“Show Me how to Lead, Like a Woman”: Why Positive Gender Identity Matters in Leadership

Managing ChangeBy Aimee Hansen

“Show me how to run, like a girl.” On Sunday February 1st, millions of Superbowl viewers watched a 60-second ad from Procter & Gamble’s Always campaign, which powerfully demonstrated that doing something “like a girl” implies weak and wimpy performance is an association girls learn. From puberty, girls become divorced from their self-confidence and evidently self-perceived ability.

Calling the ad “groundbreaking” for its placement in the Superbowl, the Huffington Post stated it won kudos “for changing the conversation about what it means to run, throw, and do pretty much any activity ‘like a girl’.” A Washington Post blog referred to it as a “PSA for all womankind” – summing up what was revealed by how young girls behaved in response before they internalized the negative gender stereotype of weakness:

“…throwing ‘like a girl’ is the same as throwing like a person, right?”

If negative gender identification contributes to dropping a female’s self-confidence by the time she hits puberty, it’s no wonder that marrying the roles of “woman” and “leader” too often creates an identity conflict for professional women.

Leadership Stereotypes & Gender

Researchers Alice Eagly and Anne Koenig stated in a Footnote article last year that while it’s slowly changing, “the characteristics people typically associate with leadership are often stereotypically masculine” – especially when it’s men making the association. A prevalent gender stereotype, which it has been argued in the Financial Times, business schools perpetuate.

Drawing from their own and other studies, they wrote “The alignment of the stereotypical characteristics of men and the stereotypical characteristics of good leaders makes it easier for men to be perceived as successful leaders, a phenomenon known as role congruity. In contrast, women are perceived as less fit for leadership because traditionally feminine characteristics are less consistent with our perceptions of successful leaders.”

Add “perceive themselves” to that dynamic, and the case for internal conflict becomes clear – leaving women in a bind when they attempt to be a leader in a male-dominated environment where their gender is a perceived liability.

Identity Conflict

A recently published report, “Me, a woman, and a leader: Positive social identity and identity conflict” by INSEAD’s Natalia Karelia and ESMT’s Laura Guillén, explored the consequences of positive social identity for women in leadership roles, across over 600 leaders.

From the INSEAD working paper behind the report, identity conflict is when women perceive an incongruity between their gender and professional identity. The study proposed that when women leaders see the identity roles of “woman” and “leader” as holding conflicting norms, meanings, and demands, they feel at odds inside while trying to live up to the standards of each of them, and this creates the feeling of inauthenticity and internal problems.

The research found that especially in male-dominated organizations, women leaders experience significant identity conflict, which increases stress, decreases a sense of well-being, and turns leadership into a duty they have to persist with rather than a joyful and motivating role. These women felt under pressure to conform to male-associated leadership qualities and expected behaviors, at a sense of violating their female identity.

The researchers propose that women in male-dominated workplaces may struggle to integrate leader into their identity because female leadership is not being legitimized, “For women, the road of developing a self-concept as a leader may be especially bumpy in the environments where women are numerically underrepresented.”

The researchers write, “Our results indicate that in male-dominated organizations, women leaders may be more often ‘reminded’ of the incongruity between their professional and gender roles.”

Positive Gender Identity

The research found that what powerfully reduced identity conflict for women leaders is this: feeling positively about belonging to the social group of woman.

The research found, “Compared with women in more male-dominated organizations, women in organizations with proportionally more women held a more positive gender identity and experienced less identity conflict.” Working in organizations where being a woman, and evidently the associated strengths, is seen as explicitly positive left women more motivated to lead.

The researchers asserted that “holding a more positive gender identity reduces women leaders’ perceived conflict between their self-views as women and leaders. Thus, cultivating and maintaining a positive gender identity helps women leaders to improve their well-being not only directly, but also indirectly — by reducing identity conflict.”

In simplest terms, what the study found was that women that feel more positive about being a woman feel better being a leader, closing the gap between them within. A significant contributor to that is seeing females reflected in numbers around them.

Self-Affirmation

Embracing our social identity as woman can also help to free us from the confines of stereotypes and perceived incompatibilities.

Drawing from past studies, Karelia and Guillén pointed out that a positive social identity links to a stronger self-worth which can spill across roles and indirectly build self-affirmation. “Therefore, the more positive social identities woman leaders hold, the more freedom they will feel about the way they can lead, and the more likely they will be to develop their own way of leading that makes them feel comfortable and authentic.”

“Leader” and “woman” need not imply an inherent divisiveness, when women embolden themselves to find their own way.

Who defines what it means to lead “like a woman”?

Well, ultimately, you do. Lead.

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How Women, an Untapped Workforce, Can Gain a Competitive Edge in Business

Career AssetsIn light of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s recent remarks about women needing to have “faith” in the HR system and rely on “karma” in the workplace rather than directly ask for raises, it’s especially crucial for women to value their own strengths and not be afraid to use them to gain a competitive edge in the workforce.

