Mrs. Dora Whitecross took over the reins of the Bermuda Credit Association (BCA) eight years ago, ironically, just as she was considering leaving the company.

She remains there as general manager today, conceding she couldn't be happier.

She got there with a lot of hard work, but no formal training. She never went to university to study business, but went out to work directly after Warwick Academy.

But don't tell her there is no glass ceiling, that women haven't been held back in the workplace.

She said, "It is more real than perceived. I've known qualified women who have lost out to men for job positions in some unusual situations.

"I think it is changing, improving slowly. I think men have been probably fearful of perhaps losing a position. Maybe women just can do that job well, maybe even better than them.

"I can speak from a personal standpoint that when I came in this company, I did not have great aspirations of sitting in this room, taking the heat.'' She gestures around the air conditioned general manager's office that she has personalised with a slew of photos of her daughter, Stacey, an insurance underwriter with BF&M.

"I thought I was coming in to do a job. I had a mortgage to pay, I had a child to school and it was purely a necessity. I started in the accounting section, doing the accounting function, which gave me a good background knowledge of exactly what made the company tick, and how it was going.

"At that point it was very difficult for me to make a decision as to whether I really wanted to stay on here, because I realised quickly the company was in a deficit position.

"Why would I want to be here? Why not go work for some big company that's making bags of money and maybe become one of the stars and rise to the top? But through a sequence of unfortunate events with my predecessor, which I won't go into, he left the Island. So who was going to do his job? "I answer to a board of seven directors who are all male, representing various companies that are members here. They would be the CEO's of the companies.

"It took them a while before they were comfortable with me. Years. I knew when they were comfortable, though, because they started calling me by my first name.

"In the beginning, I could see them saying, `Let's give her a chance, because she is already on staff, she does know something about the business, but she is an unknown quantity. We'll see what she does and then we will start looking around for a male to fill the position.'' "I'm sure that was the thinking. It was never said straight up like that. But reading in between the minutes of company meetings, I was sure that was it.'' But her appointment was the best thing that could have happened to the company, because Mrs. Whitecross had no intentions, once she was in what she calls the "hot seat'', of ever giving it up.

She admits to sleepless nights and being terrified. She worked hard at making changes. She increased membership and volume of business.

Within about three years she had turned the company around. She not only took the company out of the red, but made it pay. Eight years after taking over, the investors have received 100 percent of their investment back and our receiving dividends.

"There were a lot of things that I had to convince the board of. Things like automation, which I frankly knew little about, too. But I knew we needed to be more efficient to create a better bottom line.

"We had a very negative image, even with our membership, never mind the public and debtors. We've been changing that. We like to think that we don't just do an excellent job for our members, but that we can take people who have debts over the moon, and rehabilitate them and turn it around.

"Out of the recession we have been able to do that, because we have seen people who are just depressed and maybe a little unwell because of the debt and lack of employment.

"We've been able to turn that around and show people how they can save money.

I have people now, who stop me in the street and thank me, people who are now moving ahead to build their house or buy a new car. It was an unexpected by-product. I didn't dream about any of that.

"Sometimes people just give me a smile across the room and nothing else needs to be said. I know, they know and no one else will ever know.'' Mrs. Whitecross has a staff of 14, predominantly women, providing services that include credit reporting or reporting on credit-worthiness. They are also a collection agency, collecting bad debts.

She now has the blessing of the board to begin automating credit reporting.

Right now it is kept manually. She foresees terminals in all member offices, providing instant credit information and improved billing.

At 51, she said she wants to pass on a completely automated office when she finally leaves the job.

The firm is linked to other "credit police'' organisations in various other countries, enabling much success in global searches for those debtors who flee the Island.

BCA's membership list includes some 300 Bermuda businesses, including about 50 shareholder members. They affix the Bermuda Credit Association sticker in prominent places at their businesses. Mrs. Whitecross said that it acts as a deterrent.

"Anyone who has ever been on the negative side of that sign, possibly at cash registers, they know exactly what that means. It means the watchdog is here.

Let us do the right and honourable thing. Perhaps they were going to write a bad cheque.'' She graduated high school in the radical sixties, although she hardly could have been anything but conservative.

"When I left Warwick Academy, there were no more funds around so I went to work for a firm of chartered accountants and auditors, Morris & Kempe, and got a really good basic understanding of life, business and money. I did that for eight years and then I went to work for one of the merchants, Winter-Cookson, for three years.

"Then I had my daughter and stayed home for a bit (a little more than a year) and then I went to work at Ornamental Iron Works and ran that for ten years.

That was creative and lots of fun.'' She almost never returned to working. But she wanted a "nicer house'' and for most Bermudians that means another paycheque.

She was originally working part time as assistant to the man who owned Ornamental Iron Works. As the business picked up, she took on more responsibility and the owner asked her to run the business for him, because he wanted to cut back on his duties there.

It was a turning point for her. She suddenly saw herself differently from the direction-less teenager that left high school. Not only had she married and given birth, but she was being trusted in a very responsible position in the workplace.

"I had been there about a year and I told him I was terrified and I couldn't take over. But he said I could. He believed in me. He pushed me and gave me great incentive to do it and I did.

"That gave me an opportunity to travel and purchase for the company, and attend conventions. I enjoyed it. It was a changing period anyway, for me.

Motherhood gave me more confidence in my self.

"I had no aspirations coming out of Warwick Academy. My professional life turned out far better than I ever thought in my wildest dreams. Remember too, in the early sixties, the sort of background I came out of, a woman's place was in the home.

"When a young girl finished school in those days, you end up with some mediocre job, get married, have children and stay home and be a housekeeper.

But I enjoyed working. When I was 21 years old, a woman made me realise that at that young age, I was responsible for a staff of five on my job at the accounting firm. I had responsibilities and duties.

"There was no lengthy educational background that brought me to the job I'm in today. It was really the school of hard knocks. A lot of people from my generation had been successful without the benefit of formal education.'' Today, however, she recommends students get the education, while the getting is good.

Her spare time is spent watching her daughter's equestrian pursuits, gardening and being home.

"When I go home, I like to be nobody with no telephones ringing. The equestrian interest of my daughter also has my interest. I think it was good for her growing up and kept her on a straight road.

"It's very gratifying when your children turn out right. She is quite ambitious.'' There are sweet scents in her office, located in the aging Mechanics Building on Church Street.

A handful of carnations in four different colours are on her desk, from the day Harold, her husband of 30 years, she said, just showed up with them as a surprise. She smiles into the distance.

If you ask Mrs. Whitecross what's more difficult "parenting'' or her job, she'll choose parenting real quickly, and with some emphasis.

"It's just harder. A human life that you love. You can't be fired and you can't quit.'' HARD WORK paid off for BCA head Mrs. Dora Whitecross.