By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)
Last week, we discussed the motherhood penalty, a startling trend in which employers avoid hiring mothers out of the assumption that they won’t do their job as well because of their family obligations outside of the office. If, by chance, an employer chooses to hire a mother, that woman often gets paid much less than female, childless co-workers performing the same duties. Studies have actually shown that the pay gap between working mothers and childless women is actually greater than the pay gap between men and women. According to a new study by Regus, the global provider of innovative workspace solutions, a new trend is brewing and it’s one that actually favors mothers looking to get back into the workplace … if they’re willing to settle for part-time, that is.
The global study, which was commissioned by Regus, surveyed 11,000 corporations across 15 countries and found that 44 percent of companies worldwide plan to hire more mothers for part-time jobs over the next two years. Among U.S. companies the numbers are even higher, with 46 percent reporting plans to recruit more mothers into 2012.
West Region Vice President for Regus, Sande Golgart, believed this study to be of particular interest to Regus because many of their clients are working mothers and he believes providing part-time work to women with children can assist them in managing the work/life balance issues that plague so many women. “We think that there is much work to be done in making the transition from maternity leave back to the workforce as smooth as possible. Allowing mothers to take advantage of workplace flexibility demonstrates an understanding of the challenges that they face and paves the way for them to be more productive and less stressed at work,” Golgart said. “One of the most significant factors in improving employees’ work/life balance is offering the flexibility to work remotely, either full or part-time. Flexible workplace solutions are now available that allow corporations to offer those mothers returning to the workforce the ability to work full or part-time from home, along with a whole host of other workplace possibilities. By taking advantage of such measures, businesses worldwide will be better positioned to attract and retain the most talented personnel to their working environments.”
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Microfinance in Haiti – One Woman’s Story
NewsPhoto by Kelly Atlas-Bache
Contributed by Heather Balke
In March 2009, I boarded a plane destined for Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I wasn’t sure what was ahead, but I knew it was going to be a learning opportunity and an adventure. A month earlier I signed up to go to Haiti on a microfinance delegation with Fonkoze USA, to see first-hand the programs and activities of Fonkoze, Haiti’s largest rural microfinance institution.
My experience began with peering out a jeep window as we left the Port-au-Prince airport. I saw the most glaring urban poverty, ramshackle buildings half erected and children chasing pigs in the street. As we meandered up the hill towards Fonkoze headquarters, I viewed what I considered to be a garbage dump next to homes on the main road. I did a double take when I saw a woman defecating in that dump in broad daylight, and in plain view.
That evening at the historic Hotel Olaffson, Anne Hastings, the Director of Fonkoze, told the story on how she built Fonkoze from a vision of Father Joseph Philippe, Fonkoze’s founder. In the early 1990’s, when a hard-fought democratic system was taking hold in Haiti, Father Joseph knew in his heart that political democracy would mean little without what he called, “economic democracy.”
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Is There a Woman in the House?
Breaking the Glass CeilingLee Chalmers is a woman on a mission – and that mission is to transform the face of leadership and, more crucially, to change what gets recognised as leadership – in both business and British politics. London based, she runs an executive coaching business Authentic Living, working with men and women to help them live their lives with purpose, in an authentic style. Her clients include major global companies in financial services, banking, oil and gas and she has worked all over the world with a variety of different cultures and leadership styles.
Chalmers’ crossover from business to politics came in the summer of 2008, when she realised that many of the issues impacting women and leadership styles which she saw in the corporate world were mirrored in UK politics. Despite constituting 51% of the population, British women still hold only 11% of directorships in business boardrooms, 19.3% of seats in the Houses of Parliament – and there has only ever been one female inhabitant (Margaret Thatcher) of 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister.
Together with writer Indra Adnan, an exponent of the concepts of soft power and balanced leadership, Chalmers founded the Downing Street Project in 2009. Chalmers and Adnan were inspired by Marie Wilson’s US-based work and progress with the White House Project and thought that the UK needed a similar organisation and political intervention.
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Women and the Boardroom: Practice effective networking at all levels of your career to be on track for the boardroom
NetworkingWe know that boards have not been historically women-friendly and the numbers of women on corporate boards are still incredibility low despite the strong correlation between diversity of thought and company performance. Specifically, when there is a critical mass of women board members (which is quoted as 3 female seats at the table) a tipping point is created for a successful attempt at inclusion with the desired benefit of breaking groupthink.
