Three Reasons Why Women Don’t Progress???

Well, if all the research and statistics are to be believed we women are a feeble bunch and hugely lacking in confidence! And that lack of confidence in our own abilities is a significant reason in our not applying for the top jobs!

Hmm, yes, confidence is an issue for many women in all areas of life, not least when it comes to grabbing those higher income and high status posts. That’s what the research tells us and that’s what we tell the researchers, apparently.

But I believe it cuts much deeper than that. I think we shy away (are kept away) from some of those top jobs because:

Three Reasons Women Are Not At The Top

1) We physically have children and society has still not organised itself in such a way that child care is valued (think how much child carers, usually women, get paid). It’s a rare organisation where women are not penalised in the career stakes if they reproduce. And that’s not to mention the other pressures coming to bear on women once they become mothers. I just did a quick mental trawl of the senior women I have worked with and I can think of only one who has children.

2) By and large the decisions as to who to promote are still made by men, de facto, as there aren’t many women in those top positions.There is a well researched bias that we tend to gravitate towards people like us. And appoint them…

3) The world of work has been designed by men and suits men well but it doesn’t really suit women. There is a strong gender bias operating. We are continually adapting, whether we realise it or not, and that leads to a feeling of dissonance, which in turn can erode our confidence in the workplace. Often we react by opting out (I know I did!) or setting up our own businesses. Maybe we are misinterpreting that feeling ‘at odds’ with the system as a lack of confidence in our own abilities?

Your Views

What do you think?

Are you in a senior position?

How did you get there and how does it feel?

Have you held back from applying for a senior post and why?

What would help redress the balance do you think?

Please do share your views! Agree/disagree/don’t know/new insights!. I really look forward to hearing from you!

Toast, Fridays, and Life

As I write this it’s a wet and windy day, a perfect day to have tea and toast, comfort food. And so I’ve just had some with a steaming pot of tea!

But as I was eating my toast I got a client call so put the toast down and went up to my office to consult my diary (am very low tech, pen and paper every time!).

Finishing the call, I got caught up with some emails and Tweeting but then I got that slight nagging feeling, of something forgotten, do you know what I mean? Something wasn’t quite right. I only had a mouthful or so of toast left but I knew I hadn’t properly finished it. My stomach kept nudging me saying, give us that last bit! So I went back downstairs, searched for it (how does toast get lost!) and complied with my stomach’s request. And I felt better. Not hugely better, I just knew I had finished it.

Friday Finish

Work can be like that. Sometimes we leave inconsequential bits of work unfinished, or get disturbed and don’t go back. It’s not normally earth shattering stuff. Its the smaller day to day things that get left out, like maybe you were on your way to thank someone when you got waylaid. Or you were going to send out an email as the phone rang and it got forgotten. But it niggles at the back of your mind, like a morsel left uneaten.

So, maybe today, before finishing up for the week end you can bring some of those little morsels to the fore, and finish your week sated and satisfied!

Do You Trust Yourself?

How many people in your life do you trust, really trust? How many people are there in whose opinions you have total confidence?

I hope you can count quite a few. Did you include yourself? Do you trust yourself and your own instincts? Do you have confidence in what you can do and the decisions you make?

Making a Decision

When you have to make a difficult or very significant decision you may have a particular friend whose judgement you value. Or maybe a family member or parent. You may perhaps even imagine advice from someone you don’t know, or someone like a parent, who is no longer living but still a valuable inspiration to you.

It’s good to get advice. But how often do you listen to you? Do you trust your own advice? Do you find yourself thinking sometimes you ought to be doing something?

If you listen very carefully to your inner self you’ll know whether you ‘ought‘ to or not. Don’t rush it, take your time, sleep on it and listen to yourself. Trust yourself to know what is best for you. Literally ask yourself the question and wait to hear the answer in your own head. Trust that you will do what is best for you, whatever anyone else is saying. You are the architect of your own life, in charge of your own development, so take hold of it and follow your instincts.

You may think that an odd thing for me to say, spending a lot of time as I do professionally helping women at various stages in their lives. It isn’t my role to tell women what to do, but to help them work out what it is they want to do! And then to have the confidence to really go for it!

Why Are Women Behind?

The U.K. Government say more women on boards or else…

But why do have we so few women on boards given that we’ve had the Equal Pay Act since 1970 and the Sex Discrimination Act since 1975 right up to The Equality Act 2010?

It’s fascinating on one level that with all the legislation to back us up, we women still regularly earn less than men and are still significantly under represented at senior management levels in so many otherwise forward thinking companies.

Does the fault lie within ourselves? Well, of course, we could all do more to put ourselves out there (and Gloria Feldt, author of ‘No Excuses’ would certainly argue that women are ambivalent about taking power). But I believe it’s more than that.

A recent report from the Institute of Leadership and Management surveyed over 3000 managers which revealed that three quarters of the women felt there was a glass ceiling. It discovered several factors holding women back:

• Women had less confidence and self belief than men e.g. 20% of men will apply for a role despite only partially meeting its job description, compared to 14% of women.
• Women had varied career paths and had to step off career ladder to have children.
• Women didn’t expect to get senior positions and had lower aspirations than their male counterparts.

Gender Equality Pays

This is potentially a serious issue for business as companies that have invested in developing its women employees have found it pays dividends, which seems to suggest that those which do not are losing potential profits.

In 2008, research from Professor Michel Ferrar of Ceram Business School on companies from the French CAC40 stock exchange index, showed that the more women there were in a company’s management, the less the share price fell in 2008, the crux year of the global financial crisis. The only large French company to record a share price gain in 2008 was Hermes – whose management was 55% women, the second largest share among French blue chips.

