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THE EDITOR


A few months ago, we began to construct this extended feature. I have had some great experiences since starting in this role one year ago, and as a result, I felt that it was about time Tomorrow’s Flooring celebrated the presence of females in this industry.


I spoke to five business women across different sectors of our industry, including public relations, sales, events management, construction and engineering, and interviewed each about their experiences. These women shared with me their educational backgrounds, their achievements, and the ladders they have successfully climbed to achieve their goals and ambitions.


Associate at Mott MacDonald, Eszter Gulacsy, has an educational background from Harvard and the University of California, and having worked in both Europe and the US, offers an interesting perspective on how women are treated either side of the pond.


National Sales Manager for Carpenter Underlay, Helen Rowberry, also contributed. I met Helen at Domotex


Tomorrow's Flooring: Women in Flooring


earlier this year and was impressed by her strength of character and how calm and collected she was. Helen gave an interesting perspective of someone who, after 15 years in a male-dominated industry, isn’t fazed at all by her gender.


Another contributor, Wendy Adams, Events Director of The Flooring Show and founder of Adam’s Associates, left school at 16 on a Friday and started work in a hotel on the Monday. Now she handles six major exhibitions across the country. I also spoke with Kathy Wilkinson. After many years working for the press, she left a managerial role after seven years to set up by herself. She now runs the successful agency Wilkinson PR.


We also share with you a comment piece from Sarah Davis, Chair of Women in Building Services Engineering (WiBSE), on the recent research which backs up claims that women have some invaluable traits to boost the flooring industry.


Sheryl Sandberg, the COO for Facebook, is an ardent campaigner for women in the workplace. It’s her opinion that a woman’s main hurdle in the workplace is put there by herself; women are


THE EDITOR Grace Holliday - Tomorrow’s Flooring


THE ASSOCIATE Ezster Gulacsy - Mott Macdonald


THE EVENTS DIRECTOR Wendy Adams - The Flooring Show


THE SALES MANAGER Helen Rowberry - Carpenter Underlay


THE PUBLIC RELATIONS MD Kathy Wilkinson - Wilkinson PR


THE CHAIR Sarah Davis - Women In Building Services Engingeering


holding themselves back. Whilst there may be some truth to this, others would argue that barriers are put there by others, whilst some women claim that they have never felt undermined in the workplace. I think it’s fair to say that whether you agree with Sheryl or not, she has some ideas which are difficult to question: “I want every little girl who is told she is bossy, to be told instead that she has leadership skills,” she is quoted as saying.


So what do Tomorrow’s Flooring want? We want women to be hired for the skills and assets, their knowledge on a certain topic or subject, their ability to engage with clients effectively, their fantastic ideas or their ability to manage a team. Once in the job, we want women to be treated equally in situations like pay increases or promotions. A no- discrimination environment from first read of a CV to the leaving party; that’s the ideal.


Grace Holliday Editor, Tomorrow’s Flooring


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