Manufacturers Seek Her Advice

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31085, 14 June 1966, Page 2

Manufacturers Seek Her Advice

One of the most unusual women in Britain today is Mrs Rowena Mills, aged 34, an independent industrial consultant, whose advice on packaging and the economic problems related to it is sought by many of the country’s leading manufacturers.

An economist who graduated from the University of London, Mrs Mills chose, In entering industry, one of the toughest careers open to women. Although women enjoy equal opportunities with men in most professions in Britain, there are fewer openings for them in industry. Mrs Mills is one of the small, but growing number of women who have made their way to the top in industry by talent and determination. “After leaving the North London Collegiate School for girls, she went to the University of London where she first considered taking up journalism. Eventually, however, she discarded this idea in favour of a career in industry. Her first was with the central purchasing department of a leading international organisation. Mrs Mills, who has two small children, finds that she can cope happily with domestic responsibilities and a career —and that her husband prefers her to continue working because he believes that women with a career are more interesting to live with. After a spell in market research and advertising In Lon-

don, Mrs Mills and her husband, a senior executive with a brewery firm, moved to a small village near to Burton-on-Trent in the Midlands.

It was then, eight years ago, that she began to write articles on the economic problems of packaging for industrial publications and newspapers. “Suddenly I found that overnight I had become a consultant and firms were asking for my advice,” she says. Although she now confines her work to an average of three days a week, there is great scope for expansion as soon as her children are older. Sometimes she may work "flat out” for two weeks, travelling, attending conferences and writing reports. Then she will take a few days off to be with her family. She tries to be with the children, Charlotte, aged two, and the baby, Sebastian, during the afternoons. She employs daily do-

mestic help, and a nanny for the children. Packaging is vital to successful marketing. “It involves costing, ease of use, and retail and consumer acceptability,” Mrs Mills says. “It may be important to decide whether the product is aimed at the right market at the right price. Firms come to me when their products are selling badly. You can say that they bring me the symptoms and I diagnose and suggest a cure.” Mrs Mills concentrates on non-durable products, such as foodstuffs, drinks and toileteries. “Every problem is different, but you can apply certain over-all principles,” she says. Although she believes that some men find it difficult to accept that women can do responsible jobs in industry, Mrs Mills experiences no prejudice. This is probably because her success and reputa-

tion are now firmly established. An accomplished pianist, Mrs Mills also enjoys travel, good food and the independence that a career offers her. She hopes one day to enter politics seriously and she would also like to read law. On several occasions she has taken part in radio and television programmes and recently took slight exception to being described as a “housewife” rather than an economist. No woman, she believes, can follow a serious and responsible career without the willing co-operation of her husband. “Some men,” she says, “think that there is something odd about a woman who combines marriage, motherhood and a career. Personally, I do not know what I should do if I did not work, but I should certainly be very frustrated."