    |
||
      |
 |
The following article was published in the Charleston Post & Courier's Business Major, a featured monthly column in the Business Review Section on March 30, 1998. Women say glass ceiling shatterproofBy DOROTHY P. MOORE Special to the Post and Courier Women's careers can be affected by barriers that are not related to gender differences but rather to the differences that gender makes. Women represent more than 51 percent of the U.S. population and yet hold only a small portion of the top positions in business and government. While advances have been made in reducing organizational barriers for women, the process is slow and not nearly fast enough according to Catalyst, a NYC based nonprofit research and advisory organization. Each year, in March, Catalyst Awards honor innovative initiatives companies take to address women's recruitment, development, and advancement. Recent winners of the prestigious award, now in it's 23rd year, are: 1998, Procter & Gamble and Sara Lee Corporation; and 1997, The Allstate Corporation and Avon Mexico. Last week I met with Mary Mattis, Catalyst Vice President for Research and Advisory Services. She gave me a copy of the findings soon to be released in a joint report (Catalyst, the Committee of 200 and the National Foundation of Women Business Owners) "Paths to Entrepreneurship: New Directions for Women in Business." The intensive research study, based on a national sample of 650 women entrepreneurs and funded by Salomon Smith Barney, Inc., reports that 22 percent of female entrepreneurs who have been in business less than ten years left their corporate careers because they hit the glass ceiling. As Anne Sadovsky, CEO of Anne Sadovsky & Company, a Dallas based marketing consulting and seminar provider, summarized it in our study, "The only way through the glass ceiling is to go out on your own. There are relatively few women who have become CEOs, CFOs or CLOs in major corporations, compared with the number of us who have not been able to overcome the obstacles. The guys still run the major corporations in America today." What the forthcoming Catalyst et al., study tells us is that for most women the corporate ladder is never tall enough to reach the top. Frustrated at not having contributions recognized or being taken seriously, one in five--among them the best and brightest--opt out. Exactly why do they leave? We found an array of reasons. Some say the system of organizational politics and the lack of trust drain energy from productive work and create uncertainty about career advancement. Financial discrimination, meaning males frequently make thousands of dollars a year more than females in comparable jobs, is real. And the corporate message can be stunningly clear. "I sure didn't fit in," remembers a Northeastern entrepreneur, "I got an award one time in this business and it's a baseball bat engraved with my name to indicate that I was a heavy hitter and also four volumes of novels about baseball." Of the few women who make it to upper management, some found themselves confined to staff jobs in highly centralized line organizations with little access to power and little opportunity to make an impact. Faced with turf-guarding and male-bonded networks that practiced non-contact, non-communication, non-action, and withholding critical information, female executives have been leaving organizations in unprecedented numbers. Women interviewed in my study recalled colleagues who lacked interest in taking risks, sharing information, or getting on with the work. The corporate path twisted endlessly, but never led to a feeling of accomplishment and success. Hard work, corporate loyalty, high achievement, did not connect with rewards and advancement. The forthcoming Catalyst, Committee 200 and NFWBO (1998) report states that 51% of women business owners with prior corporate experience cite the desire for more flexibility as the reason they left. Twenty-nine percent cite "glass ceiling effects." No one should be surprised. Researchers continually observe that women tend to leave organizations that have limited leadership opportunities and where the lack of autonomy and office politics are pervasive. Women who want to command their work view the corporate environment as confining. Without personal empowerment and, in most cases, reporting they had to work harder than their male counterparts to reap the same rewards, they leave--permanently. According to the Catalyst et al. (1998) study, over 58% say "nothing would attract them back to their former corporate environment," about the same percentage we found in our 1997 study. The corporations are the big losers in this exodus of female talent. Smart organizations have begun to change to deal with a more diverse workforce and to recognize contributions as a personnel function rather than a gennder related issue. Companies changing their environments find rewards far greater than those given by Catalyst. These firms are keeping the talent they need to gain the competitive edge necessary to operate in the global marketplace. The organizations of the future will be those that recognize and treat all employees equitably. For Questions/Comments about this site, contact moored@citadel.edu. Site designed by Jackye Cocoros. |