Women will have more chance at succeeding in business if they do not work with men, a retail expert has claimed.
Jacqueline Gold, chief executive of Ann Summers, suggests that a workplace needs to be "fun" and that female employees should not feel "intimidated" by their superiors - and that doing away with male colleagues can be the solution, personneltoday.com reports.
Speaking at the Public Sector People Managers' Association conference in Brighton last week, Ms Gold said: "Women [at other companies] will often say that they've had a fantastic idea, but they feel intimidated.
"The fact that we've got a female chief executive and a female managing director means we don't have that problem.
"But that has to come from the top. People at the top need to buy into it. [Your organisation] has got to be a fun place to work."
Ann Summers has been radically transformed during the last 20 years, increasing its annual turnover from £87,000 in 1987 to £155 million in 2007. Of the employees working in its 141 retail outlets and the 7,500 party planners employed by the company, the overriding majority are women.
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