Margaret Mountford: 'Women expect companies to bend over backwards'

**frostyboy** · 12th-September-2009

From The Daily Mail:

The Apprentice's Margaret Mountford: 'Women expect companies to bend over backwards'

Margaret Mountford is not known for mincing her words.

The icy platinum blonde acted alongside Nick Hewer as the
'eyes and ears' of Alan Sugar on The Apprentice.

Now the 56-year-old does not hide her disdain the suggestion
of a quota system to increase the number of women on City
boards.

She told The Times: 'If you think you only get on the board
because 50 per cent of people have to be women, what
self-respect can you have?'

'You're just there to make up numbers. Women should stick at it, hang in there.

'In the professions, certainly, women can get to the top. But they don't always want to.

'You can’t complain that you are not on the board if you decide you want to leave the mainstream, have a few years off, then come back and not work the hours.'

Margaret, who has no children of her own, also disapproves of mothers who request to work flexible hours.

The former corporate lawyer said: 'They want companies to bend over backwards.

'If they are talented enough people will want them, but why should companies be forced to have them? I don’t approve of positive discrimination.'

Margaret first met Sugar in the 1980s when she was hired to advise him on legal issues with his firm Amstrad.

She was at his side through several company transactions and his spell as chairman of Tottenham Hotspurs.

On The Apprentice she became known for her trademark roll of the eyes when she was displeased with the contestants' performance.

Margaret admitted she despaired of their disorganisation of contestants on the show.

She said: 'You would think they’d go on to the programme with a team name already thought out — and it would be a good one!

'Just as the way they are never ready when the phone rings. You’d think they’d bother to iron their shirt the night before.'

However she speaks warmly of Sir Alan, whom she has known for many years.

She said: 'Money can change people, but not Alan. He still has his core values.'

Margaret also defended Sugar's appointment by Gordon Brown as Enterprise Tsar.

She said: 'Alan has always had a genuine interest in encouraging young people into business — it’s the only reason he did The Apprentice.'

Margaret quit the BBC1 show last year, to complete her PhD in papyrology, the study of ancient manuscripts.

' I like being responsible for what I’m doing, not what any other people are doing. And it’s up to me to discipline myself. It’s nice not to be at the beck and call of clients or responsible for a team of assistants.

'In papyrology, you often start off with this document, with holes in it, torn around the edges, written in a messy handwriting and difficult to read. It’s a puzzle.

'Maybe that is the legal analytical side of my brain. I enjoy that once one has deciphered it, you can ask what it tells you that we don’t already know.'

Her replacement on the show is chief executive of Birmingham City Football Club, Karren Brady.

Speaking of Karren she said: 'She has a long track record in business, and because of football, Alan has worked with her. They have a genuine connection.'

**Celtic Druid** · 12th-September-2009

'You can’t complain that you are not on the board if you decide you want to leave the mainstream, have a few years off, then come back and not work the hours.'

I like this commonsensical woman.

**Percy** · 13th-September-2009

Yes, it is good to see a woman who has talent, making it to the top of her career, and NOT undermining the boss.

This 'Enterprize Czar' bizzo though. Would you not have chosed the one man who had pushed to and across the starting line more businesses for more people than the next ten 'entrepreneurial' leaders combined? A man who has consistently encouraged people, putting his own finances in, getting the public at an individual choice level to contribute. A man who has gathered together and provided the skills and resources needed for continued mentoring and success to thousands, especially to young people starting out.

Prince Charles.

**shaazam** · 13th-September-2009

Australian companies must render a report to the government about the good things they have done tp promote wimyn employees and if the companies dont then they are published in some shame listing

**byslexic_danana** · 13th-September-2009

Quote from A woman with common sense

'You can’t complain that you are not on the board if you decide you want to leave the mainstream, have a few years off, then come back and not work the hours.'

It really is as painfully simple as that; why the 'wage gap' nonsense keeps coming up, I really don't know. I guess it just suits women's natural 'victimhood' mentality.

**6ame** · 13th-September-2009

Quote from dyslexic_banana

It really is as painfully simple as that; why the 'wage gap' nonsense keeps coming up, I really don't know. I guess it just suits women's natural 'victimhood' mentality.

That's exactly it, the victimhood status is like the ultimate golden egg for women.
I have an idea, I doubt the feminists would go for it, but I think it might just work, we should get all the women in the west, get them to swap places with women from the Middle East, that way we have women who are not victims, but are desperate to be, swapping places with women who are victims, but are desperate not to be, that ought to work out quite sweet, eh?