Tag Archive for: broken rung

Forget the Glass Ceiling, Women Stumble on the “Broken Rung”

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Women Broken RungA study was just released by McKinsey & Co, in collaboration with Lean In, the nonprofit founded by former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, and it turns the idea that women only need to shatter the glass ceiling in order to find equity at the top on its head. It found that women face their most formidable challenge not at the top, but when attempting to transition into managerial roles. For every hundred men who are promoted from entry-level to managerial positions, only ninety-one white women make the first step. This powerful disparity is even more pronounced for women of color, with only eighty-nine Asian women, and fifty-four Black women being promoted for every hundred men. The study names this barrier in women’s careers “The Broken Rung”, and it is a major hurdle for women trying to climb the corporate ladder.

The study is not breaking new ground but is a reminder that women are not responsible for the broken rung. They are not failing to seek promotions or leaving their careers more often than men. Instead, systemic biases and workplace dynamics are the root cause. The second key point underscores that women who have similar track records and work experiences relative to their male peers are judged by a different standard. Women often receive promotions based on their past achievements, while men are promoted based on their perceived future potential. The impact of this inequitable orientation has a huge effect on women early in their careers. As the study states without equivocation, until the broken rung is fixed, gender parity will remain out of reach.

While the study does an excellent job of identifying what the broken rung is and why it happens, it falls short when making suggestions for remedies. What do we do to solve this problem? It suggests companies must track inputs and outcomes, de-bias performance reviews and promotions and establish clear evaluation criteria. While these are important, they are the absolute bare minimum.

Below are three things women can do right now to build an unbreakable first rung.

  1. Ask questions
    If you are passed over for a promotion, take steps to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. The first thing to do would be to ask the following question, “I thought Chad and I were similarly situated in terms of our accomplishments. What can I do differently that he is currently doing to make sure that next time I’m able to take the next step in my career?” Often people do not know that their implicit bias is getting in the way of their decision-making process. By having a lengthy conversation about it, this will help the other person not only give you tips on what to do differently but also, in the best-case scenario, self-reflect on what happened. Going in guns blazing can cause people to be defensive, but asking a question is one of the more effective ways of getting people to look more deeply and can be very powerful.
  2. Brag Tactically
    Women are taught not to brag. Men don’t seem to have as hard of a time bragging. To back up this point, visualize Thanksgiving dinners. Often women will do most of the cooking, and then when everyone sits down to eat Uncle Bob proudly announces that he cooked the beans! Men don’t have it wrong. In fact, women should not be afraid to take a page from their book. If you’re uncomfortable bragging, use The Brag Sandwich by bookending your brag with thanks and gratitude. For example, don’t say, “I closed that deal and the company made $2 million. It’s really great!” Instead use the Brag Sandwich and say, “I’m so thankful I was able to work on this project. I closed the deal and the company made $2 million. It’s really great! It was a lot of hard work, but I’m so happy I had the opportunity.” The brag sandwich is easier to say for many, but still gets the point across about your accomplishments.
  3. Turn around
    If you were able to somehow jump over the broken rung, make sure you reach down and pull other women up with you. Given how difficult it is for women, it’s easy to get exhausted. How can you focus on other women when you’re fighting a daily batter yourself? Unfortunately, this is exactly why many women don’t advocate for the women coming up behind them. The flipside of this, however, is that there is safety and numbers. The more women who rise the more we can support each other as we create spaces that are welcoming for all.

The broken rung is not new, but the attention it’s getting is. This is the moment for women to capitalize on this new awareness and push for systematic change. The more women who get past the first rung, the more women can occupy all rungs – and that is how we shatter the glass ceiling.

By: Eliza VanCort, Transformation Teacher and #1 bestselling author of A Woman’s Guide to Claiming Space: Stand Tall. Raise Your Voice. Be Heard (named Maria Shriver’s book of the week), who has dedicated her life to empowering women to live bravely and claim the space they deserve.

(Guest Contribution: The opinions and views of guest contributions are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com)

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Equal Pay: Mending The Broken Rung

Equal PayThe first year of your job matters more if you’re a woman. How your company pays you do as an entry-level rookie either sets you up for successful pay equity or sets you back a peg relative to your male counterparts.

