold. It is far rarer for a father to be considered to be juggling his career with childcare.

“I’m a businesswoman,” Alison says. “I do the job I do because hopefully I’m good at what I do… So it is frustrating that the conversation always comes around to ‘you’re a working mother. How do you juggle?’”

Overcoming The Lack of Funding for Female Entrepreneurs

In 2019, Alison created the Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship to examine the barriers in business that many female entrepreneurs face. “Some of the findings of that report are really stark and unacceptable,” Alison says. For example, the report reveals that less than 1% of venture capital funding goes to female-led businesses.

“It is absolutely shocking,” Alison says. “If you look at the amount of money that is going to female-led businesses, at either women starting businesses or the amount of capital or scaling up, it’s 50% less than men.”

However, Dame Alison is a “glass-half-full” kind of person, and she also highlights that “there are businesses starting every day in this country, [run by] amazing female entrepreneurs.”

“If we can get to the same level as best-in-class countries like Canada or Australia, then that is a £250 billion contribution to the UK economy,” she says. “That [would be] a really meaningful difference.”

“So, yes, it is shocking, but ‘what are we going to do about it?’ is the more important question to really help these entrepreneurs scale and thrive and unlock all that potential.”

“What I tried to do with the Rose Review is, rather than producing another data-driven report, which stared at the problem, was to say, what practically can we do to help? What can all of those people who can help,  lean in to help?”

How Alison Rose Provided Support for Female Entrepreneurs at NatWest

Alison’s advice to female entrepreneurs who feel stuck in their businesses, whether over access to finance or otherwise, is to ask for help. “That would be a piece of advice I would give to anyone,” she says. “Go and find help.”

And help is out there. To support entrepreneurs when serving as NatWest’s CEO, Alison and her team set up 12 free accelerators across the UK. “I didn’t set any targets when we set those up,” she says. “Those are there to help entrepreneurs. They’re completely free.”

Interestingly, at the time, 47% of the people in those accelerators were women. This is evidence that “if you set up the right ecosystem, the right environment, the right collaboration, and the right network of support, you do get the help that you need, and female businesses do thrive,” Alison says.

“So my advice would be simply go ask for help,” she says. “Go to a NatWest, ask to see a Woman in Business Manager. Go to the hubs, find someone who can help you, and then they will connect you.”

Entering The UK’s Supportive Entrepreneurial Community

“The amazing thing about the entrepreneurial community is, at its heart, super collaborative, super helpful, and will really support you, but you just need to get in at the right point,” Alison says.

When investors and organisations “give help at the right point and at the right time, female businesses do scale up,” she explains. “They do get access to funding. They do get the right support that they need.”

She emphasises that different entrepreneurs need different support at different times. “Just raising your money from venture capitalists or private equity is not the right thing,” she says. “Just raising debt is not the right thing. It’s [finding] the right answer at the right time to help [an entrepreneur] scale up.”

Alison Rose on Launching and Sponsoring Dream Bigger

As a mother of a daughter, Alison is aware that “lots of girls are disengaging from schools far too early.” Various “traditional programmes go in and talk to schools, particularly girls, when they’re 17, 18,” she says. “It’s way too late by then. A huge number of girls are leaving the education system or have already made their choices and de selected certain options much earlier in their educational journey.”

She has also noticed “the real rise of mental health issues, particularly in young girls” and recognises that social media is partly responsible “in terms of the attention that it drives.”

To combat this, she and her team at NatWest launched Dream Bigger in 2020. They designed this programme to inspire 16-to-18 year olds to consider entrepreneurship as a career option.

“I sponsored it because it was something I felt very passionately about,” Alison says. “It was focused on building resilience – a key skill for entrepreneurs , and also combining some of the examples from sports leadership as well about building positive body image, building resilience, opening up opportunities, and teaching them about entrepreneurship.”

“I really wanted to support this because it’s trying to get to girls to have the opportunity to consider broader careers but also offer the reliance mindset that is so critical.  The programme “intervened to help them build that pipeline of future female entrepreneurs [which] over time will hopefully lead to fulfilled, active, amazing careers and lives,” Alison says. This mission aligns with what she “wants for everybody’s daughter, sister, wife, cousin, and niece.”