Many senior women have made it to the top of their department, and even make it into the executive management team. But they find themselves at a loss because they just haven’t built the network they need to take them from being a respected professional to recognized expert to a formal director of a company on a corporate board.
“No women can be chosen for a job, promotion, a nomination for public office, a seat on a board of directors, a slot in a training program unless women are in the pool of finalists” states Linda Tarr-Whelan in her book Women lead the Way.
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Is Your Appearance the Key to Fast-Tracking your Career?
Office PoliticsJudging people on the basis of their physical looks is a fact of reality these days. Evidence also suggests that the culture of “lookism” within society now has such a foothold in the workplace that a person’s physical appearance can have as much influence on his or her career prospects as his or her performance in the office or boardroom. Whilst very few organisations will openly admit it, many businesses recruit, retain or promote employees on the basis of their attractiveness or how their appearance best complies with the image the organisation wishes to present. In certain circumstances, this can lead to job applicants and employees being discriminated against or harassed in the workplace purely on the basis of how they look.
It is a depressing thought that besides any other challenges women might face in the workplace, their progression up the career ladder might be more dependent on their looks than their brains or achievements. However, there is strong statistical evidence to show that women who wear make-up in business get better jobs and are promoted more quickly. In a survey reported in The Times last year, 64% of directors interviewed believed that women who wore make-up in the workplace look more professional, lending support to the theory that women are more likely to benefit career wise if they conform to this ideology.
The Guardian published a similar report which concluded that “attractive applicants have a better chance of getting better paid jobs.” The article also quoted a survey which found that women spend one fifth of their earnings on trying to look good in the workplace in the belief that their image will play a significant role in their career path.
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What are You Worth? Root Causes of the Wage Gap
Breaking the Glass Ceiling, FeaturedNovations, a highly regarded global talent development firm with over thirty years of research and development experience, recently conducted a research study that found – and there’s no surprise here – that women are still underrepresented in strategic and leadership roles. Even more disheartening, the firm’s findings also show that women self-rate their contribution lower than men.
The study and its findings were compiled into a white paper entitled Close the Gap: Overcoming Gender Differences in the Workplace and according to Novations, the firm set out not only to investigate these discrepancies, but also to explore the root causes in order to adequately provide women with the information they need to assist them in developing needed skills and overcoming perceived shortcomings. The data used in the study was culled from hundreds of companies who provided information regarding the development of over 2,000 managers and direct reports, though none of these companies wished to comment publicly on their participation in the study.
A Woman’s Worth: According to Women
Much of the findings in the study simply reiterate what too many women already know: even though women comprise over 55 percent of the labor force, attain 50 percent of the undergraduate business degrees obtained each year, and also hold more than half of all the managerial and professional positions in U.S. businesses, they account for just over 9 percent of top executives and just over 15 percent of corporate officers.
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Beyond Business as Usual: More Working Moms in Part-Time Positions
Work-LifeLast week, we discussed the motherhood penalty, a startling trend in which employers avoid hiring mothers out of the assumption that they won’t do their job as well because of their family obligations outside of the office. If, by chance, an employer chooses to hire a mother, that woman often gets paid much less than female, childless co-workers performing the same duties. Studies have actually shown that the pay gap between working mothers and childless women is actually greater than the pay gap between men and women. According to a new study by Regus, the global provider of innovative workspace solutions, a new trend is brewing and it’s one that actually favors mothers looking to get back into the workplace … if they’re willing to settle for part-time, that is.
The global study, which was commissioned by Regus, surveyed 11,000 corporations across 15 countries and found that 44 percent of companies worldwide plan to hire more mothers for part-time jobs over the next two years. Among U.S. companies the numbers are even higher, with 46 percent reporting plans to recruit more mothers into 2012.
West Region Vice President for Regus, Sande Golgart, believed this study to be of particular interest to Regus because many of their clients are working mothers and he believes providing part-time work to women with children can assist them in managing the work/life balance issues that plague so many women. “We think that there is much work to be done in making the transition from maternity leave back to the workforce as smooth as possible. Allowing mothers to take advantage of workplace flexibility demonstrates an understanding of the challenges that they face and paves the way for them to be more productive and less stressed at work,” Golgart said. “One of the most significant factors in improving employees’ work/life balance is offering the flexibility to work remotely, either full or part-time. Flexible workplace solutions are now available that allow corporations to offer those mothers returning to the workforce the ability to work full or part-time from home, along with a whole host of other workplace possibilities. By taking advantage of such measures, businesses worldwide will be better positioned to attract and retain the most talented personnel to their working environments.”
