In 2004, women owned 10.6 million businesses in the U.S., employing 19.1 million workers. These women-owned businesses accounted for $2.5 trillion in sales. At the same time, I started my own business—Arment Dietrich, a communications firm.
In the beginning, the business meetings I attended were almost laughable. I remember a fairly new client told me they were unhappy with the work we did because it was too “female-focused.” When I asked what they meant, they stammered a bit, but finally admitted that, even though their audience was 90 percent women, they didn’t like the messaging. When pushed, they couldn’t tell us anything more than it was too “female-focused.”
From there, it got worse. There was a pivotal moment. I was about to ink the largest deal in our very short history. It was with an organization on our wish list and we had worked very hard to build trust with them so they’d work with us versus a globally recognized PR firm.
The CEO and COO came to our office to nail down the final details and to sign the contract so we could get started. But that’s not exactly how it went down. They were ready to sign, but they first wanted to meet my husband. I thought they meant it in a social way—as in, we’re going to be working together really closely so let’s also socialize.
That’s not what they meant.
They assumed my husband was running my business so they wanted to meet him before they signed the contract. When I insisted I was the sole owner, the CEO said, “If we don’t meet your husband during this meeting, we’ll be working with another firm.”
So we walked away. It turns out things happen for a reason and that company ended up going out of business, but I was still livid.
The more I thought about it, the more angry I became. And then an idea came to life.
Remington Steele a la Charles Arment
What if we created a Remington Steele-like identity to be my male business partner?
My friend Harry Brumleve came up with the name and bio, and thus, Charles Arment was born.
It turned out to be an interesting social experiment. Charles gave me business confidence and taught me how to negotiate. I also had a “bad guy” built in to my company allowing me to “kick it upstairs” to get approval on what the prospective client wanted or when I needed to ask for more from a vendor. Charles Arment also gave my company (and me) more immediate respect in the eyes of prospective clients because of the perception of a man running my business.
When it became evident Charles was like Remington Steele, I did get a lot of flack. Ironically, mostly from women. They said I was being dishonest and causing great disservice to our gender. In the end, Charles Arment got a nice obituary, but my negotiation skills did not die with him. As I gained more confidence, prospective clients stopped asking me about the man in charge.
The Glass Ceiling Still Exists
Did you know that women make up about 70 percent of the global PR workforce? However, they only hold around 30 percent of global PR’s top positions.
Here are some more fun statistics to chew on as you think about gender bias in the workplace:
Women run only 25 percent of the 20 firms with revenues of more than $100 million.
Of the 25 percent female-led firms in the top 20, two are led by their founders.
Among the 39 firms between $40 and $99 million, nine are run by women (23 percent). One is based in Brazil; the others in the U.S. and the U.K.
And, while the 210 firms below the $40 million mark have a higher ratio of women leading the organization, the percentage still sits well below the 50 percent range.
And it’s not just a public relations problem.
A September 2015 report Women in the Workplace, a study undertaken by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey revealed that women are less likely than men to advance due to a variety of reasons:
They experience an uneven playing field.
Their odds of advancement are lower at every level.
There is a persistent leadership gap in the most senior roles.
Gender diversity is not widely believed to be a priority.
Even though employee programs designed to help balance work and family are abundant, participation is low among both sexes due to concerns the programs will negatively affect their careers.
The reality of the glass ceiling for women is undeniable. As individuals, we break through it, creating cracks in the overall glass ceiling. I beat the glass ceiling with my faux business partner, but still deal with other gender inequality issues in other parts of my business life (speaking, for one).
Collectively, we have yet to have our Charlie in the Chocolate Factory moment with the glass ceiling being obliterated as we crash through it.