Yorkshire Post, 17 October 2007

By Marilyn Stowe

WHEN I started out in business in 1982, female company directors were a novelty in Yorkshire. Launching my practice meant taking out a bank loan – which resulted in “pre-emptive” action from a cynical and incredulous bank manager. He made weekly inspection visits to my East Leeds office, based in a converted cobbler’s shop, to scrutinise every detail of how I ran my firm.

As I mark 25 years in business, I also celebrate how times have changed. Now a quarter of the country’s self-employed are female – and 68 per cent of Britain’s 50 largest companies have women on their boards.

I applaud the fact that Yorkshire’s women are the most successful of all: research in 2006 revealed that the region generates more female entrepreneurs than anywhere else in the UK.

What is more, they encounter the fewest barriers to success, with three in 10 facing obstacles compared to a national average of four in 10.

These are all major milestones which, to my delight, consign my old bank manager and his archaic attitude to the mists of time.

My own client list is a measure of this transformation. As a family lawyer, my practice handles divorce cases, which can entail substantial assets.

Twenty-five years ago, almost all the wealthy women I represented were housewives. Over the years, they have been gradually replaced by successful businesswomen, serial entrepreneurs, MDs and senior-level directors.

The Prime Minister’s address at this year’s Labour Party Conference set me thinking what the future holds for businesswomen. Gordon Brown was applauded after he confirmed for a second time that paid maternity leave was to be extended to a year. Such developments contrast starkly with the battles women encountered a quarter of a century ago.

Back then, we had witnessed the introduction of equal pay, anti-discrimination legislation and the election of Margaret Thatcher as our first female prime minister.

Even so, we still had to behave like macho men if we wanted to be taken seriously.

Here in Yorkshire, there was even a standard uniform: drab, matching black jackets and skirts, teamed with clumpy court shoes, were de rigueur.

The majority of competitors, suppliers and associates were
men, and for women like us, many of them fell into one of two categories. There were the paternal types who made it patently clear that they regarded female directors as doomed curiosities with few business abilities.

The second category comprised the downright rude: I was called a “bitch” on more than one occasion.

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Yorkshire Evening Post, 16 October 2007.

LEADING Yorkshire solicitor Marilyn Stowe celebrated her firm’s silver jubilee at York Racecourse.

Top UK divorce lawyer Mrs Stowe’s Harrogate firm, Stowe Family Law LLP, sponsored Rockingham Stakes race won by Max One Two Three.

Mrs Stowe presented the trophy to triumphant jockey Richard Kingscote in a ceremony filmed live for Channel 4 Racing.

Stowe Family Law LLP is one of the UK’s largest family law practices and boasts a 20-strong team of specialist lawyers and forensic accountants.

Having co-founded the business from humble beginnings in a converted Leeds cobbler’s shop, the firm now attracts clients worldwide and handles cases involving assets of over £100m.

Milestone

Mrs Stowe said: “Our Silver Jubilee celebrations were our way of thanking our tremendously dedicated team, as well as our guests, who travelled from far and wide to share this milestone occasion with us.”

Mrs Stowe was the first female solicitor outside London to be elected a Fellow of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

She was also appointed the first Chief Assessor and Chief Examiner of the Law Society’s Family Law Panel in 1998 and is a member of the Legal Advisory Group to the Law Commission, which recently proposed changes in the law relating to cohabitation.