International Women’s Day: Why the Gender Dividend is the Business Case for Gender Equality

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Nicki HeadshotBy Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of The Glass Hammer

“There isn’t a glass ceiling, just a thick layer of men” quipped the ever sharp Laura Liswood last week, and this is my favorite description to date of what is preventing women from advancing to executive management and the boardroom.

Others talk about the sticky floor or the marzipan layer preventing women from getting to the top. In the run up to the 100th International women’s day, themed “Equal Access to Education, Training and Science and Technology: Pathway to Decent Work for Women,” the discussion turns to creating a more robust pipeline of female leaders as the statistics don’t show great progress overall – as The White House Project reports, only about 16-18% of leadership roles in almost any industry are held by women. Yet women have long outpaced men in education (with almost 60% of college graduates now female), and capable, highly trained young women are flooding into the workforce.

Some companies are incredibly advanced in their gender work because they take it seriously. They understand, from both a human capital and a consumer perspective, that women are the next big business opportunity. Building stronger, more effective companies means developing and utilizing all of the talent available.

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The Glass Cliff – Turning to Women During a Crisis

wireless communicationBy Kelly Tanner (New York City)

A recent study published in the British Journal of Social Psychology concluded that female leaders are preferred during a crisis. This study, “The glass cliff: When and why women are selected as leaders in crisis contexts,” notes that when a company is in crisis, the perception of what constitutes an ideal leader shifts to someone with stereotypically non-male characteristics.

According to the study, since the feelings regarding what men bring to the table have shifted, the woman candidate is viewed as more effective, essentially by default, since men are seen as unqualified. On the other hand, the phenomenon is dubbed “the glass cliff,” because the troubles the company may be facing are seen as so insurmountable that the woman who has been selected to lead the company will probably not succeed, and thus, be sacrificed – pushed off the cliff.

What is interesting in this phenomenon is that the perception of female leaders does not change markedly – women are seen as stereotypically nurturing caretaker types in the study using a fictional successful business scenario and also a crisis situation. In essence, female leaders are best perceived to clean up the mess in a bad situation, after other options have been exhausted.

This preference for a female leader increases when the last several leaders have all been male, indicating a desire to break from a pattern. In the BJSP study, researchers Susanne Bruckmüller and Nyla Branscombe explain:

“Our findings indicate that women find themselves in precarious leadership positions not because they are singled out for them, but because men no longer seem to fit… There is, of course, a double irony here. When women get to enjoy the spoils of leadership (a) it is not because they are seen to deserve them, but because men no longer do, and (b) this only occurs when, and because, there are fewer spoils to enjoy.”

Even if the female leader does manage to clean up the mess, the researchers imply, she will not be seen as deserving of accolades as her male counterparts. The woman was a last resort – not the first choice.

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Strategies to Shatter the Startling Leadership Disparity

iStock_000000227687XSmallBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

A report recently released by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the University of Bath School of Management revealed that women are 6 times less likely than men of similar professional experience to be CFOs or CEOs.

Similarly, in the UK women make up 46.6% of the working population – but they only hold 12.2% of board positions in the FTSE100. Sandra Rapacioli, CIMA’s R&D Manager added, “And of our members in the UK, males make 24% more than our female members.”

She continued, “We were surprised there still remains such a big pay and seniority gap in this day and age.” Fortunately, CIMA has produced a report detailing the best practices of women who have managed to break the glass ceiling, with advice for women at all levels of their careers.

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Boardroom Diversity is Public Issue – Here’s Why

Asian businesswoman conversing with co-workers in office boardroBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

When you bring up the need to get more women in the boardroom, you’re bound to encounter some push-back. You might hear, “Why should companies be told what the gender-makeup of their boardroom should be? Since companies are in the business of making money, won’t they automatically choose the right person for the job, regardless of gender, to maximize their revenues?”

No matter how many studies come out that say leadership diversity is good for business, most people, in the US at least, are still opposed to companies being required to fill a certain percentage of board seats with women. Most people feel it’s just none of our business, really, or the government’s, to meddle in the affairs of our largest corporations.