Dreaming Bigger as a Child

Reflecting on her own childhood dreams, Alison remembers wanting to “be” and “do everything” and “travel the world.”

“I was very lucky,” she says. “I was brought up overseas and lived in a huge number of countries all around the world. So I wanted to travel and meet people and be a doctor and a diplomat and an explorer and a writer.”

“I was given a great gift from my father and my mother, which was this self-belief that I could do anything, and it’s what I see in lots of girls,” Alison says. “Then I see it gradually erode as they come out into the world that maybe isn’t quite so ready to absorb that.”

“But, for me, I wanted something where I was going to learn. If you boil all my ambitions down, I was just curious for information and challenge and opportunity, and I didn’t know where that would take me.”

“So I didn’t sit there at age 14 and go, ‘I know, one day I’ll be a CEO of a bank.’ That wasn’t on the list. But guess what? Everybody’s lives go in different directions and I’ve been incredibly lucky.”

Alison Rose’s Experiences of Corporate Sexism

Like many women in the corporate world, Alison has often felt that her “voice wasn’t being heard” and recalls “stereotypical situations” from throughout her career.

“There have been times where I’ve sat in meetings and said something, and then the man next to me repeats it, and someone goes, ‘Oh, what a great idea, John,’” she says. “I’ve gone to meetings with a male colleague who is my junior, and the client asks and answers the questions to [him].”

“But equally I’ve been very lucky that I’ve been surrounded by a great team,” she says. “At the end of the day, people who have that problem, they are the people with the problem, not you.”

She believes “getting advice, support, and mentorship and generally that sounding board to go, ‘No, no, no. You are right, they’re wrong’” is crucial for women in this situation.

But Gender Politics Aren’t Always Part of the Picture

However, sexism isn’t always the problem, and it can be easy to blame gender politics when they’re not the real issue. “I’ve had brilliant male bosses and brilliant female bosses. I’ve had terrible male bosses and terrible female bosses,” Alison says. “The fundamental thing is, when you’re a rubbish boss, you’re a rubbish boss, whether you are a man or a woman.”

“Sometimes when you face a challenge in your career, it is not specific to your gender, race, background, or experience. It is a problem that everyone is facing. What’s really important is to distinguish what the challenges are and where they’re relevant and then that helps you address and overcome them.”

“Generally, I am massively supportive and passionate about embracing and supporting women. But you’re going to face challenges from men and women that aren’t necessarily about their gender. It’s recognising where the challenge comes from, and that’s where mentors and networks and role models are really helpful.”

As an example, she explains that NatWest launched a programme called Male Allies, which numerous men joined. “When we launched that programme around our diversity and inclusion agenda, some people said, ‘Well, why do we need men to speak up and help us?’” Alison says.

She notes that there was automatically a sense that men would not be able to help women. However, “the male allies are there sometimes just to put the hand on the shoulder of other people and go, ‘Actually, that’s not right. How do we address this and make sure the conversation is there to support all people?’” Alison says.

The Importance of Hiring Based on Talent Only

With both positive and negative intentions, many organisations have made hiring decisions based on sex, race, sexuality, and religion. However, “very simply, creating a diverse and inclusive culture is about making sure the best talent gets the job, gets the opportunity, and thrives,” Alison says.

Sometimes, often because of unconscious bias, hiring decisions are not neutral. However, “it should always be about creating an environment where talent thrives,” Alison says.

“Whether it’s a tiny business or a large business, it’s about getting the best talent around the table with the best ideas. These should be diverse because that’s how you challenge people, learn, and thrive.”

Alison believes that she should not have been the UK’s only female CEO in banking. “There should be more female CEOs across business because there are some amazingly talented women out there who are significantly more talented than me,” she says.

“We need to create an inclusive culture to allow talent to truly thrive and recognise where there are barriers — whether they’re conscious or unconscious — lean in and help remove them or educate so that talent does get the job.”

About Alison Rose

Alison Rose’s leadership at NatWest Group has championed increased opportunities for women entrepreneurs, providing critical pathways to business growth and success.

Her exceptional contributions have been recognised through prestigious honours, including her appointment as Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2023. She has been highlighted in notable publications, featuring on Vogue’s 2019 Top 25 Influential Women List and the 2018 Women in FinTech Powerlist.

Read more about Alison’s Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship and the opportunities it has created for women.