Culture, Law, or Corporate Policy: What Change Comes First?

By Elizabeth Harrin (London)

Bringing gender parity in the office requires an effort across multiple facets of corporate life. There needs to be legislative efforts to ensure women can compete on a level playing field at the most basic level. There needs to be adequate corporate policies to promote an environment where women want to work and can be successful working. And finally there needs to be a cultural acceptance of the value that working women bring to the wider society.

All three are needed to bring gender parity into the office, and all three build upon one another. As individuals, it can be hard to work out how we can make a difference and in particular which of these three should take our focus first. The Glass Hammer spoke to 4 women to find out what they thought about these three elements, and where we should be start.

You can’t change corporate policy, so work around it

“We need all three of those things but ultimately it is up to women to master the art of negotiating to get what they want and need in corporate America,” says Lee E. Miller, a former Fortune 1000 head of HR and co-author, with her daughter Jessica, of A Woman’s Guide to Successful Negotiating. She believes that women need to realise that they can’t influence corporate policy as individuals. “The corporate culture is the corporate culture. Until they become a C-level executive there is precious little anyone can do. Trying to do so will likely result in some superficial changes to make it look like the issue is being addressed. Unless executives in the C-suite see the issue as a bottom line business issue nothing significant will happen.”

Miller also adds that speaking up about policy issues can hurt the individual’s career in the long term, if the management team do not already recognise the need to make changes. “Individuals need to accept that they cannot change a corporate culture until the corporation leaders are ready to change or until they become part of that leadership,” she says. “What they need to do in the mean time is to learn to get what they want and need regardless. To do that requires that they learn how to negotiate.”

Miller’s research for her book has uncovered evidence that women are making inroads into creating corporate environments where they can thrive. “Progress is being made albeit slowly,” she says. “Women who have mastered the art of negotiating have always been successful in business and have been able to negotiate the balance they desired. Younger women – because they recognise that it is expected that they will negotiate for what they want – are learning how to do so. It is starting to pay dividends. For example, according to the most recent available US Census data single childless women between ages 22 and 30 in major US metropolitan areas now earn 8% more than their male counterparts.”

An inclusive society supports working women

“Des Moines [in Iowa, United States] is a city with one of the highest numbers of women in management roles, per capita, in the nation,” says Lauren Burt, Director of Media & Marketing for Economic Development for the Greater Des Moines Partnership. “Women hold leadership positions in many organisations around the Greater Des Moines Metro region, in a variety of professional roles. Our city has one of the largest financial industries in the county. Not only do we have a strong workforce in finance and business but we boast a strong quality of life and ease of living that gives women in the region more options; having a successful career, raising a family, engaging in the community and a variety of social activities. Being able to keep this balance is key and one of the main struggles of women in the workforce.”

Burt believes that the short distances for commuting to work, combined with lower costs of living also help provide financial stability and a work/life balance for women. When we talk about the societal change required to foster an environment where women can work, and want to work, it sounds as if Des Moines is working to provide that kind of environment.

“Des Moines is a place where women can fully reach towards ‘having it all’ and still have time for themselves,” she says. “The media and community must highlight women business and community leaders so young professional women can vision themselves in executive leadership roles in the region. Highlighting the women that make up our workforce will engage and encourage others to follow and pave new paths.”

We need to be pro-active too

“First of all, and this is our mantra here at Pink, it’s key that women ‘ask for what you want.’ That’s what men do,” says Cynthia Good, editor and CEO of Pink and Little Pink Book. “The bottom-line is, if you do not ask for what you want, you will not get it! Plus asking is free.”

Good believes it will take a combination of policy, legislative and cultural change to create gender parity in the workplace. “However,” she says, “the biggest change will come from women themselves. Women like Penny McIntyre at Newell Rubbermaid are now shifting corporate culture at the highest levels of business.”

The biggest changes, Good says, will occur as more women begin to act in their own enlightened self interest. “Women need to do a better job asking for what they what and being advocates for themselves and other women,” she explains. “As we continue to demand and prove our worth – everything else will follow. We’re already seeing a change. Companies now know that added diversity adds to the bottom-line – at the end of the day this is how business decisions are made. Once companies realise the benefits women bring result in real revenue – changes will begin to be cumulative.”

We don’t need more laws

“There are already laws which prohibit discrimination in pay as it relates to men and women,” says Areva Martin, a Harvard-trained labour and employment attorney. “So I am not sure we need more laws, but better enforcement of the existing laws. As important as legislative changes are, laws can’t change attitudes.”

Martin believes that workplace culture has to change first. “The folks in key positions of power have to value the contributions of women before they will start to really change the distribution of work assignments, promotions, pay, etc.”

Laws might be able to ensure that women and men are paid equally, but they can’t regulate the thousands of other interactions that occur daily in the office. These interactions – with managers, with subordinates, with policy makers – dictate how women are treated at work on a day-to-day basis.

“For example, for a woman to become a CEO of a company, she first has to be given opportunities to learn the business, and not just the ‘soft stuff’, Martin says. “As long as men and women perceive that women aren’t good in math or quantitative analysis, women won’t be given opportunities to work at the higher levels in departments such as finance.”

There is progress being made, though. And while you’d expect (and hope) that gender parity at work is no longer a distant dream, we’re also making progress in a more unexpected area. “I think we have made a lot of progress and that women are gaining more parity in many work environments,” Martin says. “However, at the same time, we are seeing massive number of women exiting corporate America and opting to work part time or in less demanding environments. In fact, many women are redefining success from the traditional climbing the corporate ladder to staying home with their children.”

Women feeling confident enough to define their own version of success is perhaps more important than advances in culture, policy, and law combined.