With the holidays upon us, it is beginning to look a lot like ……Groundhog Day. From a numbers perspective, this Year End Review has very little progress to report on a macro level. The number of women on boards is pretty stagnant – 17.7% in 2014, up from 16.6% in 2013 to be exact in the Fortune 1000. The FTSE board seats for women are up slightly to 23%. Outside of the big firms, the Gender Diversity Index is helping track progress in smaller firms and to understand the gains from specific industries which is helpful but doesn’t provide a real wow factor this year there either.
Tag Archive for: Nicki Gilmour
Nicki Gilmour, CEO of theglasshammer.com welcomed 250 women to theglasshammer.com ’s 5th Annual Women in Technology event last Thursday night at the auditorium at American Express. Guests enjoyed an amazing evening of shared experiences and good advice from the panelists who are all navigating their career paths as women in technology. The keynote, presented by Lucy Sanders, CEO of NCWIT addressed stereotyping in tech and how women can innovate which will be covered in full next week on theglasshammer.com.
Avis Yates Rivers, CEO of Technology Concepts International Group and our moderator for the evening opened with a goal for the panel: to have a conversation with women who live the experience of being a woman in technology every day. These were exactly the type of women in attendance — technical women, engineers, coders, product and project managers and even a handful of CTOs.
The first question was posed around driving innovation from the seat that you are in.
Doris Daif, VP Digital Customer Experience, American Express by explaining what her team does and how she drives innovation on a personal and team level.
“We design digital products on behalf of the company, I drive innovation by leaving the office and talking to users and clients. I also give my team unstructured time to think about innovation and lastly we experiment by getting the product out the door in low fidelity ways to see what provides value for the customer. I deeply care about products that are meaningful to the end user.”
Doris explained her career path into technology from marketing at American Express into customer operations and then joining the technical side of the house.
“I had to learn the technical skill and I have had a lot of wonderful people who have taken bets on me and I have learned a lot, including from, the people who have worked for me.”
Justine Chen, who is a senior manager at SunGard, spoke passionately about how she innovates by looking at requirements and the problem, and then solving the problem by writing code.
Patricia Florissi began by explaining her job, which is CTO of Sales at EMC, a role she has had for 10 years.
“I am in that role to think more strategically in the sales organization and add deep expertise for customers to see where they want to go. I like to think that I use innovation when I am exposed to so many different meetings in so many cultures since we do business in over 100 countries. Everyday you try your best and bring that learning back to the institution to create more innovation in the design and delivery of products.”
Adda Birnir, CEO of Skillcrush, talked about how her customers are mostly women who are looking to develop their tech skills, sometimes to change careers, and how she drives innovation by being relentlessly focused on the end user.
Adda stated, “Every day I ask myself, are they (the user) having a good experience? Are we building a community that they need in order to succeed?” Adda went on to talk about how she has built up an ability to tolerate being wrong and not being ready to do things as a way of ensuring innovation in the field. She added, “If you get to the point where you can embrace that then that’s when you can really go out there and do great things.”
Adda also spoke about how she ended up in technology.
“I spent time with the production team at an online magazine where I worked and they were so overworked and they were happy to let me do tasks that they didn’t want to do. I was like ‘oh code, what is this? This is so interesting’ so they gave me forms to build and stuff that they didn’t want to do.”
Kimberly Bryant, Founder of Black Girls Code talked about her journey from electrical engineer to technology practitioner to founder of the only organization focusing on encouraging women and girls of color to get involved in technology.
“One of the things that I think my role allows me to do as an innovator is to be a disruptor in the field. We are always looking at ways to bring girls into robotics, into ‘hackathons’, and do things to change the stereotype and really challenge that every day in every way.”
Avis pointed out that after hearing our panelist’s stories there is no one path, and no traditional set way, to ascend in a technology career.
She commented how disappointing it is to see more than half of women leave in mid-career, especially considering how difficult it is to get women into the industry in the first place. Avis encouraged the audience to stay and see the bigger picture in their career trajectory.
