By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
In her jaw-dropping 2003 New York Times article, “The Opt Out Revolution,” columnist Lisa Belkin suggested that the reason women aren’t rising to leadership roles in large numbers is simply because they’re not interested. She wrote, “Why don’t women run the world? Maybe it’s because they don’t want to.”
Belkin said highly talented and educated professional women were choosing family over work, and deciding to “opt out” of the workforce all together. She placed the responsibility for “opting out” squarely on the shoulders of women themselves – and framed it as an empowered decision on their behalf. The backlash to the piece was swift – Joan Williams, Founder of the Center for Work Life Law at UC Hastings was one of the first to proclaim the “opt out revolution” a myth. She said, “When we talk about work/family conflict, we talk about professional women opting out – but often they are pushed out, because of all-or-nothing workplaces.”
In fact, the “opt-out” myth was largely debunked by a 2009 report by the U.S. Census Bureau which found that most stay-at-home mothers were part of low income families with limited educations – not exactly the high powered professionals Belkin described.
Subsequent research by The Center for Work/Life Policy also revealed that professional women who had left the workforce were less often “opting out” than being pushed out by workplaces that were inflexible and unresponsive to their needs.
In fact, the CWLP’s 2010 study “On-Ramps and Off-Ramps Revisited” [PDF] showed that, “A full 69 percent of women say they wouldn’t have off-ramped if their companies had offered flexible work options such as reduced-hour schedules, job sharing, part-time career tracks or short unpaid sabbaticals.”
It seems the biggest factor in off-ramping was environmental, rather than personal.
Yet new research out of Northwestern University‘s Kellogg School of Management shows that the “opt out” myth persists – and it keeps women from getting ahead.
Nicole M. Stephens, assistant professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg, and co-author of the study with Cynthia S. Levine, a psychology doctoral student at Stanford University, explained, “Although we’ve made great strides toward gender equality in American society, significant obstacles still do, in fact, hold many women back from reaching the upper levels of their organizations.”
She continued, “In our research, we sought to determine how the very idea of ‘opting out,’ or making a choice to leave the workplace, may be maintaining these social and structural barriers by making it more difficult to recognize gender discrimination.”
According to the research, women who described their career breaks as the result a personal choice were less likely to identify examples of discrimination and structural barriers to advancement. Choice-focused women were blind to societal and environmental disadvantages that may have influenced their career trajectory.
What’s most concerning about the study is not that these individual women were blind to workplace bias – it’s that the majority of the women surveyed felt this way. Our culture of choice is causing us to ignore the structural inequality that is keeping women out of the corner office.
The Non-Traditional Route for Women in Accounting: The Importance of Mentoring
Expert AnswersThe accounting field offers great opportunities for women; however, it is unfortunate to see that while more than 55 percent of undergraduate accounting majors are women, only nine percent hold senior level roles, according to a recent CFO article. Although this data is disheartening, the disparity offers women a great opportunity to close this gap by playing a leading role in the growth and success of their peers. But how?
For the past five years, I have been involved with the Educational Foundation for Women in Accounting (EFWA), an organization with a primarily educational mission that stresses the importance of women’s involvement in mentoring. While there are scholarship and mentoring programs geared toward traditional undergraduate lifestyles, EFWA supports the nontraditional route for women in need – either due to a life changing circumstance, women in a career transition or for those who may not have had the opportunity to attend a four year college following high school.
Beyond monetary assistance, the need for emotional and moral support along the path of professional development is immeasurable. Mentoring encourages, enables and empowers women to seek and achieve equal opportunities and equal compensation.
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Caring for an Aging Parent? Five Tips to Find the Job that Works for You
Managing ChangeAccording to a Gallup poll conducted this year, over one in six American workers (between 13% and 22%), is providing care to an elderly or disabled family member, relative, or friend – and the majority of caregivers – unsurprisingly – is female.
The poll also revealed that “Nearly one-third of all working caregivers are in a professional occupation, with another 12% each in service and management roles.” On average, caregivers reported missing 6.6 workdays per year.
