for many managers in their late thirties/forties/fifties, the career path to management is haphazard/snakes and ladders, with the necessary skills being picked up along the way
nowadays, careers are and have to be better planned, with the emphasis on an open mind. This means focusing on acquiring skills through experience and training rather than aiming for a particular job level in one particular industry
Women managers identify four main reasons for late entry into managerial roles, or for slow progress in achieving their career goals:
Attitudes of organizations and managers (male and female)
Lack of career guidance/career goals
Family pressures and expectations
Personal limitations
Attitudes of organizations and managers
Not surprisingly, women have found it particularly hard to progress within traditionally male-dominated cultures and organizational structures. They talk of ‘men and their perceptions of who and what is needed and the way to do things’. One human resources specialist spoke of ‘a company culture which is particularly hierarchical, conservative and control-oriented. This has made life difficult for me, given that my career has been about valuing human resources as a strategic and developmental activity.’
Women may come up against male prejudices at work in all manner of guises. Organizations which operate graduate traineeships and management schemes for ‘high fliers’ often tend to favour male Oxbridge graduates. One woman who was employed by such a company realized that being female and coming from an ex-polytechnic was so abhorrent to one of the male managers that he consequently successfully obstructed her progress within the company.
During my research, I heard numerous examples whereby male managers had deliberately excluded women colleagues from management team meetings, or had discussed important issues away from formal meetings so that women were not involved. Such feelings of discomfort and threat or fear of the unknown are experienced by many men when they face working closely with women – possibly for the first time – and they may employ tactics such as using their stronger, louder voices to drown out female colleagues in an attempt to halt their contributions. It is not unusual for the credit of a woman’s work to be taken by her male boss or colleague, but it is becoming less acceptable to excuse such behaviour on the grounds of male feelings of jealousy or vulnerability, or because men are assumed to be following their instincts to dominate, protect and provide.
One woman’s experience was:
‘There were two male managers who were in competition with each other over my work and resources and over who wanted to use my achievements to advance themselves. They always managed to keep themselves promoted ahead of me so my work could keep pushing them forward.’
A chilling example of some male managers’ attitudes is given by a woman working in the NHS:
‘I was aware there were helpful females in my own organization, but I was actively prevented by male managers from gaining legitimate access to them.’
One common experience shared by women managers is the failure to secure a deserved promotion or a higher level job, knowing that, in spite of the official reasons given, it came down to the fact that they were not male. Specific examples of this emerged from an ambitious local government officer who felt strongly that she would have reached the position of Chief Executive by now if she were a man, and another manager who was told: ‘On the face of it you have everything the job needs, but, you see, it wouldn’t do to have a woman. We’re not ready for that yet’. That was in 1986.
In spite of legislation, these practices still exist, albeit covertly, because employees in less enlightened and open organizations are aware that they could be subjected to charges of sexual discrimination, harassment and so on.
One of this book’s case study interviewees, Carol, had always said that she had rarely come across discrimination, probably because she never expected it, but she does have one personal example which she relates: ‘When the children were younger, I employed a nanny and one day, when she was ill, I grabbed some work and told my boss I had to collect the children. I did the work at home, but when I went back into the office the next day he said, “This is a problem. How do I know that this isn’t going to happen again?” I said, “How dare you. You gave one of the men in the department a week off work because his wife had hurt her back. You were all sympathy for him. The person who was looking after the children was ill – it’s the same situation”. He then saw my point and no more was said.’
Another interviewee, Judy, qualified as a barrister in the late 1970s but found that, in addition to there being too many barristers on the market, there were problems in being a woman in the law. She did not fit in with the stereotype set by the men – nor did she want to. Most of all she disliked the lack of sensitivity towards clients – what she called the ‘legal equivalent of a bedside manner’. When she tried to change