Employers need to challenge the status quo and revamp out-moded working patterns if they are to give women as much chance as men of getting to the top, according to experts.
A report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission entitled ‘Sex & Power 2011’ earlier this week revealed that, at current rates of progress, it will take about 70 years for there to be equal numbers of male and female directors in FTSE 100 companies or MPs in Parliament.
The problem was that the move towards equality has not just been “tortuously slow”, but also “regularly stalls or even reverses” in some sectors, the study said.
As a result, more than 5,400 women were “missing” from the UK’s 26,000 most powerful positions in both public and private sector organisations, even though more females than males were now graduating from university and they achieved better degree and A Level results.
While females were on a level pegging with male counterparts in career terms in their 20s, the picture was different a few years later. Many had either disappeared from the paid workforce or remained trapped in the ‘marzipan layer’ below senior management, leaving men to dominate the senior ranks.
Maxine Benson, co-founder of everywoman, a membership network for women in business, called for employers to “challenge the status quo and re-examine the traditional business set-up to show there are other ways of working that mean women can play a bigger role within this country’s economic community”.
But she also pointed out that women also needed to change their mind sets. “For women, the attitude that really counts in achieving their goals is their own. It is vital that they invest in their careers, by building networks and promoting their achievements. Women must be ambitious for themselves and for their sex,” Benson added.
Chris Parke, chief executive of Talking Talent, which provides coaching services for women, agreed that organisational cultures need to change if females are to get a fair crack of the management whip.
“Women tend to have families in their late 20s and 30s and this is a time when many organisations lose valuable female employees. It doesn’t have to be this way,” he said.
Studies showed that “inflexible organisations” and “out-dated working practices” where long hours were the norm were key barriers to female advancement.
“If the numbers of women in authority in the UK are going to change, it will be down to organisations managing and supporting women through pivotal career points such as maternity and by offering them greater work flexibility,” Parke said.
