The answer to why women vanish in
such large numbers as they move up the corporate ladder — and why this does not
seem to change over time — is obviously complex. There are many forces at work
that cause this to happen. They can be put into several categories for
conceptual clarity, though they are highly interrelated.
We think the categories are well
summarized by the statements women themselves would make about why they’re
vanishing from the corporate ladder:
- "I
don’t want the role."
- "I
can’t succeed in the role."
- "I
can’t have the role."
I Don’t Want The Role
One of the prevalent reasons why women are not making it all the way up the
corporate ladder is that the more senior leadership roles are not as appealing
to them as they are to men. These feelings were documented in a 2012 McKinsey
study that showed a bigger job or greater title did not hold the same appeal or
serve as strong an aspiration for women:
In many cases, the importance of work-family balance
—
especially motherhood
— outweighs the leadership
opportunities being offered by organizations. Claudia Goldin, professor of
economics at Harvard, noted that 36% of all female pediatricians work
part-time. “That is how they have a profession that they’re proud of, that’s
fulfilling, that is their identity, and they can also mesh it with this thing
called life.”
A 2011 Bain & Company and Chief Executive Women survey in the Australian
business community also highlighted that work-life balance holds a much higher
priority for women. When looking at inhibitors to female advancement in the
workplace, their study showed that around 70% of respondents (66% of whom were
women, 36% men) felt that women choose to prioritize family over work and elect
a more balanced lifestyle over career progression.
Our own interviews confirm that having flexibility in job and career options
is more important to women than it is to men.
Whether they want it or not, it’s also clear that women end up with a double
burden of responsibility in our society at large. If they work outside the
home, studies show that more than 90% of them return home at night to assume
the lion’s share of the management of their own households.
At levels disproportionate to their male spouses or partners, women prepare
the meals, clean and maintain their houses, take care of children, and get
involved in school activities. Whether these are conscious choices they make or
roles thrust on them by society at large, women clearly have other priorities
than just getting to a corner office.
I Can’t Succeed In The Role
The second category that helps explain why women are not making it all the
way up the corporate ladder is their perception that they can’t be successful
in more expanded leadership roles. There are several factors that may explain
this perception:
- Some
would believe that it’s simply not possible to be successful because of
various obstacles that will get in their way, like the organizational
culture or their own work-life priorities.
- The fact
that in most organizations there are few female role models at the top
serves as prima facie evidence that the opportunities for women are
limited. The natural assumption when looking up the organization is that
others have tried and not succeeded and “my chances aren’t good.” Whether
a lack of opportunity is real or perceived, this real evidence serves as a
discouraging impediment.
- Many
women have not built the same level of personal networks needed to succeed
in many organizations that men have. These networks can provide great career
leverage, including receiving ongoing development help from a mentor,
getting an early warning from the network about upcoming advancement
opportunities, and even being identified and sponsored for those
opportunities. Success will come harder if women aren’t establishing the
networks and receiving these benefits to the same degree that men have.
The summary of these factors is that many women are simply discouraged about
their chances. Our interviews with women reveal that they feel they must consistently
outperform their male counterparts in order to obtain equal career treatment.
It’s the oft-heard saying that “we must perform twice as well to be thought of
as half as good.”
When we mention that in a room of women leaders, every head nods. The unfortunate
summary that we often hear is that these factors combine to make many women
question the value of “continuing the fight.”
I Can’t Have The Role
The final category that helps us understand why women are vanishing from the
leadership pipeline is organizational barriers that deny them positions. Some
of these occur systemically in formal systems and processes that don’t promote
gender parity and serve as real obstacles for women in their careers. These
would include hiring and promotion processes that would favor men, and
inflexible hours or similar work condition policies that penalize women
who
— as a group
— often
accept more home/family responsibilities than men.
Others are informal barriers, including deeply embedded beliefs and assumptions
that deny advancement opportunities for women. Many take the form of assumed
limitations on the part of senior hiring managers like, “she wouldn’t want a
job that required a relocation," “the hours required in this position
wouldn’t work for her family," or “women don’t have career aspirations for
this kind of role.”
One of the more common limiting beliefs is what one person called the worry
of “B-Flight”
— that we can’t consider a woman for
the position because she’ll leave it prematurely, fleeing for a “baBy” or a
“hubBy.” Some of the barriers here are clearly illegal but still present real
impediments.
Although not necessarily illegal, one of the more entrenched and limiting
beliefs is that there are certain styles, approaches, or behaviors that are
required to be a successful leader. Research shows that both men and women
recognize there are style differences and that they may approach solving the
same workplace situations in different ways. But with hiring managers at senior
levels being predominantly male, the often assumed “appropriate and necessary”
leadership approaches would likely be those most similar to their own. The
result: women are unfairly deemed to have the wrong leadership style needed to
be successful.
The final and most damaging reason that women are vanishing from the
corporate ladder is the traditional belief that women are simply less effective
leaders than men. That belief is the one that our data completely refutes….
……. Sherwin, COO of Zenger Folkman,
