{"id":1143,"date":"2012-11-10T12:17:52","date_gmt":"2012-11-10T11:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/?p=1143"},"modified":"2013-06-12T12:59:12","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T11:59:12","slug":"the-persistent-underrepresentation-of-women-in-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/2012\/11\/10\/the-persistent-underrepresentation-of-women-in-management\/","title":{"rendered":"The Persistent Underrepresentation of Women in Management"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>One of my latest blog posts<\/a> about accompanying partners in expatriation touched on the continuously changing perceptions of female gender roles, especially concerning their work-life empowerment. Indeed, in most developed economies \u2013 primarily Europe and North America \u2013 women account for nearly half of the overall workforce, according to World Bank statistics.<\/p>\n

Yet, when it comes to women in upper ranks of the employment hierarchy, the numbers are quite different. For example, the Grant Thornton International Business Report<\/a> of 2012 shows that women hold only one in five (21%) senior management roles globally. The top five countries with the highest proportion of women in senior management are Russia (46%), followed by Botswana, the Philippines and Thailand (all 39%), and Georgia (38%). Meanwhile, the less female friendly management boards are in Japan (5%), Germany (13%), India (14%), Denmark (15%) and United Arab Emirates (15%). Compared to their representation in senior management boards, the number of female senior executives in organizations is even lower, with the report indicating that less than one in ten businesses (9%) has a female CEO. Finally, the Grant Thornton 2012 data show that many economies choose (or consider to choose) to implement quotas on the number of women on boards.<\/p>\n

At the same time, on a more positive note a growing body of research suggests that gender diversity in the workplace can be beneficial to business growth. For example, studies by both McKinsey and Catalyst show some evidence that female representation in leadership is good and provides more gender balanced decision-making and more diverse strategic perspectives. So although research shows that top management team gender diversity positively influences performance, this does not correspond to an increase of female high-potentials in the leadership pipeline. Why do women continue being underrepresented at senior management levels?<\/p>\n

A recent research<\/a> by McKinsey professionals offers some insights into the global challenges of transforming the gender agenda. Foremost, the McKinsey researchers argue that what hinders the advancement of women is a combination of structural obstacles, lifestyle choices, and institutional and individual mind-sets. According to the research, women tend to shift from line (executive) roles to supporting staff roles for reasons of lack of professional networks, the increased flexibility and lower pressure in supporting staff work when forming a family, and being influenced by cultural and governmental factors. For example, Asia, which has a relatively low rate of female labor force participation, still holds strong traditional social standards in which women are fully responsible for the family burden, and government support in childcare is scarce. Further, a recent Catalyst study<\/a> on work-life perspectives in Asia (2012) showed that women were less likely than men to say that their employers provided enough flexibility for them to manage work and personal life demands effectively, while also reporting to have a lower work focus and a higher family and \u2018dual\u2019 focus than men did.<\/p>\n

Complementing the discussion on obstacles of female career advancement, the Catalyst study and a study<\/a> by the Center for Work-Life Policy (CWLP) on keeping female talents (2009) identify two types of challenges, namely \u2018pull factors\u2019 and \u2018push factors\u2019. The \u2018pull factors\u2019 are things that draw women away from pursuing leadership careers. As the CWLP report shows, family \u2018pull\u2019 factors remain the top reason for career downshifting. The same study shows that frustration and ruined ambitions are the main negative aspects of female work experiences, and hence act as \u2018push\u2019 factors that cause women\u2019s disengagement.<\/p>\n

Whereas \u2018pull\u2019 factors are difficult to influence by organizations, as they are largely a matter of female employee mind-set, personal lifestyle choices, marital status and family situation, the \u2018push\u2019 factors stem from within the organizational culture, and thus can be managed by organizations. Companies should create a culture that does not push women away, but rather supports and encourages their career advancement. Possible interventions aimed at easing women\u2019s progress through the corporate ladder will be discussed in my next blog entry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my latest blog posts about accompanying partners in expatriation touched on the continuously changing perceptions of female gender roles, especially concerning their work-life empowerment. Indeed, in most developed economies \u2013 primarily Europe and North America \u2013 women account for nearly half of the overall workforce, according to World Bank statistics. Yet, when it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18330],"tags":[44829,18339,44828,44826,44830],"class_list":["post-1143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-views-and-news-about-expatriates","tag-female-career-advancement","tag-gender-distribution","tag-gender-diversity","tag-management-team","tag-work-life-perspective"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1143"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1445,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions\/1445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}