A case for more females up the corporate ladder (part 1)

By Patrick Mayoh

This will be a three articles about "why we need more women at the top". It is a case for female empowerment within the business world and especially how this can concretely take place within the business world today.

A research paper by MC Kinsey in 2007 indicates a correlation between financial performance and the presence of more women on corporate boards. In other words, those organizations that champion gender diversity, design and implement policies that make it more possible for female workers to occupy top positions within corporations will likely generate greater financial returns than those who do not.

In “coaching women to lead” by Averill Leimon, Francois Moscovici and Helen Goodier a book released just a few weeks ago, the authors argue that a more male-female balance could make companies 11% better off.

Although women account for a larger portion of university graduates in European Universities, they only make up 21% of the workforce of European companies. In addition women only make 11% of the number of board members of corporate boards of all European corporate listed companies.

Those two pieces of information and research are enough in themselves to make a case for new corporate ladder. One in which women will be able to compete with their male counterparts to grab top positions on corporate boards. With 15 female CEOS on the list of Fortune 500 companies, more could still be done in terms of helping women to have easier access to spots on the corporate boards.

The present situation

Firstly according to the study by MC Kinsey—which will be referred to a lot in this article—the present corporate ladder advocates extreme flexibility and availability. This in a nutshell means those that are likely to be promoted are usually ready to assume virtually all assignments and are able to demonstrate multi-tasking skills while being flexible in terms of work hours and job locations. A prospect that is highly disadvantageous to women who bear the largest share of the burden in terms of domestic duties and activities. Women continue to contribute twice the number of hours men contribute to domestic duties in certain countries like Italy. In France 96% of female graduates from Business School admit childcare and rearing is a major obstacle to career advancement while 62% of US female graduates complain that building a family and other personal duties are hurdles to overcome for promotion. Given those conditions alone, it is easier to understand why the corporate ladder as it is applied in most corporations today seems hostile to women’s progress to top positions on corporate boards.

Secondly and not the least the fact that they are just very few examples of females’ success stories up the corporate ladder convey the feeling especially to women that accessing top positions within their respective corporations is a far-fetched dream. With just 11% of female on corporate boards in European companies and just 15 female Ceos at the helm of fortune 500 companies. The image which easily comes across seems to indicate that women are unlikely to make it to the top or that doing so will usually requires more sacrifices or concessions than male counterparts. This might mean choosing to remain single or childless to name just a few.

Part II next week hopefully will look at some of the benefits attached to women empowerment within the corporate world and provide a roadmap for this to effectively happen.