But, the people running our largest corporations are subject to public, cultural assumptions – which are preventing women from achieving their highest potential. The shareholders of these corporations – the public – are too. If the public is convinced that boardroom diversity is good for business, won’t shareholders influence companies to hire more women for their boardrooms?

But are shareholders convinced that women business leaders make just as good decisions as men? A new study says no. And that certainly is the public’s business.

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What Does “Board Ready” Really Mean?

iStock_000003482002XSmallBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

Based on the latest Catalyst figures, women constitute only 11 percent of U.S. Fortune 1000 company board seats and 25 percent of Fortune 1000 companies still have no women on their boards. Numbers are similar in Europe, where women account for just 9.7 percent of board members in the top 300 European companies. When discussing why it is that women are still so underrepresented on boards in the U.S. and abroad, there are differing opinions. Some strongly believe there is a glass ceiling in place that hinders women from moving up the ranks, while others believe it’s a matter of too few qualified women being in the pipeline. According to new research released by the three-year-old London-based company Bird & Co Board & Executive Mentoring, the glass ceiling is a distraction and the real problem is clearly a lack of “board ready” women in the pipeline.

In 2008, the company undertook a research project to identify what will help get more women into board positions – and what resulted was their Glass Ladder Report [PDF]. According to Kathleen O’Donovan, founding partner of the company, their aim with the report was not just to identify barriers, but to seek opportunities for positive change and to find out what would help more women get to the top.

“Our research confirmed there is widespread recognition that a board’s performance can be enhanced by the addition of one or more women and indeed, there’s much enthusiasm for programs to increase the number of women in senior management positions,” O’Donovan said. “Our research also made clear that this is a supply-side issue. Increasing female representation on boards is simply not going to be feasible without a significant increase in the pool of women who have the experience and preparation to be classed as genuinely board ready.”

By being board ready, O’Donovan means having a real sense of what is expected of board directors and how to deliver; understanding that a non-executive directorship is not merely an extension of the executive role – it is another job with its own requirements and responsibilities; being clear about what they bring to the board and what experiences they have that will be of value to that board; and understanding the process of board search and nomination committees and being prepared for interviews and board panels.

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Fastest Way To Gender-Balanced Leadership – Appoint A Woman CEO

Lynn_24P2193_FBy Lynn Harris, author, Unwritten Rules: What Women Need To Know About Leading In Today’s Organizations

Corporations are now, in many ways, as powerful, or sometimes more powerful, than governments. It therefore matters a lot who sits on their boards and executive teams. These are the people who set strategy and make decisions that affect all of our lives.

Some of these companies are smart enough to understand the importance and the competitive advantage of gender-balanced leadership. Men and women working together, using complimentary thinking and behaviors to innovate, understand customers, prevent group-think and limit risk. Achieving gender balance also doubles the talent pool from which to draw our most talented leaders.

But many organizations, even those that set the strategic imperative to appoint more women leaders, struggle to make it happen.

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Encouragement vs. Criticism – How Should We Manage Rising Women?

iStock_000010552869XSmallBy Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

In a recent article, Peter Ranscombe quotes Laura Morse, visiting lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as saying that women get more encouragement than criticism. She also said that bosses should push their female employees to realize their full potential and instead of patting them on the head, they need to push them through the door.

After reading the article, I was curious about what female managers in the financial industry thought of regarding the “criticism versus encouragement” debate. Are women receiving more encouragement than criticism? Does that stunt their professional growth? And are their other differences in the way men and women manage office behavior?

Same But Different

Robin Ross, managing director of interest rate products at the CME Group, the largest futures exchange in the world, said even if her male managers held back because she was a women, she always saw herself as equal to her male counterparts.

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Why We’re Not There Yet: Changing the Leadership System

Young business womanBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

On paper, began Linda Basch, President of the National Council for Research on Women, the numbers look good. Women earn 57% of Bachelor’s degrees, and a larger percentage of Master’s degrees. One third of business owners are women – the fastest growing group of business owners, in fact. Women control half of the wealth in the US, and 65% of consumer spending.

