What Stops NZ Women Rising to the Top?

Introduction

As I sat down to analyse our survey on barriers to women rising to the top, it occurred to me that the timing couldn't be better. It has been nearly nine months since Sarah Wilshaw-Sparkes and I launched Professionelle. Working through the responses to this, our latest survey, I was able to ask myself if we've been addressing the issues that REALLY matter for professional women in New Zealand? Judging by the responses to the survey, it seems we have been quite on the mark. But read on to make your own judgement!

Nearly forty years on from the feminist revolution, we know that women aren't making it to the top in New Zealand's businesses.

The numbers:

The figures say it all. When looking at the proportion of women in board positions in our top companies, New Zealand fares the worst of the English speaking countries, even behind Australia!

Women Board Directors ASX200 International Comparison

Source: 2006 EOWA Australian census of women in leadership cited in the Australian Financial Review.

The two of us at Professionelle are baffled. When we set up our website we based it on our own experience and observations. We knew that being a professional woman could be a lonely experience. We didn't think - or at least not consciously - that sexist attitudes were that prevalent any more. Perhaps we were swayed by media coverage of the very few, but very prominent, senior women in the private sector. But as we started researching the topic of the position of professional women in the third millenium, using New Zealand data as opposed to international data, the picture that emerged was a lot worse than we expected.

Having taken a good look at the relevant New Zealand numbers, we felt it was time to ask our members for their opinions on the key barriers preventing New Zealand women from reaching the top of companies and organisations.

Professionelle's research:

We asked our members to list what they believed were the three most important barriers to women's progression to the top. They were able to choose from responses provided by us, which were based on international research on the topic, or to write their own. Respondents were also able to provide us with their thoughts and comments.

Over forty of our members took the time to answer the survey, and many also provided us with indepth and insightful comments.

On reflection, I found the results surprising. I didn't expect to find such widely held experiences of male-dominated cultures across the board. What I did find heartening though, was that although one important barrier lay outside our immediate control, the other major one was in fact a reflection of women having more choices and choosing to exercise them!

Our analysis:

We analysed the results on the barriers in three ways:
1. By importance (those listed as first and second most important barriers),
2. By frequency of mention across all the barriers listed,
3. By the comments provided.

The most important barriers:

Two of the three most significant barriers concerned women's experiences of male dominated workplaces. These three top barriers were:

1. "Inhospitable corporate culture - masculine leadership styles, vocabulary and norms"
2. "Women opting out rather than put up with the "corporate cr*p""
3. "Women's exclusion from informal networks"

Given that the Professionelle members who responded to our survey came from a wide range of occupations and employment types around the country, we believe these results are all the more powerful because of how consistent women's views were.

On the face of it, these results might seem depressing as forty years on it appears we still have to deal with similar corporate cultures to those described in early feminist writing. The sexism is probably less overt than in the seventies but its effects are still felt: masculine leadership styles, masculine style of speech and masculine norms apparently still prevail. And it's deeply frustrating to read that women in 2007 still feel excluded from informal networks and the "boys' club".

That said, the second important barrier is much more heartening. The fact that women themselves are choosing to opt out is very positive. It shows that women in New Zealand have choices, and that we are able to exercise them. Some of us choose to stay in full time work and others choose to pursue other paths. Granted, for some, leaving traditional employment may not be economically viable, but increasingly, other forms of work are becoming more economically sustainable, judging by anecdotal evidence and our membership profile.

In our latest analysis of our 670 registered members, nearly a third are in non-traditional employment arrangements, such as contractors, running their own businesses and self-employment.

The most commonly cited barriers:

We classified all of the responses (excluding the comments) into set categories. The three most commonly mentioned barriers matched, as expected, to the three most important ones. However, the top five prevailing barriers provided more depth to the picture:

Lack of mentoring emerged as the fourth common barrier to women's progression to top positions. Our current survey aims to explore this barrier further and to see how Professionelle might help address mentoring needs.

Another area where we at Professionelle aim to help is with the fifth most common barrier: the burdens we women load on ourselves. Members made a number of revealing comments on this topic:

• Women's perfectionist tendencies.
• Women's lack of self-belief and confidence.
• Women mistakenly assuming that you make it through hard work alone and not through networking and the social side of the corporate ladder.
• Women moving into staff roles and not gaining line experience.