“Often in Corporate America, we are placed in positions where we can’t see the value in at that point, but take advantage of those opportunities, take some learning from it and use it as a stepping stone to the next thing.”
Patricia offered some good advice from her personal journey, “Whatever you do, do it well and there is no other solution than hard work to get there. Also you have to be present, when you make the most out of everything, then you can really take advantage of the opportunities ahead of you. Don’t be afraid, take risks, what is the worst that can happen?”
Kimberly expressed her thoughts on the opportunities that are happening right now and agreed with Avis about staying in the game.
“I think there are so many opportunities for women and girls since so many industries are underutilizing technology, so just being open to where your career can lead is key.”
Mentors and Sponsors and Leaders
All of the panelists explained that they had mentors and also separate sponsors, with Kimberly providing clarification on the difference.
“It’s really important to know the role of the sponsor as opposed to the mentor. Sponsors advocate for you, and they are likely to be one of the most important people in your company or industry. Mentors can be someone above, below or a peer to give you advice. Really it is about building relationships all over your company, and it’s so key to building an organization inside or outside of a big corporation.”
Doris explained that the process of cultivating sponsors and mentors has to happen from a very genuine place, built over a long period of time, and keeping up those relationships as you move around the company. She commented, “It’s really important to think about ‘Who are my mentors and sponsors?’ Then nurture those relationships, even when you’re no longer working together.”
Patricia explained that sometimes you don’t know how to be a mentee or a mentor- and although it can feel good to talk, you need to have sponsors. She defined sponsors as, “Someone who cannot only guide you, but also stand up for you in a situation where you need help. If you think you are autonomous and can get what you want on your own, then wake up and smell the flowers.”
She explained that she typically cautions people to stay away from tunnel vision and instead to see what is happening around you.
“Sometimes the role you think you want in the future may no longer exist when you get there. You need to be open to the creation of new roles. If you make your own mountain then you can climb it; how could I have dreamed as a child that I wanted to want to be the CTO of sales since that role didn’t exist?” She added with her signature sense of humor.
Justine explained how she manages her mentor and sponsor relationships for maximum effectiveness. “I take an agenda with me every time I am going to meet with my mentor and my boss and both of them are here today” she added, “Each one of them is very different. To have a valuable relationship between two people, you got to have a plan!”
Feedback, Credibility and Confidence
When asked to talk about their learning so far, the panelists did agree that being credible is the number one thing that you have to be as a woman in technology.
Patricia, when asked what advice she had for the audience, stated her three prong approach.
“You own your own career, do not expect anyone to own it. You have to wake up every morning and ask yourself, ‘are you happy with what I am doing?’ Asking is free.” Secondly, she added that when people are passionate and authentic it comes through. And finally, “work hard is the third one, I don’t see it any other way, maybe there is another way but I haven’t seen it!”
Adda agreed that she believes that every day is a new day to do things better than you did it before. “The more that you can see feedback as your friend the more that can fuel your ability to be better – hearing feedback from the customer is one way I have done this.”
Kimberly also talked about teams and building organizations with the advice to hire the best people that you afford because you don’t want to be the smartest person in the room. Collectively you can then take the business to where you want to go. She added, “Learn to say no. I say yes to everything but burn out is real and that takes me away from my core objectives in my professional and even in my personal life.”
Doris disclosed that she wished she had more confidence and poise earlier in her career and has learned over time to be selective about whom you are getting that feedback from; not all advice is created equal.
“I have been the victim of too many points of view and I end up more confused than when I started. People who you have trust with, the advocates and the sponsors that are invested in you to succeed; those are the people you should listen to.”
Everyone agreed that internalizing every piece of feedback wasn’t very constructive and that especially in technology with code standards changing there is a lot of room to discuss your work and ensure that code is just code, regardless of who is creating it.
Thank you to our event sponsors this year: American Express, EMC, and SunGard for making this event possible. We look forward to 2015.
