Why are Women Execs Twice as Likely to Leave a Job?

By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

A new study conducted by professors at Oregon State University’s College of Business found that female executives are more than twice as likely to leave their jobs – voluntarily and involuntarily – as men. This is true despite the fact that women now dominate the ranks of university graduates across nearly all fields and that most women, before the age of 30, are not only experiencing more success than their male counterparts, but they’re also making more money than them. The October study, which appeared in the journal Economic Inquiry and analyzed data from Standard & Poor’s 1500 firms, has left many wondering: what gives?

The study found that about 7.2 percent of women executives left their jobs, compared to 3.8 percent of men and both the voluntary rates (4.3 percent versus 2.8 percent for men) and the involuntary rates (2.9 versus 0.9 percent) were higher for women executives. Despite systemic evidence that women are more likely to depart from their positions, the researchers did not find a smoking gun.

“The evidence suggests that women are being drawn out and forced out at higher rates; however, we don’t see too much evidence of a systematic pattern in the types of firms that are forcing or having women drawn out,” said John Becker-Blease, lead author of the study and assistant professor of finance at Oregon State University. “So in a sense, it seems the playing field is uniformly tilted against women across firms.”

The study also found that women are more likely to leave smaller firms and firms with more male-dominated boards. Consistent with past research, the Becker-Blease’s research also indicates that women are more likely to leave a job due to domestic or social responsibilities than men, which explains the higher voluntary departure rate. When it comes to being dismissed from a job, Becker-Blease’s research just confirms something that we’ve known for a long time: women at the mid-levels of management may not be getting the kind of opportunities and professional support that they need to advance successfully to the top ranks.

Why Women Leave

The Oregon State research shows that there is no one reason why women executives are twice as likely to leave their jobs just before reaching the top, but we do know for certain that a woman’s traditional role as primary caretaker still plays a major part.

According to Jennifer Allyn, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Managing Director of Diversity, the trouble comes when flexibility is not offered, which often results in start-stop careers for women.

“Demand for workplace flexibility has risen in the last two decades, driven largely by the prevalence of two-career families, a growing population of working mothers in the labor force, and the expectations of Generation Y,” Allyn said. “Though there are more women in the U.S. workforce than ever before, women are still the primary caretakers in families. While men usually never need to step off their career tracks, women often need to dial down or slow down their careers to accommodate personal goals such as having a family and ascending to a position at the executive level is more difficult with start-stop careers.” Allyn also believes that companies both large and small fail to see the long-term investment of advancing women to the c-suite; they only see the short-term.

According to Mercer, a global HR consulting firm, another top reason that women leave their jobs is because most employers lack a strategy for developing women leaders. The company’s recent Women’s Leadership Development Survey found that despite organizations’ efforts to achieve a diverse workforce, a whopping 70 percent do not have a clearly defined strategy or philosophy for the development of women into leadership roles.

According to the survey, more than 43 percent of the employers surveyed indicated that their organization do not offer any activities or programs targeted to the needs of women leaders. Twenty-three percent of organizations said they offer some activities or programs, while 19 percent said their approach is just to track and monitor progress only. Just 5 percent said they currently provide a robust array of programs/initiatives.

“A few decades ago, many organizations offered specific programs and activities to support women as they advanced into management and leadership roles,” said Colleen O’Neill, Ph.D., a Senior Partner in Mercer’s human capital consulting business. “Today, as our survey shows, there’s less certainty about what’s appropriate and what’s effective with respect to women’s leadership development. Additionally, when companies do take steps to support women, they often focus narrowly on tactics like flexible work schedules. That may be a good starting point, but it’s certainly not a complete solution.”

Retaining Talented Women

Approaches for retaining talented women vary. At PricewaterhouseCoopers, more than half of the firm’s new hires each year are women and their representation at the partner level continues to steadily increase. According to Allyn, this is because the firm understands that the number of hours people are willing – or able – to put in changes over time. As a result, PricewaterhouseCoopers offer generous parental leave for new parents, family sick days, and a wide array of flexible work programs, including Full Circle, which enables male and female professionals to take up to five years away from the firm to devote themselves to full-time parenting. The firm also has their Women Up Front initiative, which is a virtual community designed to connect women across the firm, regardless of where they reside or work.

“Talent is talent. We always want to be focused on our highest performers, making sure they stay with us; it’s a long term game,” Allyn said. “Women may not have as many role models as their male colleagues do. This can instill the belief in women that they are not compatible with competitive corporate culture. Our ambition initiative at PwC is about being purposeful and specific regarding recognition. We acknowledge that flexibility is important and over a career it can change. We have to make sure that we’re recognizing both our men and our women, encouraging their talents, and making sure they stay with us.”

This is something echoed by Barbara Mark, president of the National Association of Women Business Owners in the San Francisco Bay area and founder of the Full Circle Institute, a premier boutique coaching company geared towards female executives and professional women. Mark believes that with the offering of “special programs” comes the perception that they are for “special people.”

“In today’s social and economic environment companies need to buy into programs that support the development of both women and men. These days both women and men need flexibility; both need to have paid family leave; both need an environment that addresses the reality of kids, of aging parents, of conflicting interests. This is no longer the realm of ‘special’ people like mothers and daughters,” Mark said. “The reason women are leaving in droves is because there is little reason for them to beat their heads against the wall and continue being invisible, having no clear opportunities, and little flexibility for true visible creativity. What is needed is true balance that puts all people in the same mix at the same time. People need to be given the same education and training about internal networking, self-promotion, executive presence, collaborative working styles; we need to stop thinking of women as deficient or ‘special’ in these areas of skill.”

If these recommendations haven’t helped, here’s another way to retain high-performing female executives: pay them a fair wage.

“Companies attempt to get women to act like men. Women go to work, manage busy households, and raise families. We have a lot on our plates, but female executives are asked to talk like men and behave like men while earning like women,” Fischman said. “Large companies should create independent boards of women to come up with programs and initiatives on how to keep executive women happy while working. In other words, these companies should do something very ‘un-male’: stop and ask for directions.”