Also commonly cited were barriers concerning the lack of career opportunities given to women, companies not wanting the risk of giving women high visibility roles, and women not being in the pipeline long enough.

Looking at both the important and the commonly mentioned factors, a consistent picture emerges. Yes, definitely there are things organisations and companies can do to help women move through the ranks. In particular, they can work on their culture and ensure women are not excluded. They can monitor the insidious sexism that our survey shows is still very much present in many work environments. And, indeed, companies are beginning to realise these are strategic issues for them and are coming to Professionelle for advice on how to overcome these issues.

However, there are also things that women as individuals can do. These are the things we focus on at Professionelle.co.nz. Our 'Feeling like a Fraud' feature was written specifically for those of us who suffer from perfectionism and lack of self belief!

As we plan ahead for next year, we will definitely ensure that the content we provide to our members will continue to align closely with these findings.

What were respondents most passionate about?

But what did our respondents feel most strongly about? What propelled them to write their very thoughtful comments? Analysing this part of the survey proved to be the most interesting.

My hypothesis was that respondents would be most likely to comment on the work-life-family responsibilities challenges. I wasn't far off. However, what they felt most strongly about, again, was the persistent and insidious bias against women, which, according to our respondents, is still very much alive and well in New Zealand companies.

Bias against women is alive and well:

Reading the comments, I was most struck by women describing their personal experiences and direct observations of sexism in inhospitable, male-dominated cultures. Their comments fly in the face of the prevailing view that women in New Zealand don't face such serious barriers.

I think the concept is out there that women don't have barriers any more to rise to the top, but I personally think in Auckland firms are still long way from accepting women at the top.
It will be interesting to see how many corporates actually have a grooming process where women are groomed to reach the top. I have seen this happen in UK and good to see an interest was shown by the top level in the staff below regardless of the gender. Also I think because sometimes it takes a lot for women to reach the top, the also become barriers to other women reaching the top as the instinct to protect your own territory kicks in.
This would be a non issue if there wasn't an unspoken culture around the high level positions."
The "boys club" is alive and well - and they don't welcome outsiders!
The 'Boys club' thing is so underestimated. In my experience, in this type of Boys club environment, it's obvious that most men don't even know how to react when women are at the same 'table'. The tone usually lifts a bit - until the first joke...then your presence almost becomes invisible!
;As I move through my 30s and in a senior management role I'd say the barriers are increasing rather than decreasing. An older woman commented to me that women have a tougher time as they move through the higher ranks than they do at more junior levels and I'm finding that to be true.

Making the situation worse is the perception that men in senior positions are not prepared to take the chance to promote a woman alongside them, because women in high positions are highly visible and exposed in New Zealand.

CEOs and Chair of Boards are not willing to "take the risk" of going against the norm and putting in a woman. Media focus on women in high profile or CEO roles is not balanced. My experience - some CEOs and GMs actively dislike having strong women on the senior mgmt team as it changes the club rules.

Family responsibilities:

The second topic most frequently commented on was family responsibilities. Looking at the responses, it isn't the family responsibilities per se that prevent women from pursuing their career. Instead, it is the lack of assistance both at home and from a work structure perspective that results in women ending up having two full time jobs!

I found the following comments most poignant on this particular issue.

The ownership of family matters we assume (rather than expecting our partners to equally share the load)means that a) we are more likely to get burned out and b) we don't have enough role models of both women and men who have high-powered careers and who are strongly involved in the care of their families. Only when both genders demanded this flexibility will workplace norms change.

Unfortunately I think it still comes down to the career vs family dilemma. While there are opportunities for women to work part time the attitude (at least where I work) is that once you have made that choice you are pretty much going to stay where you are. Part timers don't make partnership. "Role reversing" as a couple is pretty difficult too as even if you are lucky enough to find a partner who is happy to be a stay at home dad they are frowned upon and people seem to assume they did it because they have the second rate career or couldn't get a good enough job to support their partner so she could do it
.

I'm not sure about the reasons listed, but I do see - often - that women who are also mothers have less upward mobility because of the other full-time job alongside their paid work. The greatest obstacle seems to me to be lack of support in child-rearing and housekeeping. It may be changing slowly, but during these school holidays, how many working mothers are thinking about the children and taking responsibility for their care, compared to how many men? I know many men do support with particular tasks, but who does the thinking and working out?