By CEO and Founder Nicki Gilmour
Recently, I was asked to speak at The Conference Board’s Diversity and Inclusion conference in NY. My topic can be paraphrased into ‘why culture eats strategy for breakfast when it comes to diversity’ and most other things for that matter. In my session I was asked, “Do you still think that being LGBT matters since there has been considerable societal and workplace progress recently?”
My response was, “It depends on which firm you work for.” This holds true for a similar question regarding gender and essentially any social identity matter these days. Anecdotally, over the past seven years of theglasshammer’s existence, a small number of you have told me that it does not matter; that you are a woman at work and it has no bearing on your career. I see a small group of people echoing this sentiment when it comes to applying the same question to being LGBT at work. Conversely, most of you have told me or have acknowledged formally in print that, yes being a woman does matter and having other social identities, such as LGBT or being Multicultural, are factors that affect how people perceive you at work regardless of your talents. It even has affected how some of you see yourselves, famously coined as the imposter syndrome.
My first caveat is that you are entitled to any construct of belief that works for you, as personality and personal experiences are so often overlooked or discredited when they should not be. Ambition and access to the right relationships along with the natural desire often embedded into our personalities (conscious or otherwise) to assimilate to dominant group behaviors can trump a lot of adversity in any part of the world or in any workplace.
Many people enjoy hard work and find the climb exhilarating. There is something to be said for believing something and then growing your reality from that place. That is why we have theglasshammer and why books like Lean In exist; to give you every chance to think about networking, negotiation, and career advancement on your terms should you choose it. Further to that, if you buy into the concept that you control your destiny, you won’t see or perceive obstacles to be because of your social identity at work; this concept works for some people, myself included, until I studied Organizational Psychology. There is a certain personality who can make it anywhere, but the question sometimes becomes at what cost? I count myself in this category. If I was a flower I could grow happily on a rock. The downside of this strategy is that I would be completely ignoring the environmental forces around me that help other flowers grow with less energy and better soil on the meadow.
Stereotypes- Alive and Well
I want to share a shocking, previously unseen study with you that my good friend and associate Dr. Frank Golom conducted to prove that we don’t live in a post-bias world and that social identity matters.
The new study uses the famous and now forty-year-old “Think Manager, Think Male” trait research conducted and progressed by Virginia Schein. This new study by Dr. Golom et al extends the groups to include gay managers and lesbian managers in addition to (presumed) straight female and male manager categories.
Dr. Golom, whilst at Columbia University, surveyed almost 200 undergraduate and graduate students in the NY metro area. Eighty percent were women and a small percentage of all respondents were LGBT-identified. The results will astound you and make you think twice about any beliefs you may have around the next generation creating change just by virtue of being born as Gen Y.
Despite the survey responders being mostly women, the group that was elected as having the most leader-like traits was the straight male manager group. This group was ranked as most competent, productive, and emotionally stable amongst other attributes.
So perhaps these young, educated women might answer a direct question such as, “Do you want to be CEO?” as, “yes”, yet blatantly stated their group as a whole to be a less able group (remember this is a stereotype, actual competency levels were not measured as no individuals were presented here as subjects).
Furthermore, lesbians as a stereotyped group were rated as hostile and less competent than straight men yet had an edge over straight women ( as ranked by straight women, go figure?). Gay men really bore the brunt of the evils of stereotyping in this survey. They were assigned very low rankings on every trait that is considered to be leader-like, despite the slogans that people write on their Facebook such as, “It gets better”.
How can this be, I hear you ask? Well, you have all heard about unconscious bias and stereotyping but perhaps it is good to note that (mostly straight) women are guilty of it too. It is less discussed that (mostly white) women have a role in keeping the status quo in place due to their proximity to the current power structure, just as it is also a stereotype to think men don’t want to be involved and do something.
In celebration of 2014’s International Women’s Day (IWD), and in keeping with the mission of The Glass Hammer to inform, inspire and empower you in your career, the many interesting, useful events that IWD creates will be covered extensively here throughout the month. Instead, today let’s talk about the elephant in the room; what is your company doing every other day to ensure that systemic biases are removed so that you thrive, not just survive?