Although controversial, Nadella’s comments highlight the perpetuated stereotypes of gender roles in business: men are typically accepted as more aggressive, while women are expected to be more yielding and less assertive. Despite accounting for half of the U.S. workforce and surpassing the male population in not only educational attainment, but also professional degrees and work experience, women earn 78% of the compensation received by their male counterparts.

Even though such statistics may be disconcerting, awareness can lead to empowerment, and there are certainly steps women can take in order to stand firm in their own value to the companies they advance.

Take Credit for Your Work
Too often, women let others receive the accolades that they deserve for their own work. Whether it’s a supervisor or coworker, valuable efforts and innovation by individual women are often unacknowledged due to office politics and inadequate communication to upper level management. Despite popular belief, however, it’s entirely possible to make sure that your voice is getting heard without burning the bridges of professional decorum.

After completing a great project, for example, it could be prudent to make sure that your company’s leadership recognizes your role in the undertaking. You could ask for feedback regarding the particular part of the project on which you worked and if there’s anything you can do to help further. It’s essential to make your contribution to the project clear, but deliver the message in a way that simply comes across as being professionally thorough and helpful.

Understand Your Colleagues
A lot of knowing when to take which step comes down to understanding the psychology of the people with whom you work — from the company’s CEO to your assistant. Use your intuition to read the underlying drivers behind attitudes, approaches, and situations. Observe how people like to be treated and what type of interactions they respond to best. This simple insight can give you all the clarity you need in order to say the right thing at the right time, allowing you to form rapport with both coworkers and gatekeepers — and draw attention to your value within the company.

Maximize Your Efforts
Be strategic about where to invest your energy and focus. Even though it’s important to take pride in everything you do, it’s plain that some initiatives are more important than others. It’s helpful to take an objective view of the company and its leadership in order to evaluate which goals and enterprises matter most. Fuel the projects that are important to your workplace’s gatekeepers and the ultimate success of the company; leave the rest alone, unless you have significant passion for them and are committed to seeing them through.

Women Are Still an Untapped Resource
Amazingly, half of workers are now women, but women still represent a largely untapped workforce. In fact, 56 percent of the 20 lowest-paid jobs are performed by women as opposed to just 29 percent of the highest-paid jobs. Yet, according to a report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers, “Recent research has shown that women can help drive innovation and better target female customers and employees.”

Some argue that having children and raising a family is a pivotal factor that interferes with women’s careers, which is why women represent such an untapped workforce; however, we’ve found that a high percentage of moms want to be a part of the workforce and are certainly qualified to do so.

I have not found this to be the case. Zirtual, my own company, is made up of 90% female Zirtual Assistants (ZAs). It’s turned out that the majority of candidates who apply are women (about 50% are stay at home moms) and they have proven to be extremely skilled and well-suited for the position

Besides being qualified and having the right skill sets to excel as ZAs, we’ve also discovered that our female-dominated workforce demonstrates exceptional levels of engagement with work, fellow co-workers, and clients. They tend to be excited about doing their jobs well and ultimately helping other people.

Perhaps it is the flexibility that remote work affords to women that is key in allowing them to truly perform at their best and also handle their other familial responsibilities. Even within full-time corporate positions, providing the flexibility to work from home and integrating policies such as paid family leave can help to reduce barriers to women participating and thriving as much as men do in the workplace. With shared breadwinning and caregiving responsibilities increasingly crossing over gender lines, it only makes sense to grant the same program offerings, such as paternity leave, to men as to women, especially considering that more and more women are entering the workforce.

At the end of the day, there’s strength in numbers. But it’s now perhaps even more important than ever for each individual woman to value the strengths within herself in order to tap into her own competitive edge.

Guest Contribution by Maren Kate Donovan, CEO of Zirtual

Guest advice and opinions not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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International Women’s Day Coverage: Professional Women in Nigeria

International Women’s Day is an opportunity for theglasshammer.com to look at the status of professional women in other parts of the world. Africa is a huge continent with varying business environments. South Africa gets the most attention followed by somewhat negative attention for Nigeria due to reported high levels of corruption.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and largest economy is in the midst of an workplace equality revolution. How easy is it for Nigerian woman to climb the corporate ladder in modern day Nigeria?

Today, the participation of women in corporate managerial roles is being discussed at all levels of Nigerian society. Traditionally a Nigerian woman’s place was by her husband’s side but todays Nigeria is becoming a much different society. In the last decade women have held positions of leadership in the Nigerian Medical Association, Nigerian Bar Association and the Institute of Chartered Accountants. In government, the two important cabinet positions of finance and petroleum are also held by Nigerian women. These advances have stirred Nigerian public sentiment over the viability of women in positions of power. The minister of Nigerian finance, Diezani Alison-Madueke recently felt the need to state, “We are there not because we are women. We are there because of our competence as managers.”

