Comments on: Reasons why more women are not on top

By: Piya Khanna

Piya Khanna — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 15:17:56 +0000

Saw this article which tackles this issue from a pay perspective!
https://sphinxx01.worldsecuresystems.com/_blog/The_SheEO_Blog/post/Why_women_are_likely_to_be_paid_less_than_men_-_Sheconomics_survey_findings/

By: Rita Hovakimian

Rita Hovakimian — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:24:21 +0000

Piya-
First of all I want to applaud you for being who you are and stating your perspectives so clearly and bluntly. Your message reminds us that we do have the power and freedom to fulfill our professional vision and goals and that we need to take responsibility and give up blaming any person or circumstance in the achievement of it.
In my work with executives and leaders who were desiring to move to the next level in their career, one of the things that I worked with them on was reframing many of the things you mentioned: 1) networking is relationship building and creating good will 2) acknowledging your accomplishments inspires others and increases confidence and self esteem 3) standing up for yourself and speaking your truth, seen as assertiveness, establishes one to value themselves. If the qualities you pointed out in your article can be seen as opportunities for growth and development in a context of a woman being more of who she is vs. what she is not, perhaps she can be enrolled in taking on these practices and developing these competencies. Thank you for this very thoughtful conversation.
I have heard many stories of VERY successful women say,
“If you say there is a glass ceiling, then there will be one”.

By: Piya Khanna

Piya Khanna — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 15:50:11 +0000

Wow – big big thoughts here Beverley! I actually think that things are much better now than ever before – 50 years ago we had far fewer choices so I am optimistic they will continue to improve
I also agree that issues like work-life balance are important – I categorize those as “systemic” issues though & also know enough blokes that have made choices based on those issues – i.e. wanting to spend more time with family and less hours at work and they have also compromised on the salary as a result.
My point is that for those women who want to stay in the corporate world and progress, the onus is on them to make it work for them given that the situation is as it is. It’s not “fair” but it’s how it is.

By: Beverley McMaster

Beverley McMaster — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:16:26 +0000

Hello….mmmm you got me thinking. You really want know what I think since you asked? I wonder whether it will ever happen. How depressing is that? I think that the issue is more complex than women not taking charge of their careers. There is a whole piece for me about work life balance. I am becoming more and more convinced that real change will happen only when the nature of work changes such that more of a level playing field is created. I am currently spending a lot of time recruiting and it is shocking how many women are walking through the door saying that they want to work for us because of a better work life balance. They are prepared to take significant pay cuts because they don’t want to be working all hours and making such big personal sacrifices that their current roles demand of them. I honestly feel that work life balance and therefore a more level playing field will only come when men start demanding it. It it is possible that this next generation coming through will make a difference here. The current younger generation look at the way our generation work and say nope, not for me – and who got their head screwed on here? (I am broad brush generalising I know!) So, the challenge is to be ready with the skill sets and with the political savvy for when the level playing field comes. Of course, there could be a whole other area to be explored about whether the nature of work has/is/will change such that it plays to the more collegial softer skills that women have – meaning that actually the change they need to make might not be that massive after all. I’ve got an even bigger one to explore which has impact for the balance of power in the work place – the historical relationship between men and women, where it all started, how it’s evolved and how that balance is still held in the collective unconscious. But not today