Many companies think they have done the right thing by setting up and supporting in house women’s groups but in fact these have often served to ghettoise the problem and probably have contributed in some measure to women and men seeing the issue of gender equality as a women’s problem. If it is to succeed it needs to be an initiative across the board (no pun intended).

Additionally, most organisations have been set up in a very male-centric way. Male ways of behaviour are rewarded and seen as desirable, often by both genders. If you have one gender constantly trying to fit themselves into a structure and system designed primarily by and for the other, it will cause problems. Women should not have to behave like men to get on. What women bring to the (board) table needs to be equally valued.

So What to Do?
Penny de Valk, the ILM’s chief executive says it is crucial that employers who are serious about gender diversity take steps to find ways of nurturing women’s ambitions.

“Coaching and mentoring, in particular, have an invaluable role to play. We know that gender diversity drives performance organisations’ financial performance. Business leaders should need no encouragement to ensure their most talented employees move into leadership roles, regardless of their gender”

Time to take control, women! Grab this moment with both hands; there may never be a better time to challenge your organisation about its policy on developing women. If women are seriously under represented in your organisation, time to start asking why, of them and yourself…

If you’d like to know more about my Women Ahead programme, specifically designed to boost women’s confidence to progress at work, click here.

If Women Ruled the World

If women ruled the world….

I ask this question on my Women Ahead course (designed to boost women’s confidence to move ahead at work) in order to illustrate how the world of work as we know it, could be different. It’s not about having a go at men but about thinking from a different perspective, expanding our horizons of what could be, and maybe understanding better why things are as they are.

Think about it for a minute. The world of work as we know it now evolved during the Industrial Revolution, when labour moved largely off the land into cities and a different type of employment. Men went to work and systems of working emerged dependent largely on the fact that there were women at home to literally keep the  home fires burning.

Women had little or no part in how work was organised.

Imagine though if we had. Allow yourself to imagine if the working world as we know it had been designed solely for women – all women. Imagine that men were at home, (apart from the poor ones who would be working very hard but for far less money than us) and imagine that actually most of the time it wasn’t even thought appropriate to educate them as, well, they were just going to marry successful working women and keep home. It would be a waste of investment. And as for getting the vote….what nonsense.

I have no doubt that different systems would have evolved. We might have a totally different working day, not 9-5 at all. We would certainly have  very sophisticated maternity and child care arrangements because we would have been very important people. Systems would have evolved to support us.  And they would be considered normal. School hours may have been designed differently. Just try and imagine. How many things would be different?

And I am also sure that as time went on and men began to get involved as society evolved they would find themselves at a disadvantage in the systems we had designed. But they would do their best because it was the way of the world and if they wanted to get on they would have to adapt. They would have to suppress some of their instinctive behaviour and behave like us, the dominant culture. We would have set the standards for behaviour in the world of work.

And as time went on, we women wouldn’t really have an incentive to change because actually it works quite well for us and anyway, some men can cope very well. Why look, there is that well known financier guy who is one of the 12.5% of men who has made it to the board in that company listed in the FTSE 100. So it’s fine, isn’t it? Obviously we’d like to see more men on boards but we can’t legislate for changing societal attitudes. We’ll ‘nudge’ them. We’ll encourage them, yes, that’ll do something.

Sometimes we need legislation to change society’s attitudes. If we hadn’t done that in the past, women wouldn’t be voting, children would still be working, and homosexuals would still be persecuted.

Me, Women, & Prisons

If you’re a regular reader of my blog you may have noticed that I’ve been quite doing a bit of reflection lately (here, for example). It’s always good to take a bit of time out now and again to think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it!

One of the issues I wanted to pay attention to was that part of what I do which is not about actually earning an income.Obviously I couldn’t stop doing that, nor did I want to – I genuinely love what I do, but I really wanted to take some time to pay attention to the other bit of my working life.

Women and Prisons

In a previous role I’ve worked with offenders and in prisons. At that time, being employed in a bureaucratic government organisation I was restricted in what I could do, although we did pioneer some very successful group working! Recently I found myself wondering if the techniques and methods I use now (and know work with women to help them make really meaningful life changes), would have helped those women to take more control of their lives. I was idly wondering how I might make this a reality this when out of the blue my old manager from the probation service got in touch with me again. He is still doing some work in a women’s prison. I blathered on about my ideas, he was encouraging and enthusiastic… and together we have put together a plan! Early signs are hopeful, and we have submitted an outline for consideration. The wheels grind slow…but I am optimistic!

Women and Charity

My second aspiration was to make a contribution somehow to women’s issues the world over.  (I know, a bit grandiose of me but…you’ve got to have a go.) I’ve been researching for a while, looking for an appropriate charity to promote through these web pages and have been speaking with Womankind (if you click on the link you’ll hear Sandi Toksvig telling you all about it). There will be more about them in a post on International Women’s Day, March 8th. As my charity of choice I will be giving 10% of all proceeds from this site (advertising, book sales etc) to the charity. (And if you ever feel like giving a bob or two I hope you’ll think of them and click the link in the blog roll!)

The Day Job

However, I am still doing the day job! I’m still coaching and delivering courses like my  Women Ahead to encourage women to break the  glass ceiling and work towards equity in the workplace! But taking that  a wee break has been wonderful, and it’s possibly been one of my most creative periods to date. While I was turning my focus outwards the creative juices have flowed like billyho and I have all sorts of plans forming. I have made room to do more of what I want to do and have revitalised myself. It’s been wonderful!

So, when you can, step away from your own day to day stuff from time to time, do a little checks and balances exercise on yourself. Plan it in your diary, or take advantage of unexpected down time. How ever your life is at the moment (and life is always troughs and peaks, isn’t it?) it will help you if you can pause for a while, take some (mental) time out, and see where it leads you. Sometimes you need to make space for good things to happen. You may get a surprise…