The present reality and the future progress

Despite being well educated with the appropriate training and experience Nigeria is still facing a problem when it comes to getting women into top level positons in the corporate world. But the ambitions of young, professional Nigerian women seem to be rising to meet this challenge. In a 2008 survey conducted by Nigeria’s University of Ilorin, 52.5% of female Nigerian managers were 21 to 30 years of age while only 25% were between 31 to 40 and 15% were between 41 to 50 years old. This represents a massive boom in the early hiring of young female professionals into Nigeria’s managerial roles. The Chairperson and Chief Executive of Britannia U Group, an oil and gas conglomerate, Catherine Uju Ifejika said, “We are able to hold your homes together, and we are beginning to translate that into boardroom jobs, and then owning companies. In six years I have formed seven companies.”

Today’s recent rise in public discussion and government interest in the participation of women in the corporate world comes from newly published studies on the economic benefits of female participation. A big push to include women comes from the economic success of neighboring South Africa and its relative achievements in this area. Winihin Ayuli-Jemide, a Lagos-based entrepreneur and former lawyer said of South Africa’s women, “They dominate the low capital businesses, the ‘informal sector’ such as manufacturing knitwear, tie and dye and homemade food for sale in municipal markets.” She sees this as the key to South Africa’s success but wants Nigeria’s women to aim higher. She cites investment, particularly in oil and gas as Nigerian women’s most efficient way to gain economic and power equality.

International studies also seem to have had a large impact on Nigeria’s view of professional women. McKinsey and Company, a multinational management consulting firm, has since 2007 published a series of surveys and studies entitled Women Matter. The overall conclusion of these studies is that companies with a higher female representation at the executive level maintain a higher economic output than those with lower representation. Winihin Ayuli-Jemide welcomes the influence of these studies and cites the need for more African based research. She says, “In Africa we really don’t have information about gender issues, nothing on how we are doing in the economy.”

A lack of mentorship for rising women in the corporate world has also been blamed for Nigeria’s lack of women in senior positions. And women who attempt to learn are sometimes seen as more of a secretary and/or mistress then colleague. A respondent to a survey conducted by Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti who has over 12 years in the corporate banking, oil and gas sectors had this to say. “There was a stage in my career where I was discriminated against as a family woman, when I was given a mentor, he was too bossy and spoke to me sometimes as if I were his girlfriend. He wanted me to stay late evening at work and wanted me to also meet up with him in restaurants, canteens… I could not keep up with these demands and our relationship became tense…. I prefer to have female mentor…it is easier to compare notes and learn from one another’s effort.”

Many Nigerian Women also feel that they must sacrifice their familial lives for the careers in an effort to appear more “macho”. In a 2011 survey by the Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, a respondent was quoted, “The corporate environment here in Nigeria is difficult and very Macho. As a woman you have to strive harder and do twice as well as the guys in order to be noticed or succeed. Women are always considered not fully committed, especially if married with children”.

But despite deeply entrenched gender roles, Nigerian society’s view of women as professionals seems to be changing. The same survey mentioned in this article by University of Ilorin in 2008 showed that 90% of respondents believed Nigerian women were capable as managers and can possess leadership traits which are similar to their male co-workers. This indicates an encouraging trend that will possibly change gender dynamics further and will take time to play out in real working environments over the next ten years.

By Ben Rozon

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Voice of Experience: Jessica K. Delbaum, Antitrust Partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP

By Cathie Ericson

delbaumjessicawebAccording to Jessica K. Delbaum, a leading antitrust partner at global law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP, plotting a successful career path involves looking beyond the expectations of an entry-level position and determining if you’ll be excited by future prospects in the practice you pursue. “Look ahead at what senior practitioners are doing, because you won’t be at your current level for long,” she advises. “Make sure it’s fascinating and rewarding.”

Delbaum took her own advice to heart when she pursued her career path in the antitrust field. As an undergrad, she majored in economics and philosophy, but decided to start her career as a legal assistant, joining Shearman & Sterling right after graduating from Columbia College. She quickly realized she had found her calling and went back to school at Harvard Law. She spent her first summer in the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York, but an antitrust class she took in her second year of law school provided much-needed career direction. “I was almost immediately won over by antitrust’s complex and stimulating mix of corporate law, litigation, criminal work and business – all in one body of law,” Delbaum recalls. Soon after, a stint as a summer associate, with an emphasis on antitrust, confirmed her interest in both its theoretical and practical applications.

After law school graduation, Delbaum began her career as an Attorney General’s Honors Program Attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in Washington, DC. She says, “It was a phenomenal experience, working with an incredible group of attorneys and economists, including many women in leadership positions.” Delbaum also recalls having the unique opportunity to depose a Fortune 50 CEO in her first year of work.

After a few years of rewarding work at the DOJ, she missed New York and decided it was time to try private practice. She joined Shearman & Sterling in November 2004 — first as an associate and then becoming counsel and ultimately a partner.

Today, the most rewarding part of her job is helping clients achieve their strategic goals as they navigate the complexity of the antitrust realm. “We use different tactics depending on their goals,” she explains, “so my job is to listen carefully to the client and then apply my knowledge and expertise to help them make practical choices and achieve their objectives as painlessly as possible.”

