It’s a man’s world in Cyprus. So how have women in Cyprus managed to excel in traditionally male environments?
“I think it’s about time we voted for senators with breasts”, Arizona senatorial candidate Clarie Sergeant once said. “After all, we’ve been voting for boobs long enough.” Throughout the world the notion that women belong in the house is now changing to women belong in the house… and the Senate. But how true is that in Cyprus, where we have always had a patriarchal culture. The times are changing and increasing numbers of Cypriot women are now juggling jobs with families and domestic life.
But men still fill the overwhelming majority of high-profile executive positions in Cyprus. It is still almost entirely men who pontificate before reporters, who decide how much gas prices will fall, who represent Cyprus at the European Parliament. So what does it take for women in Cyprus to rise to the top in executive positions that are traditionally male-dominated, and what kind of challenges do they face once they get there? We profile three Cypriot women who hold top executive posts about what it is like to be a woman on top.
ANDROULLA GIOUROV is the Chief Editor of the left-leaning Cypriot daily Haravgi. She has been with the newspaper since 1978 and assumed role of Chief Editor in 2000. Giourov is the only female chief editor of a major daily newspaper in Cyprus. She is married with two children.
“It was accidental how I came to work for a newspaper. I finished my degrees in history and archaeology in 1978 and then came to Cyprus. I put in an application to the Education Ministry for a teaching position and also applied to the Antiquities Department. But I have always been with the Left Youth Movement and was offered a job at Haravgi in 1978 and took it as a temporary position. Even though I eventually was appointed to a gymnasium, I didn’t leave the newspaper and I have been here since then – about 28 years. I didn’t want to abandon the people from my party who offered me a position when I needed work. I had no idea I was going to be a journalist but I don’t believe that you need to study journalism. If you are capable and if you have a college-level background then it’s possible to deliver better work than someone who finished three years of journalism school.
I have not faced difficulties as a woman because I have one principle: when you are a woman, you must work twice as hard as a man to prove your worth. But in any field, if a woman has qualifications and capacities, I don’t think her gender gets in the way. She often works much harder than the man. I have noticed that in journalism women are more hardworking.
There are still preconceptions [in Cyprus]. We don’t have any ministers who are women. We had one woman minister and they devoured her. We see a male-dominated Council of Ministers and male-dominated government and semi-government organisations. So we still have a long way to go in Cyprus before there is equality. I have not personally noticed it in my work because I have worked very hard. Even though I was a degree-holder, I was also writing about fires and fatalities… everything. I worked through the entire pyramid of the newspaper. I ate from the spoon as we say. But I believe that ultimately it’s up to the woman to prove what she can do.
I disagree with equal representation, because a woman may not be worthwhile and they put her in for quota reasons. The woman should, according to her worth, get the position she deserves. So I disagree with the notion that we have to put in ten female MPs because of quotas. And if you look now at higher educational organisations, the women are ahead. We missed out at the start, but at the end we are winning.
I believe there has been a change of culture in Cyprus. There are women who say ‘Oh, let me stay at home with my teas’ and so on, but I believe that women need to decide on their own that they should have, I won’t say a career, but some kind of professional outlet. At the same time, however, they can be good mothers and succeed. I believe I’ve neither betrayed the role of my mother, nor neglected my profession.
There were many sacrifices for me when it came to the children. In the old days publishing was very different and we would close at three or four am. It was very difficult, but thankfully my sons aren’t resentful. They said that we may have only had a few hours together, but they were nuclear hours. Also my husband is very modern in his outlook and we have helped each other out. So I don’t think that I have failed from the perspective of motherhood. And this I see from my sons, who thank me for making them into humans, not men. To be a human is a big thing.”
DESPO LEFKARITI is the Managing Director of the public relations company DeLeMa Group, a position she has held since its inception 20 years ago. She is also the President of the Cyprus Communication Agencies Association (formerly called Cyprus Association of Advertising Agencies). Before that she worked for eight years in Athens at Petrolina as assistant General Manager and then as General Manager. She is divorced with two children.
“I had originally wanted to be a fashion designer. But after the 1974 invasion, the general perception was that it was better to have a more solid educational background just in case we lost Cyprus completely and we would need to go out to find work. At the time fashion was a bit of a flimsy career, not a solid one, so I turned to marketing.
When I first started my work in Athens, especially in a tough industry like a petroleum company, people were looking at me, not really believing that I could cope. So in the beginning of my career, people were hesitant about me because I was a woman. When you are a woman and you start off, you need to work much harder for people to accept you. But once you do it, once you manage to be accepted, then I do not think there is a difference between any person, whether a man or a woman. The problem is in the beginning. But I think it depends on you – on the way you perceive people’s reactions and the way you respond to those reactions that sets things right.
The majority of people I come in contact with are men. But actually I don’t have a problem, and because I don’t have a problem, people don’t have a problem with me. Of course, some things may happen. For example, I was the President of the Cyprus Association of Young Entrepreneurs. My Secretary-General at the association was a man. The first time we went to a meeting of YES for Europe (Young Entrepreneurs for Europe) the people thought that he was the president and I was the secretary. But we soon put that straight. It’s always up to you. If you don’t take offence and you accept that it’s a natural mistake, then things are fine.
The reason there are not so many woman in politics and in top jobs in business is not, I think, because they would not be voted. I think it is because a woman nowadays has to play multiple roles and you need to set your priorities and decide how much you can actually do, because the various roles are already overwhelming. So the question is, are you willing to do one more role? I think that’s what it comes down to – not that a woman would not be voted.
