Missed point
It seems that every time I pick up a newspaper, click on a link or read a blog there something to be read about women and boards. And I’m getting bored. Now this may seem a little hypocritical coming from someone like me, as I have been very vocal over the years in advocating for women in their pursuit of senior roles and do indeed write about it myself. Despite what you might be thinking, my position actually remains unchanged. There is a wealth of senior female talent which organisations and global economies fail to tap into, in my view to their detriment. So those initiatives should clearly continue.
However, when you look at the overall scheme of things, whether applied to men or women, organisations are pyramids and there are very few open positions at the top – for anyone at all. But sometimes it is important not to miss the core issue. The primary danger zone for women professionally, lies much further downstream where the numbers are much higher. The real support and mentoring that women need, is in those more junior, hazy, grey areas, 7-12 years into their careers.
Bad stats
Whichever statistics we use, the numbers don’t look good. 60% of European women are graduates and yet the number occupying senior positions hovers depressingly around 14% depending on the country being cited, and if you venture into Germany, a grim 3%. Somewhere in between C-Suite and entry-level, the corporate drop out rate soars and highly qualified women, find themselves making critical career decisions, very often without any long-term strategy. They leave, or give in and accept their fates consigned to the margins of the organogram. Very often they experience the “Mommy Penalty” earning lower salaries than their male counterparts. Women with MBAs are one of the hardest hit demographics. They find themselves in the double bind of having to negotiate their role and manage expectations, not just in the workplace, but also within their own relationship and families.
The new dad
Interestingly there is now some research which suggests that change is perhaps on the horizon, as a result of shifting expectations from men as well. A Fatherhood Study carried out by Boston College tells us “According to a study by the National Study of the Changing Workforce, for the first time since 1992, young women and young men do not differ in terms of their desire for jobs with greater responsibility (Galinsky, Aumann, & Bond, 2008). As a result, young women may be less prone to be the “accommodating spouse” in two-career couples, placing their career aspirations second to that of their male spouses”.
The study suggests that men also have different expectations. “Their wives are likely to be at least as well if not better educated, just as ambitious as they are, and make more money than they do. More importantly, these men feel that being a father is not about being a hands-off economic provider“
Cultural changes
It would seem that although the expectations of both men and women are changing, organisations (perhaps still run by Baby Boomers, raised in father centric households) are not adapting fast enough to the cultural shifts in the societies around them. Developing economies need not just an increased birth rate vital to support a rapidly aging population, but for women to actively contribute to economic growth, not when they are older, but now, today. The economy of the euro zone for example has been predicted to grow 16 per cent if women were in formal employment as much as men.
Additionally, a new generation of both men and women are looking for better work/life balance and no longer sees the default leadership setting as male and the female setting as “atypical”. So perhaps the business model for corporate culture, which not just creates a gender divide but actually relies on it, needs to be re-examined rather than emulated.
The most demanding issue is not only about getting women onto boards, surely a symptom and result of what is happening lower down the scale, it’s also about combining organisational imperatives with the needs of both men and women in the early stages of their career, as they cope with the natural demands life makes on them. Until then I will continue to be bored with boards?
Image: Board room ChesterandFields Brussels,
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Having worked with a series of board members, many of whom are on their third marriage it seems to me there is a high cost of getting ‘to the top’ which not everyone, or any gender, is prepared to pay.
Whilst it is great that women are progressively aiming higher and Dads wanting to participate more in their family life, as long as work means long hours away from home there are limits to what anyone of any gender can achieve within a ‘balance’.
I was chatting to someone today who wanted to talk to me about a big role in Europe and i found myself thinking do I want to spend that much time travelling – am I that hungry? My kids are grown long since, but I still struggle to find a balance between really gripping work (it would have been fun) and having a life outside work.
One of the client groups I work with is women wanting to move from middle to senior management. They may, or may not reach top management in due course but this is at an earlier stage. There are far more of them around than candidates for the very top. Yet they face many of the same barriers and often without support. As well as that, they are often in their early to mid- thirties where the family dilemmas really begin to press – particularly if you have two spouses with ambition. There are no easy answers but I do think they merit our support.
Thanks Wendy – in absolute agreement, women (and men) coming through the ranks need all the support they can get!
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