As any member of the “sandwich generation” can tell you, becoming a caregiver to an aging parent is often difficult – emotionally, financially, and logistically. But according to Gallup, finding an employer who can support your needs can ease the transition for all parties involved. The survey revealed that most employers were aware of the demands on their caregiving employees, but less than 25% of caregivers receive workplace support that can make a difference in easing their situation. The report explains:
The report goes on to say that employees are looking for these perks.
Are you caring for an aging loved one? Finding a job that provides a flexible scheduling or similar programs that enable work/life effectiveness can make your situation must easier – for you and your parent. Here’s what to look for.
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Being Fully Present: How to Avoid the Technology and Work/Life Clash
Work-LifeLast year we may have “officially” declared that technology helps work/life balance. But there’s also the flip side: for example, a new study by specialist insurer, Hiscox, found that only 5 percent of the 304 people surveyed reported not working on weekends and only 3 percent keep their mobile devices away from both the bedroom and dinner table. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 83 percent of American adults own some kind of cell phone – and the Hiscox study shows a lot of people find it difficult to switch off once they’re at home.
Many are divided on whether new communication devices help or hinder work/life balance. For some, smart phones, tablets, web cams, and other gadgets are freeing, offering them more flexibility in their work schedule by enabling them to work remotely. For others, the fact that bosses, co-workers, or employees can find them anytime, anywhere, everywhere, feels a lot like being on call 24/7 and constantly being shackled to their metaphorical desk. According to leadership expert and management consultant Eileen McDargh, communication technology is a wonderful, terrible thing.
McDargh wrote the book on work/life balance – literally. Her book Work for a Living & Still Be Free to Live, published in 1985, is considered the first book on work/life balance and according to the expert, when people say they’re “struggling” with work/life balance, it means they’re exhausted.
“I have grave concerns about technology,” McDargh said. “If we choose to be connected 24/7, it can hinder the work we hope to accomplish, damage the relationships we hope to discover, and it stalls us from thinking critically; technology has us thinking at a very flat, shallow level. Because of technology, we have to make an extra effort to develop our own pace. First the pendulum swung too far to the right. Now it’s swinging too far to the left. We need to make it swing back to the center.”
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Voice of Experience: Kim Stafford, Executive Vice President, PIMCO
Voices of Experience“One of the challenges women face in financial services is the overall number of senior women we have as an industry. There are many amazing women at PIMCO, and in the industry broadly, but there are fewer of them than men,” explained Kim Stafford, Executive Vice President at PIMCO.
She continued, “But I’m actually quite heartened that this is changing. We’re actually seeing many more female leaders in the industry and that’s exciting.”
After eleven years at the firm, Stafford recently joined PIMCO’s executive office, working on firm-wide strategic, financial and operational initiatives. Also an enthusiastic supporter of women in the industry, Stafford is a member of the steering committee for the firm’s Women’s Leadership Network.
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Intrepid Woman: Learning about Effective Leadership by Rappelling Waterfalls
Intrepid Women SeriesWhile living in Costa Rica, I learned to rappel waterfalls from great heights. I overcame what I thought was an insurmountable challenge – my fear of heights.
When my husband and I went on our first rappelling trip, I was instructed on the techniques for gradually rappelling without having to plunge into the water from the precipice 110 ft up. Rappelling reduces the acceleration of gravity, thereby avoiding the crushing clash of two surfaces—one being part or all of the adventurer’s body and the other being the rocky pool below. Fortunately when done properly and with control, rappelling allows you to enjoy your surroundings during the gradual descent and exercises the brain by learning new techniques to be applied to the next rappelling experience.
Certainly, significant preparation is required. Our guides had rappel anchors with backups already in the trees at the top of the waterfall. Even so, they invested significant time and energy in retesting these anchors before our rappel. They also tested our knots, checked that the ropes were properly looped through our rappel devices and made sure that our ropes would not come into contact with any sharp objects during our descent for fear of their severing.
My rappel could only begin when I committed myself to angle my body 90 degrees so that I could walk on the wall face horizontally. This was extremely counterintuitive, but trying walk vertically as I was used to resulted in my body slamming into the wall face-first, very painfully.