It’s a phase. If I look at my children and the way their peers act, I think there is more sharing of responsibility in the next generation than there is in our generation. In our generation, a woman is supposed to do everything related to the house, most things related to the family, and also be a businessperson or a political person, so it’s a bit too much. Even though my former husband used to be a cook and he was a great cook, it can still be overwhelming. It may have had a part in my family not working.
I don’t think it’s harder in Cyprus to be a
woman in executive positions.
Actually in Cyprus, the approach of people is similar to any developed country. I think women are much worse off in third world countries or in Muslim countries. I once met a woman on a plane from Saudi Arabia who founded and heads a school there. Now there is someone who has a tough time. I never had such a tough time as she had. It deserves admiration that she managed to do that in a country with such a culture. I don’t think we have it difficult here in Cyprus.
I’m not a feminist. I’m a people person. I think that all these feminist movements are a bit reactionary. I don’t like conflicts. I don’t like fights. I believe that dialogue and finding a middle way is the best.”
LEDA KOURSOUMBA is the Law Commissioner and the President of ETHNOPAD, the National Institution for the Protection of Human Rights. After studying law in London, she joined the office of the then-law Commissioner and then was a member of the Office of the Attorney General. Later she was head of the European Union Section and a member of the accession negotiating team, where she headed a department of 21 lawyers to conduct the harmonisation work. In November 2002 the president appointed her to the role of Law Commissioner, and in June 2003 the Council of Ministers appointed her President of ETHNOPAD. She is married and has a daughter.
“For some reason I always felt that I wanted to be a lawyer. There are now more women in law. But not when I studied it. Law Commissioner is not specifically a political post, but being among the core decision-making offices, this is the sector that is male-dominated. There are very few women in what are called state offices. Such posts require a decision by the head of state or – in other sectors – the political parties, which makes it an executive position. It’s there where you find very few women.
The same is true of the private sector. Research conducted last year by the Employers’ Federation showed that in the private sector only a very limited percentage of women hold executive posts, though the same research identifies that employers trust women as much as males. Ninety-four per cent indicated that they trust women equally to men.
When you are a woman, you somehow have to prove that you can do good work, whereas it’s not the same with men. You see it all the time. If a woman in a high executive political post has a slip or handles an issue in a way not widely accepted as the proper way, there is a great deal of unfair reaction, often with remarks relating to her sex like ‘she should be in the kitchen’ or ‘she should go home and do some cleaning.’ Whereas every day we witness equally big or great mishandlings by men in similar executive posts, and either there is no reaction, or the reaction has nothing to do with a reference to his sex, like he should go home and do whatever men do.
It’s a fair statement to say that in Cyprus there is still a mistrust of women in high positions. And to be fair to the male sex, it’s the same among women. It’s not only the men who do not trust women equally, particularly in decision-making positions or in politics. That’s not to suggest that women do not make mistakes. On the contrary, I think that it’s very important, since we’re still in the ‘trial’ period for women who are appointed to high positions to be competent for what they undertake. I’m not suggesting that all women can do it, but women are 50 per cent of the population globally, 51 per cent in Cyprus. I am sure that there are an equal number of women who can do the jobs as there are men, which is not reflected in the proportion of women in the top posts in the public and private sector.
Affirmative action is something that has been introduced by the accession of Cyprus to the European Union. In terms of the treaty, affirmative action is action taken by the state to enable the sex that is less represented in a particular area of work to be equally represented. I don’t know how this will be implemented because we may have Constitutional problems that we will have to overcome. It’s an action that political parties have been introducing in recent years. I think that three political parties have introduced this quota system whereby they have to have not an equal number of women but x number of women.
Strictly speaking, if you ask me, when you have to take affirmative action, it is an insult to the female sex and against the gender equality principle. But on the other hand it’s a necessary evil. It seems that in our societies, unless you do this, you may never get a woman in. Look around. With accession to the European Union, a number of posts within the EU have opened. Cyprus was entitled x members in the European Parliament: one Commissioner, two judges in the European Court, a member in the Committee of Auditors… But no woman has been appointed to those positions or for members of the European Parliament elected.
Unless you develop a culture, an environment, for women in your country to have a fair chance to be represented in decision-making bodies, then you won’t have international representation. I don’t think that there should be women in these positions just because they’re women. But people who are qualified, and I do think there are women who are qualified and can do the job, should be under consideration.
If you look within the European Union, you find countries where the head of state, or the foreign minister, who is an important minister, is a lady. Cyprus, because of our traditions and background, has bigger problems than other countries. But one can be optimistic. You can see things changing. And I think for things to change, you have to change attitudes and cultures among people themselves.
I always felt that for me, maintaining a family life and a professional life was a question of discipline, of facing and coping with difficulties in life. It’s a question of knowing what you want to do in your life and allocating your time well. Of course when you have a small child or children, you have to give them more time. But it’s a question of discipline. Also, working is not a burden for me. I enjoy what I have been doing and though I’ve stayed within the legal sphere, there was always variety. This may be the reason why I have always dedicated a lot of time to my work. Maybe my job has become my hobby. In this I feel I’ve been lucky. I’ve chosen something that gives me satisfaction.
So I would say it’s a question of commitment, of liking what you do and of wanting to do it well.
