Is the Glass Ceiling Thickening in the UK?

By Erin Abrams (New York City)

New research out this week indicates that the glass ceiling for women’s upward mobility in the corporate world may be thickening, at least for women in the U.K. According to a survey released by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, progress for women is “moving at a snail’s pace,” due in part to inflexible working arrangement and a culture of working long hours.

This study concluded with a bit of depressing news on the women’s equality front. According to this research, at current rates of promotion, it will take women approximately 73 years to reach parity with men in terms of representation on the board of directors of FTSE 100 companies. Even more surprisingly, the comments attached to the blog were mostly hostile towards women seeking promotion in the corporate world, and many suggested that women stick to child rearing instead of pursuing professional advancement. While these attitudes may seem archaic to some, they clearly represent a segment of the population that is dealing with a significant level of backlash against private sector women doing the work/life balance.

The EHRC report, entitled Sex and Power, provides some sobering statistics on women’s professional advancement or lack thereof. The report found that fewer women hold top jobs in 12 of the 25 categories surveyed. In another 5 categories, the number of women in top positions remained static since last year’s survey. Women’s representation has increased in eight categories surveyed.

But the facts on this important issue might not be all gloom and doom, as the EHRC survey data suggests. This survey noted a slight improvement in women’s representation among FTSE 100 directors; from 10.4% to 11%. However, it emphasized that women have a long way to go before they are on par with their male counterparts, both in numbers and in seniority. Additionally, the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland noted that more women are attending law school than men in the UK, and soon the number of new female attorneys will outnumber males.

Nicole Brewer, Chief Executive of the EHRC said of the group’s findings, “We always speak of a glass ceiling. These figures reveal that in some cases it appears to be made of reinforced concrete. We need radical change to support those who are doing great work and help those who want to work better and release talent.”

She lays the blame squarely at the feet of Britain’s managers and government, who are unwilling or unable to accept talented employees who do not fit into traditional inflexible work models, such as mothers, caretakers, people of certain ethnic groups, and disabled workers. Marginalizing these workers disadvantages England’s workforce as a whole, she argues.

According to the Commission, which is based in Scotland, if women achieved employment representation parity in that country, then Scotland would have 130 additional female public appointees, 85 secondary school head teachers, 21 members of parliament, 13 court of session judges, 11 senior police officers, 12 local authority chief executives, 10 trade union general secretaries and nine further education college principals. Despite progress in some sectors like law and banking, the suggestion that women’s progress has been stalled or even reversed across a wide variety of public and private sectors in the UK is worrisome to many.

The comment boards for the UK outlets reporting on this study were a-buzz with people on both sides of the debate. The bulk of the male posters were quick to dismiss the report as feminist propaganda, with many such comments degenerating into misogynist rants against feminism in general and how it is destroying the world. While those are wholly unhelpful, a couple of controversial posters did articulate some arguable points. One man wondered if the reason that women aren’t being promoted is because women were improperly promoted into jobs due to political correctness “but experience finds they are not good enough to hold them.”

Another male poster from the Evening Standard comment board lamented, ‘As an employer I know how frustrating it is to have to choose between two potential employees, male and female, knowing full well the female will most likely choose to get pregnant and will be less competitive than the male. When will women stop playing the victim card and take responsibility for there own shortcomings?” Several posters advised women to stop “winging” and start their own companies if they feel they are capable but not being promoted, clearly missing the point about being able to be advance within the main system instead of having to create one of their own.

A surprising number of women posting were just as critical of the report and even the idea that women should be promoted, spouting stereotypes that women should be at home raising children instead of heading companies or the country and that women are naturally the worst bosses. However, many others bore witness to the thickening of the glass ceiling in the UK and were quick to dismiss comments to the contrary. In response to one poster who claimed that the most important job in the world (and the one job that women do best) is raising “the next generation”, one commenter named Barbara wrote, “with comments like the above I can see why I am stalling in the middle management bracket. What nonsense. Women are good at childrearing and good at business.”

Another person posting under the name “MBA” wrote, “Not all women are mothers nor require part time work, but when they show ability they are kept down. I, myself, have been told to be less efficient to fit in…Comments about useless women are not valid as there is plenty of evidence of useless men in positions of power. The repression of women is certainly wasted talent to the detriment of the country.”

What do Glass Hammer readers think of this data? Anecdotally, do you feel that women in your industry are rolling backward or pushing forwards? Which way do you see the momentum of women’s advancement in the workforce going? Does the experience described by women in the UK differ from that of professional women in the United States? Please weigh in – we’d like to hear what you think!