Awards Alumni – Jill Pay – The Gender Index

The winner of the The Best SME D&I Innovation – Gender Equality Award in 2022 was The Gender Index.  The Gender Index, founded by mnAI Data Solutions Ltd, is a groundbreaking, interactive tool which, for the first time ever, provides gender disaggregated data freely accessible to the public through an interactive website, www.thegenderindex.co.uk.

The Gender Index is steered by a Strategic Advisory Board composed of UK business and academic leaders who champion gender equality and especially female entrepreneurship and currently chaired by Jill Pay.

We spoke to Jill to find out more about The Gender Index, the importance of women’s economic empowerment as well as an insight into her own career path.

What does winning the WIBF Award mean to you?
It’s a prestigious acknowledgement of my involvement in this innovative project that will ultimately benefit female entrepreneurs.

What does it mean organisationally?
To The Gender Index, this is a major milestone being recognised as leading nationally in the gathering, analysis and interpretation of gender disaggregated data on UK active companies through our interactive website.

How did the Gender Index come into being?
For over ten years a group of interested women, and men, had been on a mission to get gender disaggregated data on UK SMEs published. We lobbied government, academics, HMRC, but to no avail. Then I was introduced to John Cushing, CEO and Founder of the mnAi data platform. This small business was able to disaggregate the huge volume of data held on the platform by gender. It was a Eureka moment! I describe it as the worlds of data man and gender woman colliding and The Gender Index was conceived!

What difference does the Gender Index make to the sector?
There is now an accurate picture of the SME UK landscape and a benchmark of the level of activity by female-led companies. The Gender Index clearly identifies the challenges and opportunities for female entrepreneurs and for investors. Access to finance is the greatest barrier to women who want to grow their businesses and The Gender Index can help to demonstrate where and how investment can benefit both parties.

How can we use this data further?
In addition to filters by gender, area, sector, investment type, fast growth and company age, we have recently introduced ethnic-minority leadership and generational leadership filters which have produced some interesting insights. For example, Generation Z is closing the gender gap and securing more external funding than any other generation. Using the real-time data on The Gender Index website, it is possible to drill down and find out where good practice is happening that can be replicated in other areas. Another example, for two years running Wales has led the four nations with the highest percentage of fast growth female-led companies. What is happening there to stimulate this fast-growth?

What would you like to see it used for?
The data provides solid evidence for:
– female-led companies to use when pitching for funding to grow
– advisers to use when recommending policy changes
– introducing enterprise into the curriculum across all education sectors.

What is the next step for The Gender Index?
We are taking The Gender Index on a programme of Roadshows around the UK to get even more people engaged and using the data. It’s only by the data being used that we’ll drive the growth of UK female entrepreneurship.

The Gender Index was nominated for the WIBF Awards by NatWest – how important is collaborative working?
It’s vital to achieving female economic empowerment. When we planned The Gender Index, the red line was that it had to be free to access. In order to create this we needed to attract partners and sponsors to fund the development of the technology and associated activities. We were fortunate to attract like-minded organisations that share our ambition to work towards gender parity in business. NatWest is one of our headline partners and we work closely with the Rose Review team. We also have academic partners from leading Business Schools in the four nations. The support and encouragement by all our partners and sponsors are invaluable. Collaboration is the name of the game!

What brought you to this role?
My passion about supporting female entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and ultimately women’s economic empowerment.

Did you always know that data was key?
Yes, evidence is essential to support policy change recommendations, pitches for funding, business cases, any well thought through argument. The Gender Index data provides that evidence.

What has been the most significant decision that you’ve had to make in terms of the direction of your career?
Whether to apply to be Serjeant at Arms in the House of Commons.

This is a historic role, and until my appointment it had always been filled by a male with a military background. But it was an opportunity to bring a woman with a business background and a very different style into a high-profile role in Parliament. I had worked there in different positions for over ten years and seen that it was tough for women to achieve leadership roles. This where my passion to support women comes from.

What is the most important advice that you have been given in your career?
Be your authentic self and believe in yourself; that is what I advise others too.

What do you wish somebody had told you early in your career?
You can do whatever you set your heart on.

What did you enjoy most about the Awards party?
Networking with the other award winners and sharing our stories.

Are you a WIBF award winner? Do you want to be part of our amazing Awards Alumni network? We’d love to be in touch, do drop us a line at [email protected].