Women's Day

Despite 70% of colleagues in convenience stores identifying as female, it appears there is still a huge gender gap in the sector, with only 33% of stores owned ...

And as a family, we made a decision that I would go on to the panel and speak on behalf of the shop. “I’m an owner, I could mentor a manager, that would work, but it wouldn’t work the other way around because an owner has a different set of responsibilities.” “Only two or three weeks ago, I was in the shop working and a rep came in and said to me ’Is your boss in?’” she recalls. Aiming to tackle some of the issues women face, the ACS set up the Women in Retail network last year. “Hopefully it will be a safe space where women can voice opinions without the fear of being judged or ridiculed.” “I think women can see retail as a part-time job to fit around their children, and that may be why women aren’t going into manager or owner positions,” she observes. And it’s always assumed that the men will go to work, and the women will be at home doing the caring and pick up the burden, pick up the extra things that need to be done. “I’ve got lots of local women working in the store, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not interested in going to a higher level. But other women might not be so lucky, they might leave to have a child and not have the option to come back, especially if they’re owners themselves.” “I just don’t think that they’re [women are] respected enough, especially as owners,” states Sophie Towers. “Nobody respects me, apart from local One Stop rep, we have a good partnership and he really values what I say and my opinion on everything, like he really treats me as a person. But even so, when we ask female store owners and managers for their views on how it feels to be a female leader in the convenience sector, there’s one phrase that keeps coming up. He adds that the number of female c-store owners is expected to increase in the future.