New research released today… This is not good news for women, this is also not good news for business.
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According to research released today from LeanIn.org and the firm McKinsey & Company, “it will take twenty-five years to reach gender parity at the senior-VP level and more than one hundred years in the C-suite.”
This is not good news for women, this is also not good news for business.
“Mixed-gender teams are more innovative (based on patent citations) than same-gender teams of either gender, and the conditions for high team performance are optimized at about 50% men and women,” said Ed Gurowitz, PhD and co-founder of the Gender Leadership Group… (Full Disclosure, I am also a co-founder of this leadership consulting company).
Among the key findings is that an astonishingly low percentage of employees believe this issue is a top priority for their CEO – or even their direct managers.
“Although 74 percent of companies report that gender diversity is a top CEO priority, less than half of employees believe that to be true.”
The research in this report is damning. We’ve heard reports like it before, but there are new insights raised here that suggest a way forward.
The report suggests three ways for companies to demonstrate that gender diversity is a priority:
- Companies need to invest time and money in gender diversity. Companies should find ways to take action, from investing heavily in initiatives that support women and inclusion more broadly to reviewing employee compensation and closing pay gaps.
- Executives can set the tone by participating in women’s events and publicly sponsoring high-potential women.
- Finally, setting gender targets—and holding leaders accountable for reaching them—is another way for companies to demonstrate their commitment and emphasize the importance of results. We see emerging evidence that companies that set gender targets for recruiting and advancement will realize better outcomes. Among the twenty-five companies that participated in the 2012 to 2015 studies, those with gender targets over the three-year period saw the most progress in female representation at entry levels, while those without formal targets lost ground.
You may be asking yourself the same question I was, “how do we get entrenched male leaders to jump into the fray if they perceive more women leaders as a loss of power for men?”
In a recent post about Gender Intelligent Men by Cari Guittard, Professor of Global Management, Corporate Diplomacy & Women’s Leadership, Hult International Business School, said:
“Gender Intelligence, or the lack thereof, along with the predominant hyper masculine leadership styles that permeate every aspect of modern society, may be one of the greatest leadership challenges facing humanity today. If half the population is unable to understand, fully appreciate, and embrace the other half we will all collectively lose out.”
If Gender Intelligence is imperative to sustained success, then how does a company go about improving their Gender IQ?
“Most men aren’t aware that the old model of masculinity is outdated and ineffective in today’s culture. How do you find freedom from outmoded and destructive patterns of behavior that keep you from achieving success?” said Ray Arata, author, speaker and co-founder of the Gender Leadership Group. “Leaders who build teams to include different views and perspectives can create an environment where employees bring their whole selves to work – fostering creativity, innovation and higher productivity.”
While the conversation around healthy masculinity blazes on, the research from this report suggests the key may lie in understanding gender bias and engaging conversation around these biases with men.
Dr. Gurowitz agrees. “The biggest barrier to inclusionary leadership is individual and organizational biases and blind spots,” said Gurowitz. “When men are engaged in such a way that they become aware of the blind spots of unconscious bias and inherited (white) male privilege, the overwhelming majority take on breaking down these blind spots and the barriers they engender. Given the unfortunate but real fact that men still control most of the levers of power in companies, inclusionary leadership is impossible without engaging men.”
While headline issues like parental leave and equal pay attract attention, there may be an underlying issue here, which the report suggests… maybe it’s time we rethink work altogether.
“Work is not working for lots of employees.” – LeanIn and McKinsey
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What do you think? Do you think we are on a path to gender diversity at work?
We, the Gender Leadership Group are speaking at the Global Women’s Leadership Summit in October, if you’d like to dive deeper with us into this topic.
Photo by Sam Churchill
Great article and we need much more open dialogue and education, and listening about gender equality, not only in the workplace, but in everyday life. My mom, speaking about racism, once said: “I don’t think I am prejudiced, but I am more comfortable around people like me.” My mom was a lovely angel, and perhaps her words reflect honestly on what many people really feel inside. I don’t know. It seems to be the way many men feel about women. Very few men will argue that when they are playing sports, or at a bar watching the game together, that… Read more »
Great article. I would add that more emphasis needs to be placed on the retention piece. I see lots of shining young, newly(ish) graduated women faces in my office and as the ranks climb higher (VPs, C Suite), the women disappear. It’s puzzling. Where do we go? Do we burn out because we’re required to have office “face time?” Is the balance too hard? Is the good-ole-boy culture still the dominant culture force? I think it’s a piece of all of those things. Kudos to this group, and to Ed Gurowitz specifically…Keep fighting the good fight. Best regards from one… Read more »
Interesting this appeared now. Had a conversation with a female staff this morning about this. Income inequality. I asked the female staff the percentage of females vs males in our facility, which BTW is a male residential treatment center. Most of the clinical staff is female. Do you know why we don’t have as many male staff? Because males will not accept the salaries and women will. And who is at fault? Time to put your big girl panties on and not settle. When I was in the corporate world and hiring upper level account execs, I had a “pay… Read more »
The problem I see in gender diversity is actually at the low to mid level employment in the medical practice where I work. I see this across healthcare. Women are often placed in administrative roles and “caretaker” assistance roles. All of my companies medical assistants are women and it has been a standard hiring practice to not interview the low level of men who apply. I’ve had more difficulty rising the ranks in my workplace as I often am thought to be inherently better at answering phones, multitasking, and organizing than higher level thinking. I’m asked more often to help… Read more »