One for the girls?

I recently came across coach and author Lynette Allen. She has written three books:

Behind with the marking and plagued by nits(for teachers)

Behind with the mortgage and living off plastic (for women)

Behind with the laundry and living off chocolate (for women)

What brilliant titles! And she is running a great site that focuses on women and their skills too (http://www.pinkexpertise.co.uk She has identified a niche market and gone for it, full swing!

I have, of course, a vested interest in mentioning Lynette. I sell her books on Complete Trainer and she has been kind enough to feature me on her site.

But it brings me back to this concept of approaching business/training/development for women differently to men. There was a hugely active thread on the UKBusinessForum about whether women should have separate business initiatives with varying reponses from 'Yes, we have different needs', to 'no, I don't want to be treated any differently to men' right up to 'why should women get all the breaks?'.

And it is a question worth examination. Should we have separate training for women? For people of a particular religion, or sexual orientation, or taste in music?

There are boundaries, and these boundaries are being set not by society but by behaviour. There are certainly examples where training or interaction with people should be separated out. I am sure a room full of men would rather not be taught how to examine for testicular cancer by a woman, likewise a room full of women not be taught self-examination for breast cancer by a man. OK, obvious choices, but very clear examples.

We embrace diversity! It is what makes this planet so hugely successful. Keith Patching, formerly a Director at Cranfield School of Management, says:

"Even though we recognise that people who are different from ourselves can be hard to understand or value, we have made great strides in learning tolerance and understanding. Attitudes to ethnicity, religion, gender, age and sexual orientation have changed, supported by legislation that makes it illegal to discriminate against people on these grounds. Many enlightened organisations devote a significant amount of attention to inclusion – the means of ensuring that each individual can feel and be included irrespective of whether he or she is a member of any kind of minority.

There is still more to be done to deal with conflicts that may emerge as a result of diversity, but progress is being made."

Back to the issue of training just for women. Should we have it? Yes, it has a place, just as books aimed at women and clothes designed for women have their place too.