Breaking Through the Global Glass Ceiling

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Breaking Through the Global Glass Ceiling

• Audrey J. Murrell, Ph.D.
• University of Pittsburgh
• Katz School of Business
• amurrell_at_katz.pitt.edu

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Sources Data

• Leaders in a Global Economy Study
• Catalyst, Inc. (www.catalystwomen.org)
• World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org)
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• U.S. Glass Ceiling Commission
• Council of Economic Advisers
• Families Work Institute (www.familiesandwork.org
  )
• Heidrick Struggles International Inc.
• Murrell Jones, 2000 Murrell, Olson Frieze,
  1999 Murrell, 2007.

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Todays Focus 3 Key Questions

• Is there a global glass ceiling for women?
• What prevents women from breaking through this
  global glass ceiling?
• How can organizations help women to break
  through this global glass ceiling?

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Is there a global glass ceiling?

• Women hold 11.1 of board seats in Fortune 500
  firms.
• 86 of Fortune 500 companies have at least one or
  more women directors 14 that have no women on
  their boards.
• 11.2 of corporate officers are women.
• 6 of corporate officers holding line jobs are
  women, while 94 are men.
• Savings institutions are the industry with the
  most women at the top32 of corporate officers
  are women. Other top industries include
  diversified financials (30), publishing/printing
  (26), and transportation equipment (24).
• 2 industry groups have no women corporate
  officers trucking and textiles others with low
  representation include electronics,
  semiconductors (2), waste management (3).

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Women as Global CEOs
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Women as Managers
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A Look at the Numbers

• Women make up 2.7 of top earners the 5 most
  highly paid officers at Fortune 500 companies,
  compared to men who make up 97.3 of top earners.
• Although women are moving up, men still dominate
  the earnings race. Almost 95 or 2,141 of the top
  earning corporate officers are men, compared to
  only 188 or 5.2 of women top earners in the
  Fortune 500.
• Women holding clout titles including, but not
  limited to chairman, chief executive officer,
  vice chairman, president, chief operating
  officer, senior executive vice president, and
  executive vice president increased from 7.3 in
  2000 to 9.9 in 2002.
• Few women hold top financial jobs in major U.S.
  corporations, even though women earn more
  undergraduate business degrees than men. Just 7
  of Fortune 500 companies have female CFOs.

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Women as Top Earners
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What prevents women from breaking through?

• Lack of agreement on the issue
• Global gender disparities
• Persistent gender discrimination
• Issues of work-family balance
• Stereotypes of women as leaders

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Different Views on Glass Ceiling
Data taken from Catalyst, Inc.
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Different Views on Glass Ceiling

• Men and women have different views on whether
  women face a "glass ceiling" in financial
  professions, according to a survey of financial
  executives by CFO magazine.
• In the CFO survey, 40 of women said they
  perceive limits to how far women can rise only
  10 of men believe women face a glass ceiling.
• Two-thirds of women, 66, said women face one or
  more obstacles to success in finance, such as a
  lack of operational experience or an inability to
  negotiate effectively. But only 38 of men said
  women face such difficulties.
• Five times as many women as men said female
  executives have more trouble gaining the respect
  and trust of the CEO.

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Global Gender Disparities
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Persistent Gender Discrimination

• In seven of the ten industries, the earnings gap
  between full-time women and men managers actually
  widened between 1995 and 2000.
• The only one of the industries studied where
  women account for a greater number of managers
  than men is one in which management jobs have
  relatively lower status professional medical
  services.
• Women in high tech make 22 percent less than men.
  When controlling for educational attainment, age
  and race the pay gap diminishes only to 17
  percent.
• Time-use data consistently show that women work
  longer hours (paid plus unpaid) than men work
  while earning less (adjusted for tenure or work
  experience).

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Work-Family Balance

• Results from Leaders in a Global Economy study
• 74 of women have a spouse/partner working
  full-time while 75 of men have a spouse/partner
  who is not working.
• Among executives within the Asia-Pacific region,
  44 of women and 100 of men have a
  spouse/partner.
• 35 of women versus 12 of men delayed having
  children 12 of women versus 1 of men decided
  not to have children 90 of male executives
  report having children versus 65 of women
  executives.
• 57 of executive women report taking more
  responsibility than spouse/partner versus only 1
  of executive men for family or childcare duties.

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Stereotypes of Women Leaders

• When I finally reached the top, after striving
  my entire career to be judged by results and
  accomplishments, the coverage of my gender, my
  appearance and the perception of my personality
  would vastly outweigh
• anything else.
• From Carly Fiorina, Tough Choices
• Former CEO, HP

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How can organizations helpwomen to break
through?

• Survey of global executives (both men and women)
  suggest 3 key action steps
• Improve career development and performance
  management systems
• Create an inclusive work environment
• Address work-life/family needs

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Improve Career Development

• 83 of global executives (both men and women)
  report that opportunities for leadership
  positions and 80 report that challenging
  assignments were key to their careers success.
• Both men and women executives report that a key
  barrier to their success is lack of quality
  support from the company.
• 77 of US companies using formal mentoring report
  improved employee retention and performance.
• 60 of college and graduate students said
  mentoring is a factor they will consider in
  selecting a job after graduation.
• Executives who have mentors are more likely to be
  promoted, earn more money, are more likely to
  have a career plan, are happier with their work,
  and are more likely to become mentors themselves
  than those without mentoring experiences.
• Professionals who had mentors earn between 5,600
  and 22,450 more annually than those without
  mentors.

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Create an Inclusive Workplace

• Expand acceptable leadership styles
• Educate workforce about diversity/inclusion
• Strengthen workplace policies and sanctions for
  gender discrimination
• Address needs of women in the pipeline
• Measure diversity as core leadership competence

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Address Work-Life/Family Needs

• Executives (both male and female) who are
  dual-centric feel more successful at work, are
  less stressed and have an easier time balancing
  demands of work and non-work/family issues,
  according to Leaders in a Global Economy study.
• Recent research finds that maintaining a dual
  focus does not detract from career success.
• Research by Murrell Jones found that firms
  recognized as family-friendly showed a
  significant positive increase in stock price.

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Summary - 3 Key Questions

• Is there a global glass ceiling for women?
• Gender disparities exist across level within the
  organization, industry section and in access,
  advancement and earnings.
• What prevents women from breaking through this
  global glass ceiling?
• Lack of agreement on the issue
• Global gender disparities
• Persistent gender discrimination
• Issues of work-family balance
• Stereotypes of women as leaders
• How can organizations help women to break
  through this global glass ceiling?
• Improve career development and performance
  management
• Create an inclusive work environment
• Address work-life/family needs