The descent was controlled by grabbing the rope below my waste, not above. Since my body was hanging from the rope above, my natural inclination was to grab the rope hard above my waist with both hands to avoid a fall. Of course, this would only scour my hands raw, before I fell anyway. Truly, there is no strong grabbing required. Rather, lifting the hand outward away from the waist speeds up the descent and bringing that hand downward below the waist slows it.
Rappelling waterfalls is exhilarating on so many levels. First, realizing that slanting my back flat horizontal to the ground 110 feet below actually was safer was a thrilling paradigm. Then, walking a wall of orchids, mosses, insects, and other wonders gave the feeling of exploring uncharted territory. The brake hand is a fantastically unreasonable anomaly as well. That is, to completely stop and dunk my head in the waterfall or examine a plant by lowering one hand was complete defiance of natural laws.
Finally, arriving at the bottom of the rock face and seeing the wall above was organically awe-inspiring in that an otherwise unconscionable route was taken in a methodical, controlled manner. The unconventionality of the experience was a rush, even though there was never any true danger given the safeties in place.
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Free to Choose: Does Our Culture of Individualism Harm Working Moms?
Office PoliticsIn her jaw-dropping 2003 New York Times article, “The Opt Out Revolution,” columnist Lisa Belkin suggested that the reason women aren’t rising to leadership roles in large numbers is simply because they’re not interested. She wrote, “Why don’t women run the world? Maybe it’s because they don’t want to.”
Belkin said highly talented and educated professional women were choosing family over work, and deciding to “opt out” of the workforce all together. She placed the responsibility for “opting out” squarely on the shoulders of women themselves – and framed it as an empowered decision on their behalf. The backlash to the piece was swift – Joan Williams, Founder of the Center for Work Life Law at UC Hastings was one of the first to proclaim the “opt out revolution” a myth. She said, “When we talk about work/family conflict, we talk about professional women opting out – but often they are pushed out, because of all-or-nothing workplaces.”
In fact, the “opt-out” myth was largely debunked by a 2009 report by the U.S. Census Bureau which found that most stay-at-home mothers were part of low income families with limited educations – not exactly the high powered professionals Belkin described.
Subsequent research by The Center for Work/Life Policy also revealed that professional women who had left the workforce were less often “opting out” than being pushed out by workplaces that were inflexible and unresponsive to their needs.
In fact, the CWLP’s 2010 study “On-Ramps and Off-Ramps Revisited” [PDF] showed that, “A full 69 percent of women say they wouldn’t have off-ramped if their companies had offered flexible work options such as reduced-hour schedules, job sharing, part-time career tracks or short unpaid sabbaticals.”
It seems the biggest factor in off-ramping was environmental, rather than personal.
Yet new research out of Northwestern University‘s Kellogg School of Management shows that the “opt out” myth persists – and it keeps women from getting ahead.
Nicole M. Stephens, assistant professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg, and co-author of the study with Cynthia S. Levine, a psychology doctoral student at Stanford University, explained, “Although we’ve made great strides toward gender equality in American society, significant obstacles still do, in fact, hold many women back from reaching the upper levels of their organizations.”
She continued, “In our research, we sought to determine how the very idea of ‘opting out,’ or making a choice to leave the workplace, may be maintaining these social and structural barriers by making it more difficult to recognize gender discrimination.”
According to the research, women who described their career breaks as the result a personal choice were less likely to identify examples of discrimination and structural barriers to advancement. Choice-focused women were blind to societal and environmental disadvantages that may have influenced their career trajectory.
What’s most concerning about the study is not that these individual women were blind to workplace bias – it’s that the majority of the women surveyed felt this way. Our culture of choice is causing us to ignore the structural inequality that is keeping women out of the corner office.
Read more
Number of Female FTSE 100 Directors Doubles – But Is It Enough?
Managing ChangeThis is the final in a series of articles which looks at how UK business is approaching the issue of women on boards.
Britain’s biggest companies have more than doubled the number of women they are appointing to boardroom jobs since Lord Davies, the government’s champion of female board representation, told businesses this year that within four years a quarter of senior bosses should be women.