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President’s Day Publishing Break
Work-LifeWe are taking a day off to enjoy the snow, since we have had so much of it recently.
We are always looking for guest blogs from you, the professional women in the trenches. We aim to inform you with useful news and information, but we also hope to inspire you and empower you with our social network and our offline events.
Here’s a reminder of what our editorial calendar looks like. If you want to be considered as a contributor, get in touch with me at nicki@glasshammer2.wpengine.com.
Monday: Voices of Experience interviews. We profile top women and give you an insight into their personal journey.
Tuesday: Work-life Balance articles, Returners and Career Break Information.
Wednesday: Ask a Career Coach, and Ask a Recruiter columns, career-related news, expert answers.
Thursday: Movers and Shakers, 35 under 35 series, Events Coverage, and Publishers Column
Friday: Intrepid Women Series, Women in Philanthropy, Passions, and Book Reviews
I also would like to encourage you to join the our online community and connect with other professional women.
Yours sincerely,
Nicki Gilmour
Publisher and CEO
www.glasshammer2.wpengine.com – smart women in numbers
Readers Debate: Should the US Ratify the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women?
NewsThe Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was created in 1981, and within a few years following its creation was ratified by countries including the UK, France, Japan, and Brazil, among others. Today one hundred sixty-nine countries have ratified the treaty – but not the United States.
CEDAW is often described as an international bill of rights for women. The Convention provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men through ensuring women’s access to, and equal opportunities, in political and public life, irrespective of the cultures or societies in which they live. The treaty commits ratifying nations to overcome barriers to women’s equality in the areas of legal rights, education, employment, healthcare, politics and finance.
The Issues at Stake
CEDAW provides definitions of equality, a description of discriminatory practices and a mechanism for international supervision of the obligations the document imposes on nations that have ratified it.
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Building a Women’s Network at Your Company
NetworkingOn Tuesday, the Forté Foundation brought together movers and shakers from New York’s top companies as part of its 2010 Network of Women’s Networks conference. The theme of the conference was Driving Change through Innovation – and as speaker Kerrie Peraino, Chief Diversity Officer of American Express explained in opening remarks, “Far from being the buzz words of this millennium, change and innovation, they are actually a call to action.”
Attendees were asked to focus not only on how change and innovation come to fruition within an organization, but how they themselves are change agents. And of course, because of the emphasis on networks, women were encouraged to build relationships and make new connections with other conference attendees.
Networking for Innovation
Kicking off the day with a speed-networking session, Amy Orlav, Professional Development Specialist at the Graduate Management Admission Council ®, joked, “What is the best part of any conference? Don’t say the food.” She answered, “it’s the networking!”
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Debating the Motherhood Penalty
Work-LifeWe’ve all heard the saying there are two sides to every story and that’s never been more true than with the seemingly new phenomena that has been deemed the “motherhood penalty,” which asserts that working mothers get passed up for raises and promotions at a higher frequency than single women without children. Not only that, but recent studies have also shown that working fathers experience no such professional limitations or wage penalties as a result of having a family.
Women in the corporate world have had to contend with these issues for years now, so the results of the award winning Cornell study entitled, Getting a Job: Is There a Motherhood Penalty, weren’t very surprising when they were published in the American Journal of Sociology. According to the study, experiments found that “mothers were penalized on a host of measures, including perceived competence and recommended starting salary. Men were not penalized for, and sometimes benefited from, being a parent. The audit study showed that actual employers discriminate against mothers, but not against fathers.” None of this, of course, is an issue of contention among working women. What’s creating the real controversy is who is getting the shorter end of the stick in terms of pay and promotions: working moms or women with no children.
In Defense of Working Mothers
One of Getting a Job’s co-authors, Shelley Correll, was recently quoted as saying that she wasn’t surprised to find that mothers were discriminated against, but was “very surprised by the magnitude of the discrimination.” Correll and the other researchers sent out fake resumes for both a childless woman and a mom; both were equally qualified and the only difference was that the mom’s resume listed “Parent-Teacher Association coordinator” under the heading “other relevant activities” as a discreet way of informing employers that it was a parent’s resume. The researchers quickly discovered that the moms were viewed less favorably than the non-moms and were less likely to be hired. Even more disturbing, mothers were offered an average of $11,000 a year less in compensation than the childless job candidate with the same qualifications.
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