‘Women don't succeed in business because they put family first’

Devey says she cannot find enough women to work in senior positions One of Britain’s leading female business executives says she cannot find enough women to work in senior positions, because they put their families first.Hilary Devey, a panellist on TV show Dragon’s Den, said many of the women she encounters in the workplace are better than their male counterparts – but they will not commit to serving at the highest levels.
The 56-year-old haulage tycoon, whose third marriage ended in divorce last month, said: “The glass ceiling does not exist. You find a good woman in business and she’ll often be better than a man – the problem is finding them.”
“I can’t get any women on my board because women generally put their partner and children first,”she continued.
Miss Devey launched her freight distribution company Pall-Ex in 1996 to fund her son Mevlit’s education.
She made her first million within three years and is now worth an estimated £50m. The entrepreneur has previously said the ‘myth’ of a glass ceiling is a poor excuse for women not rising to the top.
“There are lots of myths about why women are under-represented in the boardroom, but the excuse about a ‘glass ceiling’ is the worst. I am living proof there’s no such thing,” she said last August.
“The sooner we stop complaining about our biological differences and get down to work, the sooner more women will rise to the top.”
The Bolton-born daughter of a pub landlord yesterday said her earliest memory was the bailiffs ‘taking every stick of furniture’ when her father was declared bankrupt.
“It felt like an injustice,” she said, adding: “I’m in business to make money. The road to success was always crystal clear, I knew what I wanted and I made it happen. Did I envisage my business to be the monster it is today? Of course I did.”
“My company turns over £100million a year and I’m not at all surprised,” she added.
Miss Devey will leave BBC2’s  Dragons’ Den this year and her own Channel 4 show, The Intern, starts  on March 28. She confessed to struggling with building lasting relationships in the wake of the end of her marriage to third husband Philip Childs, a property developer.
“I’ve been divorced three times now and I’m not bothered about ever having a fourth husband. It doesn’t work – particularly in circumstances where one partner has all the wealth,’ she told Britain’s Observer Magazine. “I find it hard to trust people, particularly men. They either end up gay, trying to fleece me, or… running off,” she said.