Envision the climb to senior leadership at your company as a ladder. That very first rung is the most unreliable for women. According to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace, women are significantly outnumbered in entry-level management positions. They hold just 38% of manager-level positions as opposed to men who hold 62%. In other terms, for every 100 men promoted only 72 women are.

This step, known as the “broken rung”, is a woman’s biggest obstacle to senior leadership. While a lot of ink has been given to the glass ceiling and the poor representation of women in the C-Suite, the breakdown in that trajectory turns out to be not the last promotion from Vice President to President, but instead the first step in your journey: the promotion from entry-level to a managerial position.

Entry-level positions are also notoriously difficult for young people just starting out. Adjusting to the workplace, figuring out passions and career paths, and finding your professional voice comes with experience. And in an entry-level position, you might not have that experience to bolster your confidence.

This brief work record leads to what Sheryl Sandberg explains to be a bias against women and favoring men. She says, “These are all workers at the entry-level– they haven’t built long track records, they all have similar work experience, and they were all good enough to be hired in the first place. There’s no good reason why so many more men than women are being tapped for promotions, only a bad one– bias.”

Courtesy of GreatBusinessSchools.org

This bias is costly for women as once you miss that first promotion it’s an incredibly hard fight to catch up on. This broken rung leads to a domino effect resulting in fewer women in leadership positions. Additionally, the cycle continues circularly as studies have shown that men are more likely to promote another man, and women are more likely to promote a woman.

While it’s nice to dream that the corporate world will right the “broken rung”, history has proven that corporations move glacially slow when implementing social change. As women, we have to empower ourselves in entry-level positions to ensure the promotion and get past this first hurdle early in our careers.

Here are some ways to clear the rickety, old “broken rung”:

  • Find a mentor. Mentees are promoted 5 times more often than people without mentors, according to Forbes. You want to have someone in your court when it comes time to discuss promotions. Find a senior-level mentor to learn from and who will advocate for you when the time comes. You can learn how to effectively network online by reading this guide.
  • Interrupt bias. When you see bias rear its ugly head, stop it dead in its tracks. The Catalyst assembled an infographic on the double-bind dilemma, which goes into depth on how women are stereotyped in the workplace. “Damned if you do, doomed if you don’t. Too soft. Too tough. Never just right”, is the dilemma many women find themselves in at work. Instead of being categorized by these labels, speak up again bias and interrupt it whenever you see it playing out in the workplace.
  • Make yourself visible. Wave your flag loud and proud. While it’s easy to be mousey in your entry-level position, try little, but effective ways to make yourself visible. For example, if you have a hobby, talk with your HR department and try to start an internal club that you lead based on your hobby. If you like reading, start a book club. If you like collecting plants, start a succulents club. Think creatively about how to make yourself visible to the entire company.
  • Take on responsibilities early. If you want to get promoted, do the work of the position you want before receiving the title. Expel any questions of your capabilities by cementing a track record that you are up for the job.
  • Empower yourself to learn. A rising number of women are attending business school which is an encouraging indicator that the workplace landscape may change in the coming years but not guaranteed. Empower yourself to get an advanced degree or learn new skills as your expertise is one of the many things employers consider when making discussions on who to promote. As we know stereotypes are real around who makes the best leader so it is good to have as many quills to your bow as possible to counter fallacy.
  • Believe in yourself. The most important thing, but also the most undervalued. Despite bias and discrimination in the workplace, know how valuable you are. Believing in yourself will allow you to be bold, be visible, and be a leader despite whatever obstacles you face.

Usually, when discussions are had about women in the workplace, the emphasis is on the poor representation of women at the leadership level. That spotlight creates a blind spot in the actual cause of this discrepancy. Tracing the disparity back to entry-level promotions and understanding the “broken rung” is important to inform processes that company need to develop to ensure equal pay from day one. Women can support each other and how we can advocate for ourselves early on but it is the systemic elements that ultimately matter.

Progress must be made by corporations to abolish this misstep and while that is happening, men and women can empower each other to propel past the first hurdle and go on to have a successful career.

This is a contributed article and therefore the views expressed here are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com 

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