Currently she is wrapping up a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical transaction and juggling several other client assignments. She says, “I love substantive, complicated issues, and I find the more I delve into any industry – whether it’s industrial gases or medical devices – the more interesting it gets.”

The legal industry itself continues to fascinate her as companies realize that antitrust issues extend far beyond U.S. borders to incorporate international factors. Today, for example, completing a significant merger transaction will likely involve discussions with antitrust agencies from all over the world – a specialty for her and for Shearman & Sterling.

Changing Expectations
Stepping back from her client work, Delbaum sees a changing face of Big Law and an ever-evolving way of servicing today’s clients. She has seen shifts that extend from client expectations to the expectations of incoming lawyers. Successful practitioners, she says, will learn to navigate these different stakeholders.

This has a significant impact, in particular, in the way that young lawyers work, especially in their emphasis on work-life balance. “Incoming associates are typically very tech savvy and adapt well to our fast-paced work environment, but work isn’t everything to them,” Delbaum says. “They crave a more well-rounded life and experience, and the challenge is to see how that dovetails with private practice and the needs of our international clientele and the pace of our transactions.”

She cites the issue of clients with pressing problems – often in multiple time zones – and the lawyers who also want some balance in their life. That equilibrium is both helped and harmed by technology – on the one hand, you can take care of what you need to wherever you are; conversely, no one is completely unplugged and it’s more difficult to carve out that sacred personal time.

“It used to be we’d have a week to sift through new documents and offer recommendations; now we get something at 4 p.m. and clients often want feedback the next morning – in whatever time zone they’re in,” she says. “As a partner in the firm, my role is to service our clients and also to help newer associates learn how to find a balance.”

Helping Associates be WISER
Shearman & Sterling offers a wide variety of career development opportunities, many of which Delbaum helps oversee. She is one of the co-partner advisers for the firm’s Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention (WISER) – a group that was initially internally focused but has become increasingly focused on business development and other external factors. She is also co-chair of the firm’s global Associate Development Partners Committee, responsible for development, training and mentoring of the firm’s roughly 600 associates worldwide.

In addition, Delbaum is active in the firm’s efforts around Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In movement. “We were one of the first firms to join the movement, and we learned very quickly that the challenge was how to make it actionable,” she says. The firm developed a program offering “Lean in Resource Partners,” of which Delbaum is one. We have regular sessions with both male and female associates.; the meetings typically feature a video and discussion, followed by a break-out session, and concluding with a group session to report valuable take-aways. “This has been a hugely successful endeavor that has helped facilitate better camaraderie and enhance careers and daily interaction,” she adds.

Internal and External Networks Key to Success
Over the years, Delbaum has learned the importance of developing both her internal and external networks. While she spent the early part of her career focusing on internal network building as a natural extension of her role, she wishes she had also focused on expanding her external associations. She advocates that newer practitioners network not only within their narrow area of expertise, but also within the larger legal and business community.

And she feels that the challenges apply equally to women who are her peers and those starting their journey. “We are great resources for each other,” she says, “and we need to take advantage of any opportunities to mingle our professional groups to help nurture potential business contacts.”

All Work, No Play…
Delbaum readily admits that one of the perks of her globe-trotting career is the opportunity to visit places she otherwise wouldn’t. She takes advantage of her robust travel schedule to blend in personal travel as well — a recent client trip to South Africa ended with a memorable two-day safari.

“Since I have to travel so extensively for work, why not combine it with some fun when I can?” she says, noting that travel experiences are also beneficial for building connections. As an example, she cites a Japanese client who had sent her a holiday card featuring a print from renowned Japanese artist Hokusai. She happened to mention to the client that she had just seen an exhibit of his work in Paris over her holiday vacation, and that spurred an extended conversation and a closer client relationship. “I Iove to travel, and it really can open other doors,” she says.

In addition, Delbaum makes time for yoga, both for the physical aspects and her burgeoning interest in the mental benefits of the meditation period at the end. “It’s good for body and soul,” she says.

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Bringing Men on Board in Gender Diversity

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

image3 (1)Every year The Glass Hammer hosts a career development event called Navigating, Negotiating, and Building Your Strategic Network. This year’s event, sponsored by BNY Mellon, Shearman & Sterling and Goldman Sachs, focused on how leaders and aspiring leaders — both male and female — can engage more men in efforts toward improving gender diversity.

For too long, noted Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of The Glass Hammer, men have been excluded from discussions on gender diversity, and that’s keeping well-meaning diversity allies from speaking up and taking action on workplace equality. She asked attendees to reconsider who they “authorize as an expert, pick as a team member, and generally promote.”

Moderated by Chuck Shelton, Chief Executive Officer at Greatheart Consulting, the panel explored how men can be better gender diversity allies, and how women can benefit more from male mentors and sponsors. Panelists included Justin Gmelich, Global head of Credit Trading and Management Committee Member, Goldman Sachs; Larry Hughes, CEO, BNY Mellon Wealth Management; Kathryn Kaminsky, Partner, Assurance, PwC; and Donna Parisi, Partner and Co-Practice Group Leader of the Asset Management Group, Shearman & Sterling.