Organizational culture, the often tacit and engrained ways that work gets done in your firm, is where the rubber meets the road for diversity, despite it often still being treated like the entrance checklist to Noah’s Ark. Observing the behaviors of leaders and managers will tell you a lot about your potential to get that corner office. Practically speaking, you can start to examine what actions get rewarded, what gets tolerated, what gets rewarded and who gets authorized to lead.
A good example of someone who fell foul to how things were being managed at their firm is Ina Drew and the London Whale scandal, which demonstrated that doing your job sometimes isn’t enough since silent endorsements of other people’s bad behavior, or even failure to act, can sink you. Ignore your people’s behavior at your peril is advice for a leader of either gender, but there is an added dynamic of having to prove yourself as a female leader.
Will we see change by 2020?
We all want to say yes. We all want to say we live in a post-bias world where meritocracy rules. In a recent survey by Accenture for International Women’s Day, 70 percent of the 4100 respondents globally said that the number of women CEOs will increase by 2020; with 15 percent believing the increase will be significant. Whilst admiring this optimism and hoping these results to be true, due to the absolute lack of growth over the past six years, this scenario is hard to envision. Data and history show the contrary, and I think there is a huge behavioral gap between what people think they want and consciously voice, and then what they unconsciously do.
Recently, I was involved in a career session where I presented research by a colleague of mine who extrapolated the “Think Manager, Think Male” research to include further dimensions around “Think Manager, Think Straight Male.” The respondents to the survey were aged 18-28 and were mostly females based in NYC. The results were surprising, with the survey revealing that respondents believed that straight men still had more leadership traits than straight and gay women. Interestingly, gay men were assigned attributes that least lined up with what they thought a successful manager looked like. Stereotyping is real. I am pretty sure if you had of asked these women if they wanted to be CEO, they would have said yes. Yet they are authorizing the other gender to do the job based on just that –their gender (and the intersection with their sexual orientation as straight).
One hundred fifty women gathered on Tuesday night at the Princeton Club for The Glass Hammer’s 3rd annual “Navigating, Negotiating and Building Your Strategic Network” event for women in investment management.
This year, the panel of senior women featured Debbie Hammalian, Chief Compliance Officer, ING U.S. Investment Management, Kerry Jordan, CFA, Director of Marketing and Chief Compliance Officer, Chicago Capital Management L.P., Lale Topcuoglu, Managing Director, Co-head of Global Investment Grade, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Christina McCaughey, Managing Director, Futures and OTC Clearing Sales at State Street Global Exchange, Cynthia Steer, EVP Head of Manager Research and Investment Solutions at BNY Mellon.
Every woman on our panel took a very different route to arrive at where they are now in their careers. However, each of them undoubtedly shared the ability to get the job done, recognize new opportunities, and build stellar relationships. Whilst talking about how they navigated the early days of their careers, everyone discussed a pivotal moment in their careers that really mattered.
Cynthia Steer defined her first stretch assignment as a pivotal moment in her career. “My first boss put me on a lend-lease early in my career. He told me that ‘I am going to lend you into a treasury job and then I am going to get you back out’ and it was all about getting thrown into a hole and seeing how quickly you could do well.”
For some, the path was more linear than others. Christina McCaughey recounted the unique way in which she entered into the financial services industry without an MBA by signing up for a university program in Germany that included an internship spot at an investment bank there that enabled her to begin her career in derivatives. She stated “sometimes you have a path in mind and you have to deviate from that, so be open to it. My advice is to not give up, stay focused and take the risk.”
Kerry Jordan mentioned that her pivotal moment “was getting P&L responsibility,” which many of the panelists agreed can be a career-enhancing element of any job.
