Is Your Appearance the Key to Fast-Tracking your Career?

lookismContributed by Helen Crossland (London)

Judging people on the basis of their physical looks is a fact of reality these days. Evidence also suggests that the culture of “lookism” within society now has such a foothold in the workplace that a person’s physical appearance can have as much influence on his or her career prospects as his or her performance in the office or boardroom. Whilst very few organisations will openly admit it, many businesses recruit, retain or promote employees on the basis of their attractiveness or how their appearance best complies with the image the organisation wishes to present. In certain circumstances, this can lead to job applicants and employees being discriminated against or harassed in the workplace purely on the basis of how they look.

It is a depressing thought that besides any other challenges women might face in the workplace, their progression up the career ladder might be more dependent on their looks than their brains or achievements. However, there is strong statistical evidence to show that women who wear make-up in business get better jobs and are promoted more quickly. In a survey reported in The Times last year, 64% of directors interviewed believed that women who wore make-up in the workplace look more professional, lending support to the theory that women are more likely to benefit career wise if they conform to this ideology.

The Guardian published a similar report which concluded that “attractive applicants have a better chance of getting better paid jobs.” The article also quoted a survey which found that women spend one fifth of their earnings on trying to look good in the workplace in the belief that their image will play a significant role in their career path.

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What are You Worth? Root Causes of the Wage Gap

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wage gapBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

Novations, a highly regarded global talent development firm with over thirty years of research and development experience, recently conducted a research study that found – and there’s no surprise here – that women are still underrepresented in strategic and leadership roles. Even more disheartening, the firm’s findings also show that women self-rate their contribution lower than men.

The study and its findings were compiled into a white paper entitled Close the Gap: Overcoming Gender Differences in the Workplace and according to Novations, the firm set out not only to investigate these discrepancies, but also to explore the root causes in order to adequately provide women with the information they need to assist them in developing needed skills and overcoming perceived shortcomings. The data used in the study was culled from hundreds of companies who provided information regarding the development of over 2,000 managers and direct reports, though none of these companies wished to comment publicly on their participation in the study.

A Woman’s Worth: According to Women

Much of the findings in the study simply reiterate what too many women already know: even though women comprise over 55 percent of the labor force, attain 50 percent of the undergraduate business degrees obtained each year, and also hold more than half of all the managerial and professional positions in U.S. businesses, they account for just over 9 percent of top executives and just over 15 percent of corporate officers.

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Beyond Business as Usual: More Working Moms in Part-Time Positions

working momBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

Last week, we discussed the motherhood penalty, a startling trend in which employers avoid hiring mothers out of the assumption that they won’t do their job as well because of their family obligations outside of the office. If, by chance, an employer chooses to hire a mother, that woman often gets paid much less than female, childless co-workers performing the same duties. Studies have actually shown that the pay gap between working mothers and childless women is actually greater than the pay gap between men and women. According to a new study by Regus, the global provider of innovative workspace solutions, a new trend is brewing and it’s one that actually favors mothers looking to get back into the workplace … if they’re willing to settle for part-time, that is.

The global study, which was commissioned by Regus, surveyed 11,000 corporations across 15 countries and found that 44 percent of companies worldwide plan to hire more mothers for part-time jobs over the next two years. Among U.S. companies the numbers are even higher, with 46 percent reporting plans to recruit more mothers into 2012.

West Region Vice President for Regus, Sande Golgart, believed this study to be of particular interest to Regus because many of their clients are working mothers and he believes providing part-time work to women with children can assist them in managing the work/life balance issues that plague so many women. “We think that there is much work to be done in making the transition from maternity leave back to the workforce as smooth as possible. Allowing mothers to take advantage of workplace flexibility demonstrates an understanding of the challenges that they face and paves the way for them to be more productive and less stressed at work,” Golgart said. “One of the most significant factors in improving employees’ work/life balance is offering the flexibility to work remotely, either full or part-time. Flexible workplace solutions are now available that allow corporations to offer those mothers returning to the workforce the ability to work full or part-time from home, along with a whole host of other workplace possibilities. By taking advantage of such measures, businesses worldwide will be better positioned to attract and retain the most talented personnel to their working environments.”

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President’s Day Publishing Break

snowmanDear Readers,

We are taking a day off to enjoy the snow, since we have had so much of it recently.

We are always looking for guest blogs from you, the professional women in the trenches. We aim to inform you with useful news and information, but we also hope to inspire you and empower you with our social network and our offline events.

Here’s a reminder of what our editorial calendar looks like. If you want to be considered as a contributor, get in touch with me at nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com.

Monday: Voices of Experience interviews. We profile top women and give you an insight into their personal journey.
Tuesday: Work-life Balance articles, Returners and Career Break Information.
Wednesday: Ask a Career Coach, and Ask a Recruiter columns, career-related news, expert answers.
Thursday: Movers and Shakers, 35 under 35 series, Events Coverage, and Publishers Column
Friday: Intrepid Women Series, Women in Philanthropy, Passions, and Book Reviews

I also would like to encourage you to join the our online community and connect with other professional women.

Yours sincerely,

Nicki Gilmour
Publisher and CEO
www.glasshammer2.wpengine.com – smart women in numbers

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Readers Debate: Should the US Ratify the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women?

iStock_000007716967XSmallBy Hua Wang (Chicago)

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was created in 1981, and within a few years following its creation was ratified by countries including the UK, France, Japan, and Brazil, among others. Today one hundred sixty-nine countries have ratified the treaty – but not the United States.

CEDAW is often described as an international bill of rights for women. The Convention provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men through ensuring women’s access to, and equal opportunities, in political and public life, irrespective of the cultures or societies in which they live. The treaty commits ratifying nations to overcome barriers to women’s equality in the areas of legal rights, education, employment, healthcare, politics and finance.

