Women at the top

Diversity / 01 July 2010

Boardrooms may still be dominated by men, but women are gradually making it to the top jobs. Sue Weekes asks whether quotas and diversity agendas are the best way to raise the influence of women at work

In the musical My Fair Lady, an exasperated Henry Higgins asks why a woman can’t be more like a man.

Had his protégé flower girl Eliza Doolittle suddenly gone all alpha female, however, he and his gentleman sidekick Pickering probably wouldn’t have liked that either.
“A woman who has more masculine preferences should fit into a male-dominated, masculine culture – but she doesn’t,” says professor Sharon Mavin, associate dean (research) at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University.

She adds that when it comes to the boardroom, it’s perfectly acceptable for a man to be driven and ambitious, but many still find something “distasteful” about a woman who is driven. “If we can challenge this stereotypical thinking, we can begin to get under the skin of the prejudices that still exist,” says Mavin.

Board equality

Having more women in top positions in business would clearly help the cause, but the UK is some way off that situation.

According to the 2009 Female FTSE Board report from Cranfield School of Management, the number of firms in the FTSE 100 with female executive directors is down to 15 from 16 while the number of boards with multiple women directors has dropped from 39 to 37.
Financial services is one of the sectors where female representation is worst: in the five banks in the FTSE 100, only 9% of board members are women, down from 12% in 2008. Overall, one in four companies still have exclusively male boards.

Question of quotas

The report also looked at the number of women making it to board level in countries such as Norway where legislation has been introduced. Following a legally binding quota, 100% of companies on the Norway Stock Exchange (ASA) currently have women on their boards, up from 83% in 2004. Spain has also had some success with a provision in the equality act with 55% of companies having at least one female director (up from 40% in 2006). France plans to introduce a quota law later this year requiring all French listed companies to have 40-50% of women on boards by 2015.

Calls for such quotas in the UK divide opinion, however, and women can be their fiercest critics. Toni Eastwood is director of training at Everywoman, which provides training, resources and support services for women in business. She works with corporates to help them unlock the female talent in their organisation and says there is frequently a backlash from women about quotas because they want to get the job on their own merit.

However, she believes some form of accelerant is required. “Of course, it has to be a meritocracy but if you haven’t got a target there’s nothing to aim for,” she says. “I'm all for positive action because without it nothing is going to change.”
Susan Finico, professor of diversity at Cranfield School of Management, says: “At board level it’s very interesting to see how countries are reacting. This is where we get controversial about ‘to quota or not to quota’, because Spain, France, Norway and Finland all have or are in the process of putting in quotas because they believe it won’t change unless you actually make it change.”

When the quota law was introduced in Norway, there were fears that it would lower the level of skills and competence in the boardroom. But Dr Marit Hoel, director of the country’s Centre for Corporate Diversity, says the women entering the boardroom were “significantly” better educated than the men they replaced, as well as younger.

Quotas or not, clearly something needs to change in the UK for many reasons. If so few women are making it to the top, organisations clearly aren’t managing their talent pool well because there is no shortage of women in the workforce.

Organisations need the diversity, and differing skills and mindsets that women can bring. Women are often more collaborative and have different approaches to risk, and many tend to be more emotionally intelligent and able to empathise than men. All of these traits are acknowledged as vital management and leadership qualities in the modern workplace.

Finally, there is no getting away from the fact that women make the majority of the purchasing decisions in households, so not to have their viewpoint represented on the board does not make sense. Alongside any government initiatives, there also has to be practical action on the part of employers.

In the past, HR departments have perhaps focused too keenly on the risk of gender inequality rather than objectively looking at talent. “It’s not about positive discrimination, it’s about talent management,” says Sharon Glancy, business solutions director at People 1st, the sector skills council for the hospitality industry, which has just launched a female leadership initiative called Women 1st.

John Donovan, executive leader for inclusion and diversity at Cisco, agrees: “If you just force change and people don’t believe in the change, it is not sustainable. For example, if we identified a very strong female leader and fast-tracked her all the way through because it ticked a box that we’ve got a diverse leadership team, people wouldn’t believe in her. But, more importantly, she wouldn’t believe the reason she was there, and that would undermine her ability to do the job. So the foundation of it is the culture.”

Releasing potential

Eastwood says organisations need to think more clearly about their strategies relating to women. She adds that managers must appreciate that female employees approach things in a different way to men and so need to be approached differently when it comes to job opportunities.

“It’s about how you engage and inspire them, and unlock their aspirations in an organisation, not simply saying there’s equality of opportunities and send them a job description,” says Eastwood. “They need to be supported when going for such positions.” She also cites the old adage that when a man looks at a job advertisement but can only do 10% of the job, he still goes for it, whereas a women sees 10% of the role she can’t do and decides not to apply. “It’s very rare in women to find one that hasn’t suffered at some level with confidence or self-esteem,” she adds.

Donovan explains Cisco’s approach: “We’re really focused on trying to move the culture forward, especially the leadership culture. We’re trying to help people understand that you need to adapt your style, your capability, your thinking to make sure you are getting the best out of all the people that work for you, and not just going into an ordinary default style of doing everything.

“If we can achieve that, we will get more females through management at senior levels, because we will be able to value the contribution that different people can bring, irrespective of their gender.”

Building confidence

Jan Parkinson, managing director of Local Government Employers, says that many women undersell themselves at interview and employers need to understand such aspects of a woman’s psychology if they have an aspiration to increase the number of women in senior positions.

She has little doubt that women have the skills for today’s demands but what people espouse isn’t always put into action. “People are always saying that we need good communicators who can build relationships, who are collaborative and who aren’t competitive – things women are often better at – but then they end up giving the job to a man who isn’t collaborative and who is very competitive and likes to lead from the front,” says Parkinson.

A lack of confidence repeatedly crops up in studies as one of the factors holding women back. This is typical in the hospitality industry, and research by People 1st found that although 60% of the workforce is made up of women, only 6% of females hold board level positions.

Clearly the long hours and shift systems also pose a challenge and Glancy says the industry has lost many talented women to entrepreneurship. “We’ve seen many women have a family and choose to leave an organisation because it doesn’t work for them any more, and they’ve set up a fantastic small business,” she says. “There are some great contract catering businesses run by women. This means the corporate world is missing out on this great entrepreneurial spirit.”

As well as a development programme for women, People 1st will be publishing a business solutions book for employers with practical advice and is aiming to have at least one woman shortlisted for every board position by 2015. It is early days but some women who have attended the course have found it “life-changing”. Glancy says: “They’ve got new jobs, they’re asking for salary increases and they’re much more confident.”

One of the companies taking part in the Women 1st initiative is Abode Hotels and it has already has put 12 senior female managers through the initiative’s Step Up programme. Ros Young, group HR manager at Abode Hotels says: “The key challenge was confidence and giving them the self-belief that they have the ability to achieve in the industry. The programme helps them look inwards at what they want to achieve, and examine their strengths and weaknesses. They learn how to think differently and challenge different situations.”

Early in her career, when working for another employer, Young herself experienced discrimination firsthand as she had a young child. “I wanted a family and a career but I always felt I had to work twice as hard as my male counterparts,” she says.
“I wish I’d had a programme like this back then as it gives you the confidence and the belief that you can have it all.