Johannesburg - While there has been an increase in women at senior and middle management level, they still have a long way to go to shatter the glass ceiling of top management, according to a report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) released this week.
Over the past 20 years, fewer than 5 percent of chief executives appointed at the world’s largest corporations have been women, and the larger the company, the greater the chance of it being headed by a man.
The ILO said although companies had failed dismally at appointing women to top positions, many women said they were opposed to quotas to ensure high-level appointments.
Instead, it recommends that companies adopt more flexible solutions so that women are able to manage both work and family commitments.
The gross under-representation exists despite women surpassing men in gaining tertiary qualifications in most regions in the world, and that increasingly skilled employees are needed as economies become more knowledge- and technology-based.
According to the Women in Business and Management: Gaining Momentum report, women are still being blocked from participating in high-level decisions for a number of reasons, including gender stereotyping, corporate cultures and a lack of measures to reconcile work and family responsibility.
It says there has to be a closer examination of the career paths of women and men to en sure that subtle gender biases are eliminated from the first assignment.
“Promoting gender equality in the workplace is not only the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do. A growing body of evidence shows that utilising the skills and talent of both men and women is beneficial for enterprises and for society in general,” said ILO director-general Guy Ryder.
Gender stereotypes long embedded in society are listed as the main obstacle to women being given the same chance as men and progressing to the top.
“Overcoming the mindset that women cannot be managers or business leaders because their main role is seen as a reproductive one is one of the principal challenges,” the report says.
Another barrier is that women often struggle to go beyond the education they have received because it is assumed they are only fit for certain roles. There is a concentration of women in certain management functions such as HR, communication and administration.
The 40-page document makes several recommendations on what companies can do to offer practical support to women and also change mindsets by advancing the business case for promoting women.
Studies show that besides women making up a significant proportion of the talent pool, attaining gender balance in senior management teams and boards is good for the bottom line. McKinsey & Company found that European-listed companies with more women in their management teams had 17 percent higher stock price growth between 2005 and 2007. Their average operating profit was almost double their industry average.
The report says that adopting equal opportunity employment policies and ensuring they are enforced, also sends a message within a company that equal opportunity is a corporate value. This is in line with the thinking of a number of countries which are moving to legalise mandatory quotas for women on company boards to achieve parity, including EU member states.
Other countries, such as Australia, China, India, Pakistan, America and the UK stop short of quotas, but they have adopted measures to promote more women in management.
The report urges companies to review their HR policies to ensure they are not slowing down the progress of women. Just job descriptions alone can appeal either to women or men.
“Questions about family status and intentions about getting married or having children, if asked at all, should be posed to both male and female candidates,” it says.
Another issue, considered critical, is whether the first assignments and projects given to women and men differ.
“Research shows that this may well be the starting point of women falling behind on the managerial track. While women nowadays are as qualified or have higher academic achievements than their male counterparts, they are often not given the same level of responsibility, visibility and variety of positions that may prepare them for higher positions.”
Women who reach middle or senior management often fall behind their male counterparts. Reasons include a reluctance to take on more responsibility due to limited options for meeting family demands such as flexible working hours and childcare arrangements. This may lead to women leaving a company for another or starting their own businesses.
Also because women are concentrated more in support management functions such as HR, these positions are not usually regarded as appropriate preparation for top management posts.
“This situation again calls for careful attention to tasks, projects and responsibilities assigned to women compared to men, at all stages of the career path,” the report says.
Other obstacles are the provision of quality childcare, which results in more women than men dropping out of the workforce, and women not being as mobile as men to go on business trips because of family demands. The ILO said companies should review how women can gain needed experience in other ways, and briefing sessions with other employees who can be mobile. It suggested less emphasis could be given to mobility as a criterion.
Other options that companies can consider are mentoring programmes and supporting women-only networks, where they can gain confidence and knowledge to advance their careers.
The ILO was clear that if the public and private sectors did not evolve with the changing labour markets and optimise women’s talents and skills, global growth and competitiveness would be slowed down, and gender parity at the top could take up to 200 years.
* Amy Musgrave is Independent Media’s Group Labour Editor