Corporate America: Where are all the women leaders…
We’ve been talking about, complaining about, worried about the continued lack of women in power.
In my column today on MSNBC.com I look at how many women often sabotage their climb up the ranks because they aren’t forceful enough when it comes to tooting their own horns.
And coincidentally, the Wall Street Journal today has a whole package on women in power call, “The 50 Women to Watch”. In it the author also asked women executives why there still aren’t more women running the show today.
So I hope today we can have a frank discussion on why the heck there aren’t more women at the top?
Go ahead, any theories will be greatly appreciated.
(Just a thought: Attitude may be key to advancing. In my book From the Sandbox to the Corner Office I interviewed many women CEOs and all of them were big believers in standing tough in order to succeed. Christine Jacobs of Theragenics Corp. talked a lot about how women should not see themselves as victims. One funny story she told me epitomizes her attitude. She was having lunch with the president of a local bank and he asked her “Whatever qualified YOU to be CEO of a public company?” To that she retorted: “Why, my breasts, of course.”)
November 20th, 2006 at 10:37 am
The column was a good one, especially the point about socialization differences between men and women. There are natural biases built into the work place. Just as people would rather “hang out” with people of their own race or religion, males would rather be with males. In most male settings, the major topics are sports and women — not geopolitics and certainly not issues relating to the home. It is just one more bias that we need to fight through. Women don’t have to act like men to be successful. In fact, my experience has been that women, given the opportunity, tend to be more effective and certainly more empathetic managers than men. Women are also coming to the workplace with more team and competitive instincts as a result of Title IX. I believe what women must do is to make sure their supervisors know that they are interested in both getting better and advancing. Seek feedback on performance. Seek counseling on what you need to do to get ready for the next job while you are performing the current one well. Then, they need to be prepared to act on the feedback. Mentors may be good, but the employee/supervisor relationship still remains the most important. Your supervisor can not always get you promoted, but they can always stop you.
November 20th, 2006 at 11:04 am
The problem is with the media. Everywhere we turn we see women being depicted in sexually suggestive ways. No matter how we cut it, for most average Americans — men AND women included — a woman’s value is based on her looks, her sexuality, her body. Men are valued for their smarts, and women often damned for theirs.
November 20th, 2006 at 12:12 pm
ok .. and here it goes.. the reason women still are not in the highest ranks of power , but are making strides . is…. the few women out there over the years , who have self promoted themselves because of their looks, and sexuality, have ruined it for the vast majority of qualified women out there. i know 3 of those women personally. and the wsj list. and eve, i will try and have one of them respond to your blog today. but some of these women . ( especially the financial services women) , use their sexuality . to get promoted. in the male dominated world of financial services it is easier for a smart attractive women to get promoted than a smart attractive male… i know i will be skewered by eve’s female dominated bloggers . but it is true. a powerful man , would much prefer to promote a woman than a man. a woman normally is a working mother , or will be someday . so they have a power shelf life. ie: if a powerful male feels threatened by her down the road knows that she will have a dual role . of family and work, and if she is real good . can always have her work around schedule. but these few bad apples . have used their sexuality , and when have not reached the potential that they want . have gone to litigation under the guise of sexual harassment. now many legitimate businesses will not hire very qualified women because they are not firable. so it comes down in my opinion.]
” the reason there are not more women in senior positions at corporations is….. lawyers.”
November 20th, 2006 at 12:13 pm
I find myself seeking out young women (either
interns or fresh college graduates) and offering a bit of mentoring.
It’s not just about the glass ceiling it goes into creating a work life
family balance as well as other issues.
My generation had so few mentors for me (I am a baby boomer) and I so
valued the few successful women I met.
Let’s keep this dialogue going.
November 20th, 2006 at 12:16 pm
I think that many women are not single-minded enough to focus on the one goal of corporate power… and I mean that in the best possible way. Speaking for myself - as well as my very smart friends, I think that women more often seek high satisfaction from all aspects of life. Our happiness is based on so much more than job success. (Men might find this true too, if they were paying attention) Women are not willing to sacrifice art, literature and creative expression, time with friends and family - just to make more money and gain more control. Unfortunately, that means they often sacrifice power for quality of life. Everyone would be better off with more balanced lives, but women most often demand it.
November 20th, 2006 at 3:55 pm
The workplace columnist at The Kansas City Star pointed me to a series her paper did on women CEOs. Check out her story on the glass ceiling (http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/business/special_packages/star_50/14555846.htm).
November 21st, 2006 at 11:48 am
Nice article Eve. I think the suggestion of gaining a mentor is a valuable one. I work in a fortune 500 company and I’ve watched the women in middle to upper management for 4 years now. The reason they are not being promoted is because the men at the top simply are not going to promote them. They would rather ignore them until they leave out of frustration and then replace them with men making more money. I’ve seen this happen over and over again. I simply don’t believe that the men who run companies want to share that power with women. Furthermore, the women who do start to make it up the ladder consistently have to prove themselves twice as much and continue to be paid less. It is amazing to see the level of inequity still this high inside corporate America.
November 21st, 2006 at 2:22 pm
In response to your question, “Why aren’t more Women in Power?”, I think
part of the answer is a lack of clarity between job title vs.
responsibility/span of control. In the case of Federated Dept Stores, 4 of
my 6 Direct Reports, and therefore, the most highly compensated people in
our $28 Billion company, are women. They have responsibilities greater
than many of the women mentioned in the WSJ article today yet they don’t
get recognized, externally, because they don’t have the CEO title. I
suspect their are other highly successful women in this same category who
could leave these larger, higher paying jobs and go to smaller companies
where they can have the CEO title, if that was more important to them. In
our case, I need to do a better job of making sure these women get the
recognition they deserve.
Thanks for bringing this subject up.
November 21st, 2006 at 7:32 pm
Many men are truly afraid of women, really , perhaps they dont realize the underlying factor. Look at the whole lslamic culture and how they treat women. They are very exotic creatures to the average man, me included, but l respect their abilities if proven, just as a man.
November 25th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
I think that there are so few women CEO’s because that is the way the USA raises thier kids.
Boys play rough and tumble sports, girls play easier, less messy sports. Boys work on cars,
girls learn to type and do office work. I personally have been turned down for many many jobs
becuase I am not a guy. “girls can’t do this type of work” how hard it is to stock shelves at a
grocery store at night? why can’t i work overnight like the guys can??? becuase society says I can not.
Why are there so few women in the upper ranks of corporate america? becuase if we were, then nothing
else would get done in the trenches of america. who would cook? take care of the kids? take care of the
house? make sure homework was done? who would get the bills paid on time, make sure the dogs were fed,
buy food for the fridge???
ask any one of the male corporate ceo’s about his kids, he will look at his wife and say, how many do
we have agian? Not one of these male ceo’s will make father of the year. when these men die, thier
obit will say tons about what they accomplished in the business world, all of the awards they recieved
and all of the money they made. But how many true friends did these men have? did they make a difference
in the lives of thier family? will someone actually miss them when they are gone?
women care about such things. yes, i want to make lots of money, yes i want to live a comfortable life
and yes, i want to be able to pay my bills and have money left over each month for savings. But. I also want my kids happy and well adjusted for living in the real world. I want to make a difference to the
people I come in contact with, for the good, to encourage and be supportive of others. I want to help others succed and learn to be independent. For most men, in genreal, those details are to tedius. For most women, in general, those details are what life is about. Men make good ceo’s becuase they let others deal with the details of life, women.