Question: Women comprise 46.5% of the U.S.
workforce, 49% of all managers, 16% of upper managers,
and 2% of the Fortune 500 CEO's. What major factors
contribute to this imbalance, influencing a woman's
ability to reach the top in today's corporate world?
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Sheila
Wellington
Former President,
Catalyst
author of Be Your Own Mentor
www.CatalystWomen.org Catalyst
is the nonprofit organization working to advance women
in business.
Gretchen
Tibbits
President,
National Association for Female Executives (NAFE)
Tina
Sung
President,
American Society of Training & Development (ASTD)
Dr.
Judy B. Rosener
Graduate School of Management, University of California,
Irvine,
www.gsm.uci.edu/~rosener/
author of America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers
Helen
Drinan
President and CEO,
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Teresa
Cavanagh
Director
FleetBoston's Women Entrepreneurs' Connection
www.fleet.com
Azriela
Jaffe
syndicated columnist,
www.azriela.com
author of Starting
from No: Ten Strategies to Overcome Your Fear of Rejection
and Succeed in Business
Debra
Pestrak
motivational
speaker and trainer,
author
of Playing
with the Big Boys
www.mostpowerfulwomen.com/index.html
Sheila
Wellington
Former President,
Catalyst
author of Be Your Own Mentor
www.CatalystWomen.org Catalyst
is the nonprofit organization working to advance women
in business.
Catalyst
finds a number of factors continue to hinder women's
advancement in corporate America. First, women tell
us that "male stereotyping and preconceptions
of women" is one of the biggest barriers they
still face - not blatant sexism, but outdated ideas
rooted in stereotypes about women's abilities and
commitment to their careers. Other obstacles impeding
women's progress include "exclusion from informal
networks of communication" and "lack of
mentors." Women often feel excluded from casual
situations and social settings (drinks, lunches, teeing
off on the golf links) where deals are discussed,
introductions are made, and information is passed
along.
Catalyst's
years of research reveal that having a mentor is a
crucial key to success. Informal mentoring has always
occurred between men in corporate America. A senior
man takes a younger man under his wing, shows him
the ropes, introduces him to important people, and
eventually recommends him for high visibility assignments.
As women entered, however, that type of mentoring
did not occur as naturally. Women were left to navigate
the political waters of the organization on their
own. Women of color seem to feel the exclusion from
informal networks and the lack of access to influential
others even more acutely than do white women.
Women
need to become their own mentors, availing themselves
of tools that will help them devise short- and long-term
career strategies, gain visibility in the workplace,
create opportunities, advance their careers, balance
work and life, and much more.
Gretchen
Tibbits
President,
National Association for Female Executives (NAFE)
Unfortunately,
there are still a lot of factors.
Today, as your statistics show, qualified women
ARE in the pipeline, but too few of us are at the
top.
Some
companies do "get it." Look to lists like
NAFE's corporate sponsors and benefit providers, and
Working Woman magazine's Top 25 Companies for Executive
Women. However, at many companies institutional bias still remains.
While overt discrimination may be mostly gone, many
times women are still excluded from the informal networks
that are in place.
As a result, women are overlooked in discussions
of who should be groomed or tapped for that next step.
Many women also find themselves in staff jobs,
lacking the line experience necessary for the next
promotion.
We
find more and more that women "drop out"
of the corporate pipeline when they reach middle management,
some because of lifestyle decisions, but many out
of frustration. The
result of that frustration: Women are starting businesses
at the rate of 2 to 1 compared to men.
Tina
Sung
President,
American Society of Training & Development (ASTD)
Today’s
female executive needs to possess a skill set comprised
of competencies that continues to evolve because of
technology, organizational culture, diversity and
the changing needs of the work force.
A woman in an executive role must be a learning
zealot, not only understanding the core and technical
aspects of her organization, but the culture and relationships
that make it up as well.
A competent leader may have complete understanding
of business trends and models, market analysis tools
and the financials, but if the underlying emotional
intelligence is lacking, your organization may suffer.
Cultivating the best in people at every level
can truly define the success of any executive in a
leadership role. I encourage women who aspire to be
a CEO one day, not only to have strong business acumen
and polished organizational skills, but to also have
an equally strong sense of self, and know that you
are only as good as the relationships you foster and
cultivate. I believe that women who are trying to
climb the ladder of success may be using old models
of “what it takes to get ahead.” Leadership roles
today are so much more complex, and both men and women
need to understand these changing dynamics.
Dr.
Judy B. Rosener
Graduate School of Management, University of California,
Irvine,
www.gsm.uci.edu/~rosener/
author of America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers
Factors
which hamper women who wish to obtain postions of
power have little to do with women, and much to do
with organizational culture. Based on my research, one of the main organizational obstacles
for women is the cultural "mind-set" I call
the "one best model." This model suggests
that to be a leader or successful means to think and
act like a male. Since men are uncomfortable with
women because they don't think and act like themselves,
they tend
to see them as deficient.
I believe that the discrimination that results
from this discomfort is subconscious---not purposeful.