Building relationships
All of the panelists discussed how just working hard alone is not enough to advance your career and that you must learn how to navigate within your organization to build relationships and make senior members aware of what you contribute to the company. Cynthia Fryer Steer shared that when she worked in the treasury department of her first bank job that she would send handwritten notes to the Vice Chairman of the bank about how the markets did each day. That clever idea created a relationship that was mutually beneficial and made a very senior person aware of her work and he certainly missed the notes on the days that she was off work.
Lale Topcuoglu then spoke of how she has modernized the hand-written note with an email update that “frames for people” what her team is doing. The use of technology to make her team’s work visible to all levels of people in the company has helped Lale to build a strong rapport with people throughout the organization whom she may not have had direct access to and always provides a topic for conversation in the elevator.
Debbie Hammalian added that good communications with all team members really helped to build necessary trust in developing relationships at work.
“Commonalities come from the project you are working on to build a common thread…Really understand what your talent is that you bring to the group and that will be your thread that ties you to people you work with. I have found myself in that situation where I ask myself ‘How do I bring this group together on this project to make it happen’ and by doing that I can figure out what can I give them so they can give me something too.”
Also discussed by the panel was the topic of finding the right mentors, sponsors and advocates.
Christina McCaughey acknowledged “there just weren’t as many woman when I started” but stated the advice she has received from men and women along the way has been invaluable especially on pay and bonuses. She recounted a funny anecdote that concluded with the advice that “you have to go into that office and let them know what you expect.”
Debbie Hammalian commented that she felt that the future for female mentors helping younger women looked bright “I think there is a lot of hope, my advice to you is to find a woman in the organization who you connect to as I am always flattered and give the time when someone asks me.”
What got you here, won’t get you there!
Cynthia Steer insightfully commented on how things are different now for the industry and for the women in it. “What applied to me, doesn’t apply to you. Be humble, think about social networking, low inflation and a plan B. Have a different investment portfolio for what you think your own needs are.”
She also added how you get sponsors has not changed. “Advocacy is won by hard work and making relationships. You need someone that is going to fight in the pits for you.”
Kerry Jordan encouraging women to read everything they can get their hands on. She shared that working on the derivatives desk is a very competitive job and it is imperative to stay laser focused and “make sure you have faith in yourself and be confident in your abilities.”
Lale Topcuoglu wisely noted the different stages in a person’s career. “If you are just starting out then your priorities might be to best the know as much as you can which is more important than networking. As you move up to managing people and leading a business, you realize just like the book ‘what got you here, won’t get you there’ and firms are run by humans so make sure you strike up a relationship with the upcoming leaders to let them know what you are doing.”
Thank you to our panelists, audience and sponsors (Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon and ING Investment Management) for another great event!
By Jewells Chambers and Nicki Gilmour
Last week’s event, Managing Identities: Being out at Work, brought to the UK by The Glass Hammer and hosted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, gave a unique insight into the personal journeys that notable LGBT women in the financial and professional services have experienced being out at work and the difference coming out has made to their careers.
Nicki Gilmour, CEO of The Glass Hammer, kicked off the evening with a thought provoking snapshot of the latest research that she and her team are conducting around being “the L in LGBT” at work in financial services. Despite the rise of LGBT groups in companies and the increase of attention by the media on LGBT life in the world at large, out of about 100 people surveyed so far only 59% confirmed they were out at work.
The panel, craftfully moderated by Jane Hill of the BBC, began by inviting the five openly gay women from Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Nomura International, and Marsh USA to share their own journeys of coming out at work.
Coming Out at Work
When Sarah Walker, Executive Director of the Enterprise Data & Services Group and Global Head of Securities Reference Data; IT & Data Operations at Morgan Stanley, started work in Australia, she was “19, dating guys and still straight, had a boyfriend, but during that time I realised I wanted to see women.” During the process of coming out to her family and friends, she didn’t feel it was important to come out at work. On reflection, she felt she didn’t have any role models or examples of others coming out at work and didn’t really know how to handle the situation.