FTSE 100 companies have recruited 23 women to their boards this year – representing about 30% of total board appointments – after Davies said they should sign up to a voluntary target of 25% board representation by 2015.
Lord Davies of Abersoch welcomed the leap in FTSE 100 board representation but said there was “a danger that the issue becomes forgotten”. He said he was working with business secretary Vince Cable and the prime minister’s office on “ways to keep the pressure up”.
In February, Davies told FTSE 350 companies to set their own “challenging targets” and called on chairmen to announce their goals within six months and for chief executives to review the percentage of women they aim to have on their executive committees in 2013 and 2015.
“We are making progress but we have to make sure all companies publish their targets in the autumn. Even though it is voluntary, I have written to every company secretary laying out what we are expecting and I am getting letters from boards saying they are going to comply.”
He added, “Post August, I intend to make sure I keep the pressure up and there is going to be a bit of naming and shaming of companies not supporting it… There will be an event in the autumn that will make the corporate sector realise the government has not forgotten,” Davies said.
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How Transformational Leaders Manage a Really, Really Bad Day
Ask A Career CoachThe stock market is a roller coaster. You find out you’re not going to hit the numbers for the quarter. More people you know are out of jobs. Congress can’t seem to agree on what they want for breakfast, let alone decide how to run the country. The global markets are in chaos. Your boss just gave you another impossible deadline. Plus, your kid’s on the other line asking where you are. You’re a half hour late to pick them up from soccer practice. We know this is not your life, but perhaps a friend you know? What to do?
Here are five leadership practices that transformational leaders do to manage in chaos.
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How to Sponsor Your Way to the Top
Mentors and Sponsors, News“Sponsors can be a core differentiators for proteges, particularly as they move up in the organization and competition becomes fiercer,” explained Heather Foust-Cummings, PhD, Senior Research Director at Catalyst, and lead author of the organization’s new report, “Sponsoring Women to Success,” released today.
But having a protege is a career booster for senior women as well. “Sponsorship was a trait of effective leadership” she explained.
The study, which Foust-Cummings co-authored with Sarah Dinolfo and Jennifer Kohler, explained that many people and companies are still confusing sponsorship with mentoring. The report says, “While a mentor may be a sponsor, sponsors go beyond the traditional social, emotional, and personal growth development provided by many mentors. Sponsorship is focused on advancement and predicated on power.”
And that relationship of power goes both ways. Proteges benefit from having someone pulling them into new roles and opening doors they might not have known existed. But sponsors also gain career capital when the individuals they have in pocket do well.
Foust-Cummings said, “The sponsor can gain reputational capital by sponsoring someone who does well and becomes a leader. The sponsor gains the reputation of someone who can spot good talent and advance them.” As talent management and succession planning become ever more important issues for great leaders, building an effective sponsor-protege relationship should be top of mind for those climbing to the top.
Here’s how to build your own sponsor-protege relationship that can help you and your protege get to the next level.
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What Working Moms Want
Work-LifeAccording to a Baylor University study published online in the Journal of Applied Psychology, women who return to work after giving birth are more likely to stay on the job if they have greater control over their work schedules. Researchers also found that job security and the ability to make use of a variety of their job skills leads to greater retention of working moms, while the impact of work-related stress on their physical and mental health causes greater turnover.
According to 2008 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 71 percent of women with children under the age of 18 were working or looking for work, and nearly 60 percent of women with young children were employed. Yet, a large number of mothers who return to work after childbirth subsequently leave the labor force.
As the saying goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. By revealing the needs of this group of women (all North Carolina residents with an average age of 31; 79 percent of them married), the Baylor study sheds light on what working mothers are looking for.
On the other hand, one has to wonder why studies like these are still being conducted. After all, is it an earth shattering revelation that a woman who just gave birth will now need more work flexibility? Is it shocking to learn that a woman who has job stability is more apt to stay at her place of employment and be productive because there’s no nagging fear of losing her job?
It shouldn’t be, and perhaps that’s the point.
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