Question 1:
What will it take for women to be equally represented in senior management, and do we think it will happen?
Was chatting with a senior exec of a company where there are many more women than men in the general workforce, yet in senior management there was an equal balance. Broadly in her industry this is true, with many CEO roles being held by men.
I have noticed this in both PR and publishing, and I expect other industries (retail?).
It looks like the ranks get thinned when the roles get bigger. And of course there’s maternity and choices influencing this but is that all? And what is the world of business losing through this lack of balance?
We talked about the usual stuff about some of the characteristics more often found in women that make them great leaders – achieving with people rather than over them, dialogue, willingness to share, emotional intelligence etc.
But the question is what will it take for these profound imbalances to change? And do we actually believe it will happen?
Question 2:
What is the environmental impact of obese people exercising more and eating healthier?
I know this is random. But I keep thinking about healthy living, obesity, health inequality here my home city of Brighton, CrossFit and how that helped me gain control of my body.
And I wondered, what would the net effect be, from a sustainability perspective, of many more obese people exercising more? Because morally it’s a no brainer if there are ways to help people be healthier and happier.
Crudely, we’d use less much resources in healthcare caring for all the consequences of obesity, but I’m imagining that people might eat more (?) to fuel exercise, certainly more unprocessed foods, and they’d also live longer so more years would need resourcing…
If we’re all healthier, do we finish up or down – globally – in terms of calories consumed?
Will McInnes 
I’m loving Question 2 (but recognise the critical importance of Question 1).
Question 2 really needs a study. But it’d have to be a really long-term one. My natural instinct is the obvious one: that a fitter, healthier population is going to have less of a detrimental environmental impact than an unhealthy one, despite them potentially living longer and therefore consuming for longer, requiring pensions for longer and, ultimately, taking advantages of state services (e.g. healthcare) for longer. On the upside (and based on no evidence whatsoever, just gut feel), fitter, healthier people are more likely to:
– Be more productive and able to add value economically for longer
– Be more environmentally aware and health-conscious and therefore, for example, use environmentally-friendly forms of transport (bikes v. cars, walking v. buses)
– Eat less processed food, therefore reducing the need for food processing plants and buying more locally-produced fresh food, reducing the need for transportation, storage and packaging
– Have less of a need for state healthcare throughout their lives (despite living longer)
– Wear clothes which require less material
– Die suddenly in tragic sports-related accidents