The answer? “It seemed easier to move companies than to come out.” The good news is that it has gotten better for Walker since then. When she moved jobs, she decided she would be open about who she was immediately. “It changed from being a big deal to not a big deal, it was easier, and it was part of me then.”
Julia Hoggett, Head of Covered Bonds and FIG (Financial Institutions) Flow Financing EMEA and Head of Short Term Fixed Income Origination EMEA at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, was on drugs when she came out. She was recovering in hospital from spinal surgery on morphine and when her Managing Director visited her, she introduced her girlfriend. It was three days later that she realised she had just outed herself at work. Following the incident, Hoggett was asked to contribute more to the firm and join the gay and lesbian network. She really appreciated that endorsement early on in her career.
All of the panelists agreed how important it was that they had support from those they came out to at work. As Angela Best, EMEA Group Tax Controller at Nomura, put it, “It only takes one person to build on your confidence to come out.” Next the panelists considered how, as most firms have set up Allies programs, being LGBT can still be an issue. For the global community that we all operate in, it is. As Toni Mohammed, Client Manager at Marsh Inc., explained, “It is still illegal to be gay in Trinidad & Tobago,” and this is the crux of it. Similarly, Lale Topcuoglu, Portfolio Manager, Managing Director, Co-head of Global Investment Grade Portfolio Management, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, hasn’t had an issue about being gay at work and has found Goldman Sachs to be supportive, including having her CEO speak out publicly about marriage equality in the US. But she feels that there are legal issues that need to be addressed outside of work. “I only had to cross the river and my marriage was not recognised and I didn’t have the same rights over my kids,” she pointed out. For Mohammed, talking to clients was a continual challenge. She recalled, “You had to remember the lie you told one other person, to another person,” and she found herself deflecting a lot of the time before coming out to selective clients with whom she has long term relationships.
Supportive Groups
The panelists examined how Allies groups create a platform for LGBT issues to be understood, but they also provide an opportunity to build networks and ultimately business.
The panel discussed how education and awareness contribute to a more inclusive environment at work. This is achieved by stronger relationships with your co-workers. The need for role models at senior levels is very important. “If you are seen as a success, but not relatable to, then you are not necessarily going to be an accessible role model for women coming up through the ranks,” said Hoggett.
All felt it important that if you are in a senior level position you should be open and available for questions from women working through the ranks, and be frank of your achievements as an open gay woman as well. Hoggett continues, “You are only going to get ahead in this industry if you are good. The fact that you’re gay is one thing that makes up who you are, but it’s not the driving thing. You have to prove that you are effective. You have to put yourself forward and have people recognize what you have achieved, and that is something that women tend to gloss over.”
Finally, when asked if the panelists saw themselves as role models Mohammed answered that she “considers all the people before us as role models.” She has recently been asked to join the Marsh USA diversity council as a representative of the Pride group and feels it is “a great opportunity for a company like Marsh, to draw our business into the LGBT world as we are a huge market and can show everyone what we can bring to the table.”
Are you an LGBT woman working in the financial services in the UK? If so, please help us with upcoming research by taking our confidential and anonymous survey! Click here: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/882311/LGB-Workplace-Survey
By Lucy Sandilands (London)
By Nicki Gilmour, Founder and CEO of The Glass Hammer
As founder and publisher of theglasshammer.com, I am proud to pen our 2000th article today and to share with you some of our latest thinking and around gender parity. We are proud to have spent the last four years creating a “must read” online publication designed to help professional women actively manage their careers. We have had the pleasure of covering the most progressive research on gender from well-known think tanks and attending events with fantastically inspirational speakers, as well as hosting our own panel discussions and networking events.
It seems appropriate to celebrate our 2000th article with a look at what components could play a major role in helping a critical mass of women to break the glass ceiling over the next few years. After all, if the last twenty years is closely examined, we would find only an incremental change in the number of women in leadership roles in major companies. (For example, as The Economist recently reported, while the proportion of working women has risen from risen from 48% to 64% since the ’70s, women still only make up three percent of Fortune 500 CEOs.) Similarly, the advice given to women since the 1980s hasn’t changed much either and has been predominantly to act more like men.