The Issues at Stake

CEDAW provides definitions of equality, a description of discriminatory practices and a mechanism for international supervision of the obligations the document imposes on nations that have ratified it.

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Building a Women’s Network at Your Company

networking groupsBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

On Tuesday, the Forté Foundation brought together movers and shakers from New York’s top companies as part of its 2010 Network of Women’s Networks conference. The theme of the conference was Driving Change through Innovation – and as speaker Kerrie Peraino, Chief Diversity Officer of American Express explained in opening remarks, “Far from being the buzz words of this millennium, change and innovation, they are actually a call to action.”

Attendees were asked to focus not only on how change and innovation come to fruition within an organization, but how they themselves are change agents. And of course, because of the emphasis on networks, women were encouraged to build relationships and make new connections with other conference attendees.

Networking for Innovation

Kicking off the day with a speed-networking session, Amy Orlav, Professional Development Specialist at the Graduate Management Admission Council ®, joked, “What is the best part of any conference? Don’t say the food.” She answered, “it’s the networking!”

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Debating the Motherhood Penalty

motherhood penaltyBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

We’ve all heard the saying there are two sides to every story and that’s never been more true than with the seemingly new phenomena that has been deemed the “motherhood penalty,” which asserts that working mothers get passed up for raises and promotions at a higher frequency than single women without children. Not only that, but recent studies have also shown that working fathers experience no such professional limitations or wage penalties as a result of having a family.

Women in the corporate world have had to contend with these issues for years now, so the results of the award winning Cornell study entitled, Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty, weren’t very surprising when they were published in the American Journal of Sociology. According to the study, experiments found that “mothers were penalized on a host of measures, including perceived competence and recommended starting salary. Men were not penalized for, and sometimes benefited from, being a parent. The audit study showed that actual employers discriminate against mothers, but not against fathers.” None of this, of course, is an issue of contention among working women. What’s creating the real controversy is who is getting the shorter end of the stick in terms of pay and promotions: working moms or women with no children.

In Defense of Working Mothers

One of Getting a Job’s co-authors, Shelley Correll, was recently quoted as saying that she wasn’t surprised to find that mothers were discriminated against, but was “very surprised by the magnitude of the discrimination.” Correll and the other researchers sent out fake resumes for both a childless woman and a mom; both were equally qualified and the only difference was that the mom’s resume listed “Parent-Teacher Association coordinator” under the heading “other relevant activities” as a discreet way of informing employers that it was a parent’s resume. The researchers quickly discovered that the moms were viewed less favorably than the non-moms and were less likely to be hired. Even more disturbing, mothers were offered an average of $11,000 a year less in compensation than the childless job candidate with the same qualifications.

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Ask-A-Career-Coach: Prioritizing Your Job Search Activities

jobsearchContributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart™

I recently coached a young professional who wants to change careers but has done nothing with his search because he is juggling working full-time and attending graduate school. He feels like he doesn’t have any extra time, so his $64,000 question for the session was: “if I am limited in what I can do, what should I be prioritizing?”

Your best time management strategy will depend on your specific circumstances, your working style, your timetable, and your search goals. But here are some considerations to get you started:

Use your circumstances. This person had a brand name graduate school with a strong career services office. Part of his search should be to learn exactly what resources are available to him, including coaching and workshops, information products and research material, networking events and job leads (with deadlines entered into his calendar in advance). Read more

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Mixed Success for Women in New York Companies’ Leadership – And How to Improve

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wecny leadership censusBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Last week, the Women’s Executive Circle of New York presented the results of its “2009 New York Census – The state of Women Business Leaders in New York State.” The study was created in partnership with Columbia Business School.

Yessinia Scheker-Isquierdo and Candace L. Quinn, co-presidents of WECNY opened the event with mixed results. On one hand, said Quinn, “In New York we have actually increased the number of seats held by women.” But on the other, “the percentage of companies that have no women [in top positions] has increased” as well.

Companies should encourage women in their top ranks, especially in challenging times, she explained. Women are skilled at keeping the important issues at the forefront of a discussion. The diversity of background, thought, and decision making that women bring to the table allows for dynamic solutions to problems, rather than allowing hard conversations to drift into group-think territory.

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Financial sector recruitment trends for 2010

By Elizabeth Harrin (London)financial jobs

Last year wasn’t a great year for financial services, and if you managed to keep your job you’re probably wondering what new employment ‘challenges’ 2010 will bring. It’s a mixed story, but the good news is that there is some good news.

Sectors that are picking up

Sue Sattler, President of recruitment company Talent Network Group, believes that bank recruitment is going to pick up in 2010. “We will experience some increase in hiring greatly due to the troubles in the banking industry and new compliance and legislation that will continue to unfold,” she says. “The last half of 2008 and through 2009 we saw many newly created positions or additions to staff. These positions were largely in credit, corporate risk and compliance. Many of these positions were mandated or recommended from the bank examiners.” Sattler also believes that mergers and acquisitions will be a growth area this year and may be another avenue for those looking to transfer their banking and finance knowledge and skill set.

Sue Allon, CEO and founder of Allonhill, a mortgage due diligence firm, has seen an improvement in her sector too. “The mortgage securities market is clearly coming back,” she says. “Even in the past couple of months, the deal flow and work going into getting deals moving has stepped up dramatically. There is recruitment going on in this sector, at the banks, the hedge funds and the expert service providers like Allonhill. When I walked the trading floors of the major banks last summer, the lights were off in some cases, and there were very few people there. I’m now seeing hundreds of people back on the floors, and they are very busy.”

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