Lack of flexible work arrangements was also seen to contribute to the burden:

Along this barrier (lack of flexible work arrangements) is lack of child-friendly workplaces. It doesn't affect me, but it certainly would help working mothers.

Women needing to learn how to 'self-promote':

The third most commented on issue was women's reluctance to place themselves in the high visibility positions required in order to 'make it' in the traditional work place.

Many policy makers and decision makers are men. People have a tendency to include a 'recruit to type' component when selecting people for opportunities. Women need to place themselves in a position where they are VISIBLE to the decision makers, even while in 'lesser' roles. You can only be chosen when you stand out from the well qualified crowd. We need to be able to confidently talk about our experience in a 'can-do' way if we haven't done EXACTLY THAT THING before...show that we are a safe pair of hands and that we have something more to offer.

Further comment, a number of women I have worked with WAIT for opportunities to happen, rather than activity seeking them. Note also that the barriers I have selected all indicate little 'active' bias against women, but a more implicit or subconscious bias that is really hard to define.

Some of our respondents felt that women build the highest barriers for themselves, and believed that women who work on those barriers were in a much better position to advance.

Of course there are barriers to women that are external - but I believe that in today's world we are our own most significant barriers.

Lastly, one respondent thought that women might not actually want those high 'profile' roles.

I'd have to say that I haven't experienced significant barriers that couldn't be worked around or pushed through and I work in an extremely male oriented work place. Yes, at times they may have been a little more barriers than what my male colleagues experienced but I now find myself in a position equal to or higher than my male colleagues. The question I wonder about is if women actually want these roles on boards or CEO/GM? I have interviewed 5 women for a high calibre role at my firm in recent weeks and all 5 were ill prepared and dispassionate about the industry and the role and they are the only applications I have received after casting the net far and wide over an extended period. In discussions with other friends in my industry I'm hearing the same thing from them which leads me back to the question is there a skills shortage in general or perhaps that women don't want the roles we think they do?

This last comment fits well with our last major finding that perhaps women don't necessarily want to advance in traditional workplaces in the same way that their male counterparts do.

Women have different drivers

Although 'women opting out of their own choices' was one of the top three important and commonly cited barriers in our survey, there were relatively few comments about it. When our respondents did comment, however, it became evident to me that some of our members believe women simply have different drivers to men, and that these are reflected in the choices they make.

"Is this just a numbers game? Are fewer women are at the top because many talented women lose the desire to work to the top because of the sacrifices required in other facets of their lives? We were brought up with the 'girls can do anything' message - true! but it turns out that girls can't do everything. With family, friendships, partners, homes, work, and hopefully some outside interests to maintain usually something has to give. It's been my observation that women are happy to leave behind corporate crap and take on rewarding work that fits with lifestyle and this usually does not align itself with corporate advancement. It would be interesting to do a profiling exercise of women who have reached the top of the private and public sectors. For example, how many have families?"

Generally speaking, women don't seem to be as tolerant as men at putting up with stressful situations and relationships, so we opt out more easily. Do we need to toughen up or can we keep our high expectations?

Conclusion

Working through the data proved to be a lot to take in!

I believe the findings are alarming. As we near the end of 2007, women are still finding it difficult to advance in New Zealand because of the underlying male-dominant culture. Yes, it could be the case that our survey contained a self-selecting bias; perhaps the women who responded to us feel passionately about it because they've experienced it. However, these results, the numbers and our anecdotal observations based on our users' comments and our work, all suggest that New Zealand business has a way to go to both acknowlegde and to seriously address this issue.

However, what heartened me was that many of our respondents felt that women who exercise their choice and opt out are doing it voluntarily, not because they have been forced to. Coming from a different country where these options aren't open to the same extent for economic reasons, I fully appreciate how New Zealand women have real options available to them. We can work full time or part time or not at all, taking career breaks. We can start our own business or we can contract our skills.

All these choices are socially acceptable and often economically viable. What these results say to me is that if corporates and organisations want to hold on to their talented women, they need to act fast, as the options we have make other choices appealing!

What do you think? We'd love your thoughts and reflections on this extremely important topic. Please e-mail me or post your thoughts directly on the message board.

 

© Professionelle Ltd 2007