Reality Check: What's Wrong With This Picture?

The recently published Shriver Report lays out an argument that the workplace must catch up to the realities of today's workers and their families. So what's reality?

We are a nation of decision-making women -- the report notes that women make 80% of consumer buying decisions. Yet we still don't call the shots at work. As women approach 50% of the workforce, we languish at 15% of corporate boards, 16% of C-Suites, and 3% of CEOs. Women have long been 50% of mid-level managers and professionals, but they continue to lag in leadership and in compensation.

Catalyst's Bottom Line (my company) research shows that companies with more women in leadership and on boards, on average, financially outperform those with fewer. Three or more on the board, and results shoot up even more. Yet, Catalyst's recent study of the impact of the current recession reveals that MBA women in senior leadership positions were three times more likely to lose their jobs as compared to men.

As our workplaces become more female, our business leadership becomes more male. What's wrong with this picture? This is bad news for women, for companies that need their leadership, families who need their paychecks, and our economy which needs their stimulus.

When workplaces change, lives change. But workplaces won't change until women attain parity in leadership. Until then, they and their families will remain marginalized, and the economy will underperform.

 

 

Comments

[TheSheEO]

What's wrong with this picture is that the people who currently hold the power don't see what's wrong with this picture...

Machiavelli said that those with the power will never voluntarily give it up... That's why it's going to take quotas for gender diversity on boards and in leadership to see a significant shift in the number of women leaders, if we are to see gender equity in leadership (in my lifetime at least).

[itolduso]

Women are the ultimate 'enablers'...we'll climb all the way to the glass ceiling & stay. When an ambitious male hits a ceiling, he'll leave...find a taller building or build his own. But women are loyal - even to those that don't deserve it. More women need to understand their own value & start gambling on it ....if a company doesn't want to promote you higher....find out how they feel about competing with you. Then we'll start seeing more women at the top.