Bypassing the Glass Escalator Threat

By Robin Madell (San Francisco)

The glass ceiling has remained a stubborn fixture in corporate America for decades. Now new research shows that over the past 10 years, another invisible friend has joined it: the glass escalator.

The New York Times analyzed census data that reveals from 2000 to 2010, occupations that are primarily associated with females (more than 70 percent women) represented close to one third of the job growth for men. That’s twice the amount of the previous decade.

Forbes points out that while this trend may be good for men and on the surface may benefit families as well, it presents a clear obstacle to women in female-dominated professions, such as nursing and teaching. As Jenna Goudreau, Forbes staff, said, “While women climb the ladder in female-dominated professions, their male peers glide past them on an invisible escalator, shooting straight to the top.”

Goudreau’s article explains that this is because men who enter these particular fields tend to be promoted at faster rates, becoming disproportionately represented in senior management. The New York Times notes that even in female-dominated jobs where they’re in the minority, men still make more money than their female counterparts.

Glass Escalator in Finance

It’s not just nurses who have to worry about the effects of the glass escalator. The phenomenon touches largely male-dominated industries, such as financial services, as well. Marcia Mantell, who spent 13 years as an executive at a major global financial firm, has plenty to say on the subject.

Mantell explains that while men dominate most of the financial services industry, certain departments, such as human resources and marketing, tend to be more female-oriented. She points out that while many marketing and communications departments are predominantly women, the executive head of the group is more often than not a man.

“Throughout my time working in the product marketing areas in financial services, well more than half of the marketers were well-educated, dedicated women—sometimes 75–80 percent women,” says Mantell. “Some women were in a senior VP role, but as far back as I can remember, the executive head was a male. Sometimes he had extensive marketing experience; other times he didn’t.”

She says she has noticed the same trend across the industry. “The clients that I support now have the same configuration most of the time—lots of women in marketing, but the chief marketing officer is generally a man,” says Mantell. “There are one or two exceptions across the 25 client firms I’ve worked with in the past 7 years, but men tend to be in the top spot.”

Another observation she makes after more than 20 years in the game is that many men who were previously in product marketing roles moved into different types of management jobs or changed companies more frequently than women who started in the same place. “I’ve seen many more of the men I knew ‘back then’ rise to very senior positions at other companies,” she says. “It’s almost as if their sights are set on more senior roles from the beginning, and they take key steps to move up the escalator quickly.”

Mantell clarifies that it’s not that women don’t also have goals. But in many cases, she believes women prefer to work on improving their contributions to the company, becoming more efficient and effective in their role, and finding a better way to maintain some semblance of balance between work and home commitments. (See “The New Debate Over ‘Having It All’”) “The consequence is that women may be staying in one role longer than perhaps we should,” says Mantell.

As the CEO of Lexion Capital Management LLC, one of the only 100 percent women-owned private banks on Wall Street, Elle Kaplan has also witnessed the glass escalator in effect firsthand—particularly at the assistant level.

“Prior to founding Lexion Capital, I spent a decade on Wall Street,” says Kaplan. “Each and every year, a ‘class’ of administrative assistants will begin. These recent graduates are almost entirely female with a few men. The men in this role are quickly plucked out, promoted, and soon manage the female administrative assistants that they began with.”

On a longer-term basis, Kaplan explains that the men who begin in administrative positions are invariably promoted to a larger management or banking role, whereas the women are left to move from assistant to senior assistant. “The women’s ‘advancement’ to a non-administrative role was nonexistent,” says Kaplan. “Whereas the men had a very easy time stepping onto the glass escalator, which led them up toward a more lucrative and varied career path.”

Strategies for Managing the Escalator

How do you manage an escalator that bypasses qualified women? Who better to ask than Ora Shtull, author of The Glass Elevator: A Guide to Leadership Presence for Women on the Rise (September 2012). Shtull, who has served as adjunct professor of business communication at NYU Stern School of Business, sees men moving into traditionally female occupations as a positive. “It’s proof that professions are not gender-specific,” says Shtull.

To counter the glass escalator threat, she advises women to elevate themselves by using a number of skills that can help with upward mobility in any field, including female-dominated professions.

• Communicate carefully. To appear powerful even when facing an obstacle, Shtull suggests that women avoid raising challenges or articulating problems without having at least one alternative solution to propose. She also recommends using formulas to add impact to simple updates. “Set the context briefly,” Shtull says. “Talk about the tangible action steps you’ve taken. But don’t stop there! Always end with the result or impact of your actions.”
• Grow networks strategically. Instead of suggesting simply adding numbers to your network, Shtull suggests that women assess gaps in six fundamental areas of need (for example, expertise and feedback). By seeing where the holes are, women can widen their connections more strategically and spend less time doing so.
• Reframe self-promotion. Part of riding the glass elevator to counter the glass escalator involves promoting yourself. Shtull says that while many women dislike the idea of self-promotion because it feels like bragging, they can warm up to the idea by thinking differently about it. “I ask women, ‘What if we found an easy way for you to do more good work for more people, would you be interested?’ That’s an easy answer for them,” she says. “Promoting your good work is an excellent way to communicate exactly what you’re doing, how you’re doing it uniquely, and how it has positive impact—so that you’re called upon to do more of it in bigger ways.”

It will take changes to corporate policies and practices to fully overcome the escalator effect and bring parity to men’s and women’s promotion rates and salaries in female-dominated fields. But strategies like these can help give women a better chance to avoid being overlooked—and hopefully to keep pace with the escalator.