Is this strategy working for women? Whilst it definitely makes sense to provide women with a guidebook to how the game is played currently, I cannot help but feel this method ignores the elephant in the room. What might that be? Culture.
It means addressing the culture question and exploring tough topics around why macho works styles are still revered. Asking how culture is formed and maintained and who gets to most heavily influence it should be on every leader’s list of things to look at in 2012. This examination and honest diagnostic approach would enable senior management to look at the systemic issues that are preventing women and other minorities from advancing from middle management to senior management roles and onwards to the boardroom.
Behind the scenes here at theglasshammer.com, beyond creating empowering content for our readers and community members, we have begun to conduct research and write white papers on under-represented groups in the workplace. Our work explores topics such as women in technology teams, LGBT women at work, and multicultural women in financial services. This work is conducted via our sister site Evolved Employer and is focused on helping companies understand how to architect their company culture to be inclusive and supportive of talented people who don’t necessary fit or want to be categorized into one box or other based on their outward appearance. (Hello Generation Y.)
Many companies and the people in them are still not clear on the business case for spending time developing talent as a business driver. “Smart people come in different packages” is the best way I can explain the need for dispelling myths around what a leader looks like. Diversity work is deeply personal and quite hard because it challenges every deeply held belief we’ve ever had. No one wants to admit to ourselves that we have biases. Often, unconscious bias, even those held by women, protects those who have historically held power, in order to uphold the status quo and maintain workplace traditions. Micro-inequities are often upheld by the very people who are most hindered by them.
Read more
I learned a shocking statistic recently. According to a poll by the HRC [PDF], up to 51% of LGBT professionals on Wall Street are still in the closet. That means over half – half – of LGBT professionals are uncomfortable being themselves in their workplace.
We must ask why so many professionals are still afraid, in 2011, to be open about who they are and who they share their lives with. If anything, this statistic reveals some very shocking truths about the nature of inclusiveness in our top firms and companies. It’s time for those cultures to change.
This week and next, to celebrate PRIDE on Theglasshammer.com, we are featuring profiles of several amazing women who live their lives as openly gay/lesbian professionals – despite the challenges (perceived and real) that exist for LGBT individuals in the workplace. It is our hope that by shining a spotlight on these successful women, more LGBT professionals will feel inspired and empowered to bring their whole selves to work.
Theglasshammer.com was founded on the principle of creating professional networks where you can relate to people who are in the same situation as you – for example, being the only women on your team can be tough. Yet, many of us have other identities, such being a different color or nationality or being mothers. These are very visible differences, and are protected from discrimination by law. On the other hand, gay and lesbian professionals are often the invisible minority in the room, and in many respects LGBT is the last taboo in the workplace. Legal protections are still not up to par in the U.S. (In 29 states you are not protected from getting fired on the spot for being gay or “accused” of being gay.)
There are some very simple reasons why companies should work harder to create an inclusive culture for their LGBT employees.
1) You have gay clients – the business case.
2) You have gay employees – the retention case.
3) Generation Y (and many others) won’t want to work for you if you are doing nothing or doing evil around gay issues – the recruitment case.
Theglasshammer.com creates networking groups of women in financial and professional women, but perhaps one of our greatest challenges is to find senior lesbian business leaders who are “out” and visible in their firms. Why is it so hard to find a critical mass of role models to inspire other women who may be struggling to be themselves at work?
The cost or perceived cost of being “out” seems to be still very high for gay people, and the fear of negative consequences from employers or co-workers can be clearly seen in the HRC study “Degrees of Equality” detailing why gay employees don’t come out.
- “Thirty-nine percent believe they will lose connections.
- Twenty-eight percent believe they will lose promotion opportunities.
- Seventeen percent believe they will be fired; this number increases to 42 percent for transgender workers.”
Everyone reading theglasshammer.com can do something to contribute to creating a better culture in your firm. Here’s are three ways to reach out.