Across from her, Elaine smiled.
‘We’re women, running businesses, juggling lots of things, fighting against the glass ceiling every day,’ said Toni. ‘So, Women in Business is our men’s club. It wasn’t set up as an organisation to libel anyone or to slander anyone. It’s about mentoring, advancing women in industry. It’s about sharing information. It’s about networking. It’s a resource for women in the world of business.’
‘So what went wrong on the day you were interviewed on Epsilon Radio?’
‘What went wrong,’ said Toni, ‘was that I was on a panel with a CEO who felt that WIB was not needed. This person’s opinion was that women were getting just as many managerial jobs and were paid the same amount as men. That’s not true, not generally, and not in this particular business.’
‘But how did you know that?’ said Elaine.
‘I had researched the company,’ said Toni.
It was the only safe way to put it. She’d spent so long going over this with Cormac and his damage limitation people on the phone the night before that she had a headache trying to remember the right words to use.
‘So I disagreed with the CEO.’
‘And then what happened?’
‘He insisted that his company was very female friendly. I disagreed with this analysis. We had a row. The next day, he confronted me in the car park of the TV station as I was leaving work after recording my show. I have to admit to being a little anxious when he confronted me because I was alone and felt vulnerable. He was very angry. And I said things I shouldn’t have said.’
‘Do you regret this?’
‘Yes, of course I regret it. I regret that I allowed my professionalism to desert me,’ said Toni, ‘I regret that I lashed out – I should know better. But I was dealing with a personal matter at the time, and I lost my head.’
‘This CEO, who refused to come on the radio this morning and take part in the show, is very unhappy about the treatment, and says that you targeted his business particularly.’
‘I didn’t,’ Toni said simply. ‘I was put on the show with him, and I did my research in advance. It could have been anyone. He has not, however, taken any legal action,’ Toni pointed out.
‘True,’ said Elaine, picking up a piece of paper. ‘His comment is that he wants to move on from this.’
Toni smiled inwardly. Gerry Lanigan absolutely wanted to move on from this. He had so many fires he was trying to put out right now that he had neither the time nor the heart to go after Toni Cooper. The three sexual harassment claims his company was facing were keeping him busy. Toni’s female friends had told her about the phone recording of the Lanigan’s Christmas party where another executive tried to assault two separate female employees in the women’s loo. The company had tried to hush it up, but it hadn’t worked. Said executive was currently assisting the police with their enquiries and Women in Business were going to commission a report on sexual harassment in the workplace and look at how often such cases were actually reported because women were afraid of the repercussions for their careers.
‘I regret my comments in the car park, but his way of approaching me was not right – and it is part of the problem. Luckily, I work in an industry where women can rise to the top and have big careers, but there are many other women for whom this is not the case. When company bosses say Women in Business is too “woke” and isn’t required, when they pretend there are already enough women executives, that women are already being paid equally, they are shutting down the conversation and they are part of the problem.’
Toni knew she was on thin ice here.
‘We need organisations like Women in Business to help women thrive. WIB can take the place of the golf club, the rugby outing, whatever place or outing where guys go and network. WIB can also allow women to share real experiences of working in male-dominated office spaces – that includes sexual harassment.’
Elaine said nothing about this statement. Before they’d gone on-air, they’d discussed the libel implications of saying anything more and had erred on the side of discretion. Nobody wanted to be sued.
Instead she remarked: ‘You obviously have a lot of plans for the organisation, Toni?’
Toni took a deep breath. ‘The thing is, I’m not the correct person to be mentoring for Women in Business anymore,’ she said. ‘I believe in personal responsibility, and in losing my cool in this encounter, I feel I have failed the women I work for. The staff need to be beyond reproach, so I am standing down from my position.’
‘You’re standing down? When did you make this decision?’ asked Elaine.
‘I took some time out, I went to Sicily with my sister,’ said Toni, thinking that ‘I went to Sicily with my sister,’ was a very limp phrase for what had been an enormous life-changing event on so many levels for both of them.
‘There have been changes in my personal life and I decided that it would be wrong of me to continue in the job when I had made such a professional error by allowing myself to shout at someone. That is not the way to change how women in business are viewed. Plus, if the discussion is about me, then it takes the focus off what we do. So I am resigning.’
It was the right thing to do, she knew. The revelations she’d uncovered about Lanigan and his bullying behaviour would soon emerge and would result in more controversy. Toni would inevitably be asked about him, and she firmly believed that if the focus was on her personally instead of her organisation, then she would be failing the charity.
‘Well, you heard it here first, folks,’ Elaine said. ‘And your TV show?’
‘Oh, I’ll still be doing that,’ said Toni, without a moment’s hesitation.
Gloria walked down the street with Sugar trotting neatly along beside her. Behind her house was a square where stately oaks grew, small children played on seesaws and swings, and people with dogs let them race among the shrubs sniffing and running after each other.
Gloria hadn’t wanted to adopt little Sugar five years ago. The small dog was rescued from the side of the road, covered with mud. ‘I’m too old for a dog,’ she’d said. ‘I always said I’d never have another dog after Benjy died. It’s not fair to them if you can’t walk them, and look at me – I’m a crock!’
