Queen Bee or Mother Hen: The Contradictory Images of Professional Women

Business meeting.By Nneka Orji (London)

“Queen bees halt the wannabes” (Article headline from The Times Higher Education, 2004)

“I was really looking forward to a new opportunity at work but I just found out that the team manager will be a woman (audible sigh).” (Anonymous colleague)

No doubt you’ve heard this sentiment or read a similar headline a number of times during your career. I certainly have and I only started my career two and a half years ago. Young female colleagues and friends talk about avoiding female managers because of concerns around lack of support, hidden agendas, and jealousy. The question here is should they genuinely be concerned? Do senior female figures in organisations really exhibit non supportive behaviour to other women (the Queen Bee Phenomenon), or do they go out of their way to mentor more junior women (Mother Hen behaviour)?

For both the young females and more senior female figures working in corporate environments, it’s important to address this issue. There are numerous articles that are targeted at women who are at the threshold between management and senior management or executive level, but not nearly enough that provide guidance for more junior females who are still further away from the sometimes elusive glass ceiling.

Here, we look at this issue in more detail particularly in light of the discussion around senior and junior female relationships. Should we heed the advice to avoid all female managers, or ignore the naysayers and proactively seek opportunities to work with female colleagues at all levels and in our firms?

Let’s take a look at both sides of the argument.

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Catalyst Celebrates Global Diversity and Leadership

iStock_000000292856XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Yesterday Catalyst honored three companies for their remarkable initiatives aimed at increasing gender diversity at its annual awards conference at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The three companies – Alcoa Inc, the Coca-Cola Company, and Unilever – all presented global initiatives that were then tailored to match local needs.

All three companies also produced results. Alcoa’s program, for example, increased the percentage of female executives at the company from 15.8 percent to 19 percent. Professional plant managers rose from 22.6 percent to 25.3 percent. And employee engagement increased from 52 percent to 70 percent.

At Coca-Cola, women in senior leadership rose from 23 percent to 29 percent between 2008 and 2012. Women in the immediate pipeline rose from 28 percent to 34 percent. And the recruitment of global external women rose from 47 percent to 50 percent.

Finally, Unilever’s initiative, which involves a high potential women and mentoring program with an agile working model, led to an increase of 16 percent to 21 percent women at the executive vice president and vice president level, a 27 percent to 32 percent increase at the director level, and a 40 to 43 percent increase at the manager level.

While the programs are different, all three were global and were based on ambitious diversity goals. They also had strong support from company leadership in building the business case for women.

As Coca Cola Chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent said during the Opening Plenary, “This is hard work. It doesn’t happen because you want it to happen.” Kent went on to explain how he experienced pushback when he announced the gender initiative, and it has meant continuous pipline work, bechmarking, accountability, and communication. But when business units with women leaders started showing better results, he continued, people began to get on board. “We’re still learning,” he added. “This is a journey.”

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Why the Financial Advisor Industry Needs Women

Leading a dynamic teamBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

On average, women financial advisors make just 58 cents for every dollar made by their male peers. That’s a significant wage gap, and it’s even higher than the national average (which lies somewhere around 80 percent). One reason for the gap is that men in the industry tend to work at larger, more lucrative companies than women. But why?

Similarly, women only make up about 30 percent of the industry (and even fewer take up executive roles). “Why are there so few women in this industry? Why does that red carpet get rolled up for women? Are women taking themselves out? Or was the industry perceived as unfriendly?” asked Kim Dellarocca, Director and Head of Practice Management at Pershing.

Dellarocca and her team set out to find the answer to these questions in Pershing’s latest report, “The 30% Solution: Growing Your Business By Winning And Keeping Women Advisors” and its previous one, “Women are Not a Niche Market.” She hopes the research will help the industry usher in more women, and ensure they are treated fairly.

And attracting and retaining women and diverse talent is critical for the survival of the industry, Dellarocca reasoned. The financial advisory space is expecting a talent shortage of 237,000 new advisors in the coming decade. It needs to look beyond the status quo to fill those seats – and in order to do that, the industry is going to have to change.

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Emerging Economies Overtake G7 in Gender Diversity at the Top

iStock_000010457824XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

A new Grant Thornton / Forbes Insights study [PDF] shows that the percentage of women in senior management roles around the world has now risen to 24 percent. According to the report, “Women in senior management: setting the stage for growth” the proportion of women in corporate leadership is now even with pre-recession levels. The percentage dipped to 20 percent in 2011 and rose to 21 percent in 2012.

