Practical Suggestions for Growth of Women’s Leadership
On November 17th, UC Davis published the latest Census of Women Leaders in California and the statistics showed that not much progress has been made since the inception of the study 4 years ago. And, these numbers have not changed much nationwide as shown by the ION Census Data from 12 other major financial centers in the US including New York, Boston, Chicago and Detroit.
This is such a complex issue with gender differences, stereotypes and corporate culture all playing a role in why the numbers stay where they are.
Research shows that having women leaders in your organization has a direct impact on corporate performance. Companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams experience stronger financial performance when compared to companies with the lowest representation of women in senior positions–Return on Equity is 35% higher and Total Return to Shareholders is 34% higher for companies with more senior women executives. McKinsey has also published some recent data that supports this premise.
We believe that there are practical steps that can be taken by both organizations and women leaders to help change this picture. What ideas do you have regarding what can be changed within yourself or your organization?
What can organizations do about it?
1. Support from the CEO and Measurement
Embracing Diversity is not an HR issue and creating a Diversity Team under HR with no funding is not the same as truly supporting and role modeling diversity at the top.
Companies with CEO’s who create intention and measurement for the recruitment (this is not the same as setting quotas), retention and engagement of women leaders often show a higher percentage of women leaders in their ranks.
This can be accomplished by encouraging hiring managers, and measuring them, to make sure that they are interviewing as equal a number as possible of women vs. men for any open positions.
Unconscious stereotyping still exists and people tend to hire people they are comfortable with and more often than not, this equates to people who “look like them.” Creating intention to help break through this unconscious stereotyping is one method for enhancing women’s opportunities for advancement.
2. Support Mentoring, Sponsorship, and Networking Programs
Women apply for roles when they think they have 100% of the criteria listed in the role whereas men will apply if they meet 60% of the criteria. Women need to be encouraged more to apply for these positions and having formal mentoring programs have proven to be an effective tool.
Sponsorship is the next level up where a manager creates opportunities for high potential women leaders to move up more quickly rather than waiting for general opportunities to arise.
3. Work/Life Flexibility augmentation breast portland
92% of women are the main caretakers at home with child care or elder care in addition to holding full time jobs. Other than basic benefits such as maternity leave, companies need to become more creative in assisting women with more flexibility to manage the challenges they face outside of work and not be penalized from the leader track if they need to take more time off during their peak earning years in order to manage their home life challenges.