I feel it illustrates what I call "sexual
static"....the feeling of confusion, irritation,
and discomfort men feel working with women who are
not like them. Like static on the radio, men don't
understand the source of the static, or how to fix
it. At
the same time, there is increasing acknowledgement
that the attributes associated with women, i.e. the
ability to share power and information, multi-task,
deal with ambiguity, and build consensus, are particularly
effective in today's global environment.
This is threatening to men because the glass
ceiling for those below it (mostly women) is the floor
for those above it (mostly men).
When the ceiling for women is removed, so is
the floor for men, thus they have a fear of falling.
In order to remove the glass ceiling, organizations
need to develop a culture that sees women as a resource
not a problem. In essence, they need to discard the "one best male model"
mind-set, and advance a mind-set that sees the word
difference as "added value."
Helen
Drinan
President and CEO,
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Major
factors which contribute to the imbalance in women’s
participation at the highest levels of the U.S. workforce
include the volume of women actually in the pipeline
to the top, choices women make themselves, and selection
criteria used by decision makers.
From
a pipeline perspective, it is actually amazing to
see how many women have progressed to higher levels
of management given that discrimination against women
for advancement was still acceptable until the late
70’s. In
less than 30 years, the make-up of the managerial
workforce has become half female at middle management;
to see up to 12% in upper management is fairly predictable
in this relatively short period.
For
their own reasons, many women who have family responsibilities
make important choices in favor of work-life balance
which keep them out of the competition for top jobs.
Nobel prize winning economist Professor James
Heckman found in his research… “that women who could
have earned the highest wages often were not in the
workplace…” and “…choose not to work for wages. What they’re working on instead is child-rearing, building
a home or something outside the home they value more
highly than paid work.” Presumably these potential
high wage earners might also be
candidates for high level jobs but they are
not seeking them.
Finally,
when decisions are made on top-level positions, the
criteria for selection of men and women are often
different. In
research conducted at the Simmons College Graduate
Program in Management, it was determined that men
are most often selected for top jobs based on perceived
potential, while women are selected for actual performance.
If women were given the same opportunity based
on potential as men are, clearly more would have opportunities
for advancement to the highest levels.
Teresa
Cavanagh
Director
FleetBoston's Women Entrepreneurs' Connection
www.fleet.com
In
my opinion, the glass ceiling is one of two career
barriers that exist for women seeking senior management
positions in corporate America. The other one is "glass
walls". Having made it through the glass ceiling,
a woman has the title of a senior manager, but she
is often not fully acknowledged or included among
male counterparts.
When
there are more women in positions of responsibility
for managing a P&L, or heading revenue producing
lines of business, not the traditional staff roles
of HR and Marketing, then we will see more women being
considered for senior management.
Having
a mentor or asking for assignments that will develop
these opportunities
is key to getting on the track to the top. All too
often I am asked to counsel career-focused women who
have a resume filled with project management experience
rather than a progression from project management
to mid-management to management responsibilities.
Taking
risks by reaching outside of your comfort zone is
another way to start the road to the top. Start with
small reaches, then build upon your
successes
with growing confidence. Yes, I can !!
Azriela
Jaffe
syndicated columnist,
www.azriela.com
author of Starting
from No: Ten Strategies to Overcome Your Fear of Rejection
and Succeed in Business
I
suggest an unpopular possibility -- that a significant
majority of women are choosing not to be in the top
ranks. The
victim stance says that if only
we could, we would, but the mean men are keeping us
out. This is
true in some circumstances.
Equally true -- it really is not possible to
"have it all".
Many women choose to sacrifice career success
to at least some degree, in order to enjoy connection
in a deeper way to their husbands and children.
Yes, it's possible to be a working mom at the
highest level in a company, but we're fooling ourselves
to say that nothing is sacrificed. Perhaps there are
some women who consider it too high a price to pay.
Okay, shoot me, this opinion is not beloved by women
who have a legitimate beef -- but I also think we
must make it okay for some high powered executive
women to admit that maybe they aren't really shooting
for the top, because the sacrifices in family time
and personal balance are not worth the reward.
Debra
Pestrak
motivational
speaker and trainer,
author
of Playing
with the Big Boys
www.mostpowerfulwomen.com/index.html
Our
societal norms and expectations are the greatest hindrance
to women's advancement in business.
-
There
are still men out there who believe women should
be at home raising children.
-
Many
women do not have the self-confidence to realize
that they can get what they want in life.
-
Some
women feel guilty about not having the time to
spend with their children that they would like
to have.
-
Society
has limiting expectations of how women should
act and not act.
-
Some
women are not aware of the way their behaviors
are perceived.
The
workplace is male dominated.
Ninety-four percent of the all policy making
in the Fortune 500 companies is done by men.
Since most of us are more comfortable being
around people like ourselves, men tend to stay in
their comfort zone and promote more men.
Finally, women need to take responsibility
for the choices and the decisions they make. If a
woman is not achieving her goals in her present situation,
she needs to go someplace else where she will be valued.