Most striking in the study was how much greater the percentages of women in senior leadership in emerging markets were than in mature markets. For example, the proportion of female executives in China rose sharply to 51 percent this year (compared to just 25 percent last year). The Asia Pacific region reported much a much higher percentage (29 percent) of women in senior leadership than the European Union (25 percent), Latin America (23 percent), and North America (21 percent).

According to Francesca Lagerberg, Head of Tax at Grant Thornton UK and the new Global leader of Tax at Grant Thornton International, G7 countries should take notice – while these markets are stagnating along with their percentages of women in leadership, emerging markets are growing and so are their rates of female leaders. She said:

“The pioneer economies where economic growth is high have greater diversity in their senior management teams. Women are playing a major role in driving the world’s growth economies, bringing balance to the decision making process and the smooth running of their companies. In comparison, the mature economies of the G7 are now playing catch up. They need to wake up to gender disparity and add this crucial ingredient to long-term growth and profitability.”

Companies in emerging economies seem to be taking the value of gender diversity seriously. Will those in mature economies follow suit?

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Life After Corporate: Sonpreet Bhatia, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, MyCityWay

SonpreetBhatiaBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

“I’ve said this many times,” began Sonpreet Bhatia, Co-Founder and COO of MyCityWay. “If you have a vision and are passionate about solving a problem, just start now. There is no better time.”

Bhatia and her two co-founders took a risk when they developed MyCityWay, an app that helps people find information they need to navigate their city. The three were working on Wall Street in technology roles, drudging through the midst of the economic meltdown. When they came up with the idea for company together, they just went for it.

And their risk paid off – after earning the backing of New York’s Mayor Bloomberg and BMWi, among other investors, they’ve now taken their company global.

“Make sure everything you do adds up to something big. Take it one step at a time. Staying focused will pay off,” Bhatia said. “And don’t think you’re alone out there – reach out to other women. They will help you.”

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Voice of Experience: Kathy Hannan, National Managing Partner, Diversity and Corporate Responsibility, KPMG LLP

KPMG: Kathy Hannan. Tax department. Photo by Andrew Collings.By Robin Madell (San Francisco)

Ethics. Philanthropic partnerships. Stakeholder engagement. Environmental best practices. Diversity objectives. For Kathy Hannan, these are not just platitudes, but guiding principles. This is both because of what she does, and who she is.

Hannan currently serves multiple executive roles as the national managing partner, chief diversity officer, chief corporate responsibility officer, and global lead partner at KPMG LLP. She has spent nearly three decades at the Big Four tax and advisory firm, whose member firms are among the largest international professional services networks in the world, with 152,000 professionals – including more than 8,600 partners – in 156 countries.

Throughout her long tenure at KPMG, Hannan served in various leadership positions, including vice chair of human resources. She was also the first female area managing partner for the Midwest tax practice. “Throughout my career, I’ve focused on people-related strategic business decisions impacting recruiting, succession planning, career development, training, and benefits,” says Hannan.

Hannan’s list of notable achievements within KPMG include establishing the Women’s Advisory Board (WAB) and Diversity Advisory Board, which serve as counsel to firm leadership on workplace matters. She also established the KPMG Network of Women in 2003 to engage KPMG’s women professionals and deliver a wide array of women’s programs and activities that strengthen strategic alliances locally.

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Women on Boards: Asset Managers and Institutional Investors Weigh In

iStock_000007749988XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

How loud does money talk? That’s the question posed by the asset managers, institutional investors, senior business executives, statewide elected officials, and national women’s organizations that make up the Thirty Percent Coalition. The group aims to encourage companies to ensure their boards are composed of at least 30 percent women by 2015. And they’re doing it by leveraging some serious dough: the investors in the group represent over $1.2 trillion in assets under management.

Last year, the Coalition contacted all of the companies in the Fortune 500 that had no women on their boards, and this year they sent letters to all 127 companies on the Russell 1000 that have no women on their boards, urging them to hire more. The issue resonates with investors – research shows that companies with more women on their boards perform well financially and are better governed.

Members of the Thirty Percent Coalition argue that by keeping women out of the boardroom, these companies may not be performing at their highest capability for their shareholders.

Tim Smith, Senior Vice President and Director of ESG Shareowner Engagement at Walden Asset Management, a division of Boston Trust & Investment Management, said, “The business case is quite compelling for investors. It is important for the reputation and image of the company, as well as a way to protect the long term sustainability of the firm, including the long term bottom line.”

He added, “Obviously women’s organization’s leadership is exceedingly important on this issue. But investors also have power – after all, we are the owners of companies.”

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Why Leadership is a Critical Skill for Career Growth

iStock_000006308877XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Leadership doesn’t begin when you’ve made it to the top of an organization. It’s something you display every day, throughout your career and personal life. Rather than thinking of leadership as something we achieve once we get to the top of a company, we should think of it as a skill that enables us to get to get there.

On Monday, the financial services consulting firm Capco celebrated International Women’s Day with a luncheon honoring women and leadership. It can be difficult to remember – especially for young women – just how far we have come in only a few decades. In the 1960s, as Stephanie Koontz wrote last month in the New York Times, “most Americans did not yet believe that gender equality was possible or even desirable.”

Fast forward fifty years and we are – at least on some measures like educational attainment and personal health – approaching equality. Ismail Amla, Partner and CEO for North America at Capco, explained that he feels that equality means, “My daughter who is 16 years old should have the same sort of opportunities as her brothers, even though the same opportunities would not have been afforded her mother only one generation ago.”

But, he continued, at the top of companies, we’re not even close. He cited Catalyst data revealing that in the Fortune 500, only about 14 percent of senior executives are women, and only four percent of CEOs are women. “There is still lots to address,” he continued. “Do we create an environment where women are leaders? How can I, as a CEO, say that women at Capco have the same opportunities as men?”

Corporate executives, both male and female, must ensure that their companies are authorizing and encouraging women to lead – that when women display leadership qualities, they are recognized and rewarded, rather than encouraged to fade into the background.

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The Disappearing Glass Ceiling

marilynjacobsonContributed by Marilyn Jacobson, PhD, author of Turning the Pyramid Upside Down: A New Leadership Model

Organizations will get flatter and ultimately the pyramid that has been with us for many generations will be gone. This is inevitable in this highly competitive, global, fast paced marketplace. A highly engaged workforce will be essential to deal with an already formidable and daily increasing number of complexities.

The glass ceiling will be an anomaly. Winning will depend on having available an array of skills and aptitudes, many of which play to women’s strengths. Think of what we have learned from Daniel Pink about left and right brain thinking, and the link between break – through technology and design Steve Jobs taught us. A competitive organization must have people with vastly different skills and attributes that they are eager to exercise. The workplace demands innovation, speed in decision making and timely execution. If this is to happen, newness must preempt numbers, collaboration must take precedence over status. Power, formerly at the top, must be replaced with teamwork. Communication and a culture that promotes idea exchange is likely to generate trust, and regard for each person’s unique contributions.

In my book, I make the case for inverting the pyramid and what it takes to develop a culture that values diversity. Flatter organizations are more interested in creativity, design and implementation than in promotions and bonuses. Genuine collaboration and coordination takes the spotlight away from title and emphasizes instead the realization of mutual goals. Layers of management are costly to maintain and are self defeating.

Flatter organizations foster skill development, encourage and support continuous personal growth. Leaders emerge when they see it is needed and when an individual has the particular information, contacts or skills indicated. Gender is not the deciding factor. Everyone benefits when they are asked rather than told and when it is natural to challenge each other.

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Changing the Way We Talk About Work and Family

Young business woman in a office environment.By Robin Madell (San Francisco)

“I totally believe that employers WANT to feel comfortable with a multi-tasking mom, but at the same time, there are still sideways looks and quiet conversations with co-workers. I believe employers want to feel more comfortable with this, but I just don’t think they really do….”

–Katherine Woodfield Hermes, The EHIC Group

A recent article in the New York Times touched on the topic of the taboo that some working mothers face about admitting that office absences are related to their children. In the piece, Anne-Marie Slaughter—who was director of policy planning at the State Department under Hillary Clinton from 2009 to 2011—was quoted as saying:

“The whole idea that you can’t cut it if you have to go home is hard on any engaged parent. When I was dean [of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs], I was very conscious of openly saying ‘I have to go to a parent-teacher meeting. I have to go home for dinner.’ What kind of society doesn’t let us say these things? People who have to pretend they’re doing something else are just going to be miserable, and ultimately they’re going to drop out.”

The author of the article, KJ Dell’Antonia, who interviewed Slaughter said that Slaughter’s comments made her rethink her own choices as a working mother in terms of how to talk about work and family:

“I spent the days after my conversation with Professor Slaughter trying harder to own up to the time compromises I make to both do my job and be home for my family. I explained that I was offline for an afternoon for a school event instead of just responding to e-mail without acknowledging that I wasn’t working. I took an earlier train and declared it, instead of letting it be assumed that the train was my only option. Even as a writer focused on issues of family, I have spent a fair amount of time at ‘doctors’ appointments’ rather than ‘children’s doctors’ appointments.’ It is surely easier for me to break that silence than it would be for many, but it still felt powerful, and honest, in a way I enjoyed.”

Dell’Antonia concluded her thoughts by asking readers whether they can begin to change the way they talk about the intersection between family and work, and speculated whether doing so might help change workplace culture around these issues.

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