Yet, said Basch, “The glass ceiling remains virtually shatterproof. We’ve reached stasis in too many areas.”

Yesterday, the National Council for Research on Women, along with the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College, Catalyst, Demos, Women’s Forum, Inc., and Women 4 Citi hosted “The Power of Women’s Leadership” to explore the lack of women in leadership positions, why we need them there, and how to fix it.

The panel discussion featured Joanna Barsh, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and co-author of How Remarkable Women Lead and Linda Tarr-Whelan, Demos Distinguished Senior Fellow and author of Women Lead the Way, and was moderated by Carol Jenkins, Founding President of the Women’s Media Center.

Basch pointed out, the lack of women in positions of leadership is getting another look. “Women are increasingly seen as part of the solution to [economic and social] challenges.”

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Women in Technology: Staying Technical and the Importance of Being an Expert

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Nicki HeadshotBy Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of theglasshammer.com

This is the second article in this series, investigating why staying technical is important on the path to promotion – either as an executive or an eventual board member. Don’t forget to register for our upcoming panel discussion and networking event for women in technology on July 8th at 5.30pm.

According to the Anita Borg Institute report Senior Technical Women: A Profile of Success [PDF] by Dr. Caroline Simard, the numbers of senior women on the technical path vs. the management path don’t really correspond with the numbers of men in similar positions.

“We find that senior technical women are significantly more likely to be in a manager position (36.9%) than are men (19%); conversely, men at the high level are significantly more likely to be in an individual contributor position (IC) (80.6%) than are women (63.1%).”

What’s the reason for this disparity, and is it cause for alarm? At first glance, this data seems encouraging as women are making headway as managers in the technology space. Further investigation would reveal, however, that “management” means project management – not executive management. The Anita Borg Institute discovered that women are being led away from being technical innovators and instead are being heavily encouraged to manage people and processes instead of continuing to code and program – despite their degree training. The report explains:

“Interestingly, more women in the IC track (26.8%) reported having a non-STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) degree than women within the management track (12.5%) – which shows that women in the management track have a high level of technical expertise.”

This same report states “60.2% of senior men describe themselves as an ‘innovator,’ versus just 38.1 percent of senior women.” There was a perception by the respondents of innovation as a masculine quality. On the other hand, while the majority of senior women felt they were not innovators, more than half did see themselves as risk-takers – about the same amount as senior men.

I think that there are three clear factors why women drop off the technical path.

  • Cultural messaging of what is “means” to be a techie.
  • The perception of the isolation of coding as a full time job.
  • The lack of support from most companies to keep women technical.

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Women at the Top of Tech: Two New Reports Released by the Anita Borg Institute

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anitaborgreportsBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Two new reports published yesterday detail the challenges faced by women at the top of the tech industry, as well as practical steps to keep them there. The Anita Borg Institute, a non-profit organization working within the technology industry and academia to make the tech field more welcoming to women, has released Senior Technical Women: A Profile of Success and the 2009 Technical Executive Forum report on the Recruitment, Retention, and Advancement of Technical Women: Barriers to Cultural Change in Corporations.

Senior Technical Women details the challenges faced by women who have climbed to the top of their companies – and discusses how they managed to succeed despite these challenges. According to the report, “women hold 24% of technology jobs, yet represent half the total workforce. This underrepresentation persists even though the demand for technical talent remains high…” The report, based on a 2008 “survey of 1,795 technical men and women at seven high-technology companies in Silicon Valley,” focuses on the responses given by senior technical women – 4% of the individuals who participated in the study.

“This report asks ‘what about the women who beat the odds and made it to the senior levels?’” explained Dr. Caroline Simard, Vice President of Research and Executive Programs. Dr. Simard went on to explain that the report should be useful to companies looking to retain senior technical women as well as for young and mid-career women looking for advice as they work to advance into leadership roles.

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