The panelists weighed in on why gender diversity is such an critical area of focus.

“In my mind, diversity is an important driver of business results,” said Parisi. “Diversity of thought, approach, and methods in getting things done all help to create better business outcomes.”

Unfortunately, too many people still think of gender diversity efforts as a zero sum game, a pie with a set number of slices. According to the traditional thinking, if men help women succeed, that’s one fewer pie slice for them.

Parisi took issue with this reasoning. “We’re working together to grow the pie – it’s about collaboration,” she explained. “Gender diversity creates more opportunities for success for all involved.”

Hughes agreed. “If anything the challenge is in finding quality leaders, not that there aren’t enough leadership spots to go around,” he said.

Hughes said one way he’s worked to increase gender diversity at BNY Mellon Wealth Management is to require diverse candidate slates for top jobs. He recalled a time that a search firm turned around a slate of candidates for an executive position with all male, white, 50-something candidates. There were some fine choices, he said, but the recruiter could have done better.

He told the search firm to try again, and to make sure there were diverse candidates on the slate. The next time around, he received a more diverse slate of excellent candidates and eventually, he hired a fantastically qualified woman for the job.

“We’re trying to make the pie bigger,” he explained.

Kaminsky said she also tries to reframe discussions around gender diversity as a matter of talent management.

“If you’re looking for the best person to fill the spot. I think the misconception is that sometimes when you talk about looking for diversity, people think it’s a ‘he versus she’ issue, when it is truly about the best talent” she said.

“Advocacy should be omnipresent,” Gmelich says. He stated that his colleagues know he is “all in” based on his personal and professional advocacy of the advancement of women.

Gmelich explained that he’s always been passionate about fairness, and perhaps part of his interest in gender diversity is due to the sponsorship of the woman who initially hired him at Goldman, Jackie Zehner.

However, Gmelich emphasized that younger professionals should remember that they are responsible for driving their own success.

“If you think someone is responsible for your career, you’re dead wrong. You are your biggest advocate,” he said. “Other folks are also working diligently, – it is not enough to work in a silo.”

Parisi reminded the audience that sponsorship is a two-way street.

“Sponsoring or advocating for someone takes a little bit of a leap of faith,” she said. “You’re putting yourself out there on their behalf. Because of the risk involved, you’re not going to do it for everyone.”

As such, protégés (people receiving sponsorship) should return that trust, and make sure to meet the expectations that have been set by the sponsor, Kaminsky said.

“You have to be willing to show vulnerability,” she said, and to ask for help when it is needed. She also advised the panelists to distinguish between people who are providing advice (mentors) versus those advocating on their behalf (sponsors).

Men can distinguish themselves as leaders by championing gender diversity, Hughes said. Hughes chaired his group’s diversity committee for five years. “I think symbolism does matter,” he said. BNY’s Mellon male CEO chaired his company’s women’s network for years as well. “It showed this very senior guy cared enough to personally participate and chair the women’s affinity network, and made sure roadblocks were taken down.”

He added, “And as a result, a lot more men attended.”

Finally, Gmelich talked about how diversity to him isn’t just a workplace matter, like flipping a light switch. He said he wants to live his commitment to gender diversity, and as a father to four girls, he explained, “I think about the environment I want them to have at work and that drives me.”

Gmelich said he helped found an all-girls STEM high school as well.

“I’m not just tilting at windmills,” he said. “This is a big thing for me.”

The panel recognized that much work has to be done by both men and women to ensure that on a daily basis any unconscious bias is overridden and that real talent gets to thrive.

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Reckoning with Institutional Double Standards on International Women’s Day

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IWDBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

What is it that keeps women from ascending to executive levels in business in numbers comparable to men? It’s not for lack of commitment or ambition. It’s not a matter of skill level or about being “tough enough.” It’s not even about negative perceptions on women’s ability to turn a profit.

What it is, is bias. It’s a culture created by men and women that offers men greater opportunities to succeed, while holding women to higher standards. And now, finally, the American public is actually coming to terms with the double-standards keeping women out of leadership roles. In fact, in a recent Pew survey, the majority of respondents acknowledged that women do, in fact, face a tougher road to the top, even today.

“Americans widely believe that men have a better shot at leadership positions in business and politics, even as majorities say that men and women make equally good leaders,” the Pew report states.

In the survey, majorities (including both women and men) agreed that there aren’t many women in executive leadership because companies simply aren’t ready to hire women leaders. It was also recognized that it is because women are held to higher standards than men. Yet, respondents also said women would do just as good a job as men.

The Pew study illuminates a point of view The Glass Hammer has supported for many years. That is: women are not the ones who need changing. The reason women are not advancing into senior leadership roles in greater numbers is because they are locked out by institutional, systemic biases that favor men over women implicitly.

