The impact of surveys or polls and how they can motivate, challenge or mobilise a section of society, a group or indeed those that are politically influential can be very significant. Whatever your views of the Scottish Independence debate, there can be no doubt about the impact of the poll announced Sunday week ago which put the 'Yes' campaign in front.  With the media blowing the cold winds in the direction of Westminster, minds suddenly became focused and the 'Better Together' campaign were impelled to act or as others believe cobble together a response to prise away the initiative and momentum.  Something which it appeared they had casually taken for granted for months. 

Certainly Cameron, Clegg and Miliband seemed anything other than convincing about the apparent plan which they had in place for some time, which lacked any form of political or legislative detail, to handover significant powers from Westminster to Holyrood in the event of a 'No' vote.  Whatever happens on Thursday, devolution within these islands will change forever and not just in Scotland, but throughout the UK.  When Gordon Brown, backed by the forced union of the three Westminster amigos, promised Scotland nothing less than 'a modern form of home rule' if the vote is No, which many commentators believe it will be, the constitutional make up of all the regions of the UK including Northern Ireland will irrevocably change.  If it is a 'Yes' the level of change and the dynamics within the UK will be an unknown.

Coming back to that poll Sunday week ago, while it didn't in itself change perceptions it certainly forced the hand of the 'Better Together' campaign to offer long term change on how Scotland would be governed.  In contrast I have lost count of the number of surveys and polls regarding equality, or lack thereof, of the sexes in the workplace yet nothing seems to change, at least of any significance.  These surveys have become banal, you expect them to come out every so often and you have a good idea what they are going to say before you read them.   That's not that they are unimportant, far from it, but the lack of any real change in this area of labour hierarchy suggests me to that we are not looking at it or addressing it in the right way.  Again this week we have found out that in Northern Ireland while women make up almost half of the population, leave school with better qualifications than men and are more likely to enter further education they are still underrepresented at senior management level, in boardrooms and in public life here. 

Evelyn Collins of the Equality Commission also highlighted that while some progress in workplace equality has been made since laws were introduced in the 1970s many inequalities remain with only 33% of managers and senior officials in the private and public sectors being women.  Women are also underrepresented when it comes to enterprise and entrepreneurship in Northern Ireland.  This announcement follows a research paper by the Northern Ireland Assembly earlier in the year which shows that women are significantly underrepresented on public bodies with 33% of all public appointments being women, yet they only make up 19% of the chairs.   Regarding pay rates the disparity continues but interestingly not at junior management level.  A Chartered Management Institute report highlighted that junior women managers earn 3% more than their male counterparts, typically recent graduates.I know many women, not just in business, but doctors, teachers, lawyers, accountants, civil servants, head chef and entrepreneurs, who have reached the heights of their career ambitions.  There can be more challenges for women to reach the echelons of leadership in whatever industry they are in but for those that reach the top they have not let the drawbacks within the system hinder their development, not that there should be any of course. For me, it hasn't been my gender that has been the problem more challenging the fact of not being part of the club.  This represents things like the school network, which still holds considerable sway today, particularly within government and the political arena.   These are the sluices that need challenged and changed.

However, I can understand that a man and women who start out in the same career with the same capabilities and opportunities will not always advance at the same rate.  For example, in this circumstance, how do you gauge the comparative level of experience where a women has had three terms of maternity leave with the man, in effect, having had two more years of knowledge and expertise?  Some would say that’s just life.  This is an age old issue which I don't think we have ever properly addressed. There remains a lack of access to affordable childcare which impacts primarily on women's access to employment and budget cuts too, due to the economic downturn, having impacted more on women.  Childcare in Northern Ireland costs nearly half (44%) of average income, compared to 33% in GB and 12% across the EU.  Around half of all parents and two thirds of mothers say this has influenced the hours they work. These are the issues that need addressed.  As opposed to skirting round the issue of why women are underrepresented in leadership positions, we need to change the problems at source.   I've heard it said that women have many of the attributes that constitute a good leader.  I'd agree, for me that means cultivating relationships, building teams that release the talent of others, developing flexible and fluid management systems and building inclusive organisations. So let’s not have more of the same benign surveys or polls with the same old conversations but actually have a frank debate about what the issues holding women back are and implement policy and practice which will actually affect change.The Scottish referendum isn’t the only election in Scotland on Thursday.  The home of golf, St Andrews, has been holding its autumn meeting on 18 September since 1783. Tradition is not for being broken, or is it?  On Thursday evening the membership of the club will gather to be told the results of a ballot on whether to abandon the policy of having a men-only membership, 231 years later. Equality, it seems is a slow burning flame.

Claire Aiken is Managing Director of Public Relations and Public Affairs company, Aiken PR