Yet, this runs contrary to so much of the professional advice offered to women – to do more of this or less of that, to behave more in one way or another. Lean in, lean out, be nice, be tough, always wear heels, never let them see you cry. These pieces of advice may work for some women or they may not. Many women may find power or inspiration there, while others may find them empty promises. But they will not fix the problem that persists to this day, that the corporate world is set up to give the benefit of the doubt to men over women every time when it comes to promotion and advancement.

As of January, there were only 26 female Fortune 500 CEOs, according to Pew. And it’s taken 20 years to reach that puny five percent threshold. This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!” At this rate, what will the picture of women in leadership be in another twenty years? Is ten percent good enough?

We, as a culture, can do vastly more for women and we should. It will take work by all of us, though, and real acknowledgment from powerful business leaders – both male and female – that double standards are keeping talented, driven women from succeeding. Change starts at the top but is lived by everyone.

Double Standards by the Numbers

Looking at Pew’s numbers, it’s clear that the majority of respondents – a sample of almost 3,000 US adults – agree that women face double standards in the workplace.

Two-thirds of respondents (67 percent) said the reason there aren’t many women running major corporations is that many businesses just “aren’t ready” for to hire women for top jobs. Two in five (43 percent) said this was a “major” reason there weren’t more women in executive positions while 24 percent cited it as a “minor” reason.

Almost the same share (65 percent) of respondents said that women have to “do more to prove themselves,” and the “major” and “minor breakdowns were almost identical.
In comparison, 58 percent of respondents said they believe women’s responsibilities to their families don’t leave much time for executive leadership, with a quarter (23 percent) designating this is a “major” factor that there aren’t more women running companies, while 35 percent cited it as a “minor” factor.

Respondents were also asked to compare whether men or women are more suited toward certain characteristics. A third (34 percent) said women were better at “working out compromises,” while only 9 percent said men were better at that task. Over half (55 percent) said there was no difference between the genders here. Similarly, 31 percent said women were better at being “honest and ethical,” while three percent said men were, and 64 percent said there was no difference between the genders. Three quarters of respondents said there was no difference between the genders when it came to “negotiating deals,” while 18 percent said men were better suited to this task then women, and seven percent said women were better suited to it.

Finally, a third (34%) said men were better at being willing to take risks than women, while five percent said women were better than men at taking risks, and 58 percent said there was no difference between men and women here.

Indeed, men’s propensity for risky behavior has been studied, lauded, condemned, and questioned in equal measure.
Perhaps its time for men, who make up the vast majority of senior business leaders, to take a risk and openly support the advancement of women, by using their influence to challenge unfair workplace institutions and gender biases.

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Career Tip of the Week!

Nicki-Gilmour-bioThis Week’s Tip Is…

Know your individual needs and values.

Everyone is different. Understand what makes you tick ( and by working with a coach who can work with you/ run psychometric instruments to help you know more about yourself) you can see which types of organizational cultures will best support your needs. Is it about that free coffee in the morning for you or are you wanting to get in and out and need flexibility to do so? These things matter, despite seeming small.

Welcome to Career Tip of the Week. In this column we aim to provide you with a useful snippet of advice to carry with you all week as you navigate the day to day path in your career.

By Nicki Gilmour, Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist

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Voice of Experience: Natasha Moffitt, Partner, King & Spalding

moffitt-natasha-4938-176x240Sometimes dad knows best. That’s what Natasha Moffitt, Partner at King & Spalding, learned when following her father’s suggestions for her career path.

Raised in Germany by a German mother and American father, Moffitt decided in high school that she wanted to be a lawyer, but her father urged her to leverage her skills in math and science. He counseled her to first pursue a computer engineering degree (an emerging field of study at the time), and then a career in patent law; and that’s when her career path was born.

Moffitt graduated with a computer engineering degree and a minor in German, and then worked as an engineer for several years before pursuing her law degree, focused all the while on becoming a patent attorney.

“Many engineers don’t consider patent law as a career path until later in their careers; I decided to pursue patent law from the get go.” She became a summer associate at King & Spalding in 2000, joined the firm full time in 2001 and was elected to the partnership in 2008.

Meaningful Wins Are Key to Satisfaction
While she is naturally pleased about all the wins she achieves for clients, one win in particular stands out. She defended a client in patent litigation brought by a competitor, with enormous stakes that were “do or die” for both sides.

For more than a month the case was tried, and she was delighted to score an outright win, which was later affirmed on appeal.

“Unfortunately, patent litigation has become a routine ‘cost of doing business’ for many companies, but in this case, the suit was directed toward an important part of the client’s business, and it was critical that we win. I always play to win, but this win was especially sweet.”

Moffitt currently is excited about the business development work she’s doing in Germany and other German-speaking countries. “It’s a good fit, given my language fluency and heritage. German tech companies are frequently sued in the United States for patent infringement. I am fortunate to be collaborating with a group of partners who also have German ties and an interest in expanding our footprint to the German market.” She describes it as a “coming home of sorts,” allowing her to marry her personal history with her profession in a way she never dreamed possible when she started her career.

She also views the recent changes in patent law as an area of ongoing fascination – with the increased interest by the Supreme Court, the media, legislators and company executives. “There is ongoing spirited debate involving patents and what should be patentable,” she says. “Different industries have differing views – there’s a lot of discussion but no clear answers. As the entire industry changes in an unprecedented way, we will be tracking the developments and counseling our clients on what these changes mean for their patent portfolios and litigation strategies.”

More to a Law Career than the Law
As Moffitt has ascended the ladder, she’s learned that law partners must wear multiple hats – as mentors, teachers, managers, recruiters, marketing professionals and accountants.

“When I started my legal career, I expected that lawyers would spend most of their day practicing law; I didn’t appreciate how many roles we would have to play,” she says. “Law school gives you the skills you need to become a great lawyer. It does not train you how to do the rest. Over time, I have learned the business side of law and how to build a practice, but had I realized then what I know now, I would have focused the early part of my career on not only doing excellent work, but also on learning the business of building a practice.”

Changing Perceptions
One challenge she believes women may face in the industry is one of perception. “For high stakes patent litigation, more senior, male litigators may be perceived to be a safer hiring choice than female litigators,” Moffitt says. “Women litigators simply need to demonstrate that this perception is unwarranted. With time we can change these biases, but it takes women stepping up and showing they are as good as, if not better than, their male counterparts.”

She sees the industry becoming more accessible as more women enter into math, science and engineering-related disciplines in college, which may translate into more women practicing in the area of intellectual property, but there is still room for improvement.

She believes it’s important for those already working in the technology industry to educate the women who are following them about what the opportunities are – that they can become engineers, scientists and researchers, but there’s also an alternative path in the law.

And for women who are getting started, she advises them to invest in their career by taking advantage of every opportunity and experience – and if you’re not getting the opportunities you seek, then go find them.

“People will be impressed by the initiative. It’s vital to create opportunities for yourself if they’re not coming to you for one reason or another.”

And she says that while women should be the best they can be at any given moment, they should cut themselves some slack.

“Women can be unnecessarily hard on themselves – we want to be perfect in all areas – as a mom, spouse, and employee – and then we give ourselves a hard time when we feel we’re not meeting our own expectations.”

For women at her level, Moffitt recommends building a practice by focusing on one particular area for business development. “Sometimes lawyers want to appear as a jack of all trades, but that can dilute the expertise you do have,” she says. “Clients are looking for subject matter experts, so you don’t want to spread your expertise too thin.” She sees this as particularly important for women who are balancing family, work and other time commitments, that in order to make your limited time count, you have to identify your strengths and focus your efforts there.

Committed to Diversity
Moffitt says her firm is very committed to diversity with committees, initiatives and events, and she has been active in both informal and formal diversity programs. She feels fortunate that she has had lots of mentors at the firm over the course of her career, and in return she has mentored others in a variety of capacities – always finding the informal relationships to be invaluable.

Currently, she is co-leader of the Atlanta office’s Women’s Initiative, which creates networking and mentoring opportunities for the firm’s Atlanta women lawyers, but also provides tools to help women attorneys expand their profile internally and externally. Recently she hosted a guest speaker to talk to the women attorneys about how to maximize the impact and visibility of their LinkedIn profile, for example.

Sharing Love of Horses and Heritage
A busy mom with three kids ages three, six and nine, Moffitt sees weekend time as family time. One hobby she’s been able to share with them is her love of riding dressage competitively– she recently competed in the U.S. national and regional championships. Her oldest daughter has started riding, and all of them enjoy spending time at the barn.

In addition she is sharing her German heritage, raising them to be bilingual by attending an international school where they learn in German and English.

“It’s a challenge to make time for everything, but it’s worth it. I’ve gotten really good at time management!”

By Cathie Ericson

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Who is in your network? Will seeking out people just like you at work help your career?

By Aimee Hansen

Theglasshammer in 2015 is addressing the need for women and men to work better together and for men to champion and authorize talented women as well as recognizing talented men. Building your network with all sorts of people who can help you in your career is crucial.

According to an INSEAD study and other research, when you default to those with the same social identity as you at work, this can help or hinder individual performance.

Not surprisingly, the higher leaders are sitting, the more important it is, for their own benefit and the organization’s, to acknowledge and go beyond the leading lens of their own homophilic bias when structuring project teams. This matters for women since it is at the very psychological and behaviorial heart of what used to be the old boys club.

Does working with one group help or hinder your career?
Homophily and homophilic association is the tendency for people to seek out and have greater contact with those who remind them of themselves. Researchers Gokhan Ertug and Martin Gargiulo studied its impact in their INSEAD paper, “Does Homophily Affect Performance?”, observing the relationships of workers in the Equities division of a global investment bank. The study focused on the variable of nationality – controlling other diversity factors like ethnicity, gender, age, religion, education and occupation.

The study confirmed that unsurprisingly employees were more likely to seek out those like themselves when they needed information or advice on a task-related topic. What differed is the outcome of this bias at different levels.

INSEAD found that while homophily helped more junior employees overcome the barrier to accessing information and getting other’s attention to improve performance, it actually created a barrier to performance amongst upper management, who already hold legitimacy and power within the company.

INSEAD researchers stated, “we find that while the tendency to build homophilous ties has a positive effect on the performance of people in the entry rank among bonus-eligible bankers (associate directors in our sample), the same tendency has a negative effect on the performance of employees who are above this entry rank.”

The paper continued, “Relying on similar people to form instrumental ties can be an effective survival strategy for people facing significant difficulties in securing access to the information and knowledge they need to carry out their jobs in the organization. At the same time, sticking to such a strategy when it is no longer necessary can harm performance.”

For executive at more senior levels, homophily became blinding, leading senior employees to ignore qualified colleagues who could help them succeed. The researchers proposed the trade-off homophily can create, “We argue that, while homophily might make it easier for workers to request and obtain knowledge from colleagues, it might also prompt them to approach less qualified colleagues.”

Though it did not correlate to individual performance impact, the INSTEAD study also found secondarily that bankers were more likely to seek task-related inputs from colleagues of the same age, tenure and gender. The implication would seem to follow that low female representation in boardrooms and at senior executive levels suggests lower indirect female influence and access at a senior level too.

Women in the boardroom pose a financial advantage. But if female influence is lost to gender homophily, that’s an advantage companies are not harvesting. A study in the Journal of Business Ethics concludes “Women on the board are positively related with financial performance (measured in terms of return on assets and return on sales) and with ethical and social compliance, which in turn are positively related with firm value.”

Network Closure for Women
A very recent longitudinal study by Mark Lutter to appear in the American Sociological Review toplined “Do Women Suffer from Network Closure?” analyzes gender dynamics in the film industry across 81 years and provided intriguing insight into contexts in which women are more likely to be closed out by homophilious dynamics within a project-based labor market. The study “shows how observed career inequalities between males and females decrease or increase through different forms of network embeddedness.”

The researcher builds on prior research to propose that “gender inequality is particularly striking when women are exposed to cohesive project teams during their careers, whereas gender inequality is less severe when they are involved in weaker, more diverse network structures.”

How can more diverse structures support gender equity? Lutter explains, “This is because information flow in cohesive networks is likely to be redundant and gender-homophilous, which creates stronger disadvantages for women compared to men, because women’s close information networks are lower in status and consist of fewer ties to important (mostly male) sponsors. In diverse networks, however, information is non-redundant, non-exclusive, and beneficial especially to women, because women face fewer network constraints and can more strategically exploit external, weak tie relationships.”

In other words, tight male top-dominated networks function to keep the status quo. Within them, homophily amongst men works against women, and yes, homophily amongst women works against women, too.

Lutter’s report further states, “The more open and diverse team structures become, the more gender equality can be expected in project-based career advancement.”

Networking Opportunity for Women?
Gender homophily amongst women may also serve as a powerful tool for women, if they leverage it as a passport to cross other organizational barriers.

A Harvard Business School paper observed that while both sexes showed gender-based homophily, “it is women more than men who tend to bridge formal structural boundaries in organizations.” While women had the same number of male contacts as males in the studied firm, “they span organizational boundaries in their ties to other women, connecting otherwise disconnected populations, at a higher rate than do men.”

The results suggest (but not prove) that, “homophilous interaction can actually help to span formal organizational boundaries that are otherwise difficult to traverse.” At an individual level, homophily can be a tool for women networking out and up, if women also remember the importance of looking beyond it, and don’t neglect the need for male sponsors and mentors.

In Summary
Homophily is a bias wielded by both sexes that can help and hurt at an individual level based on where you sit, but ultimately it is more foe than friend when it comes to moving organizations towards diversity and gender equity. Women simply do not have the numbers at higher level management to mitigate this bias. The inevitable disadvantage to career progression remains with women as long as men disproportionately dominate executive positions, and leadership circles remain tight.

Real change will come when the organizations realize the disadvantage lies also with them.

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Rising Star: Olamide Bello, Assistant Vice President of Private Placements, Voya Investment Management

By Cathie Ericson

“Women, and everybody else in the professional environment, must recognize that sponsors and mentors are critical to your success. Maintain your relationship with them – it’s like a bank account; you can’t withdraw what you haven’t saved,” says Olamide Bello, who credits these strong relationships as a key factor in her career ascension.

Bello is the first to admit that her career is atypical – although she studied physics in college, her first job was at a bank in Nigeria. She soon realized that banking wasn’t for her so she joined Accenture, a global management consulting firm, where she quickly realized how much she enjoyed working in the team environment. She decided to pursue her MBA at Emory University, and after graduating accepted a position with Voya Investment Management (Voya IM), where she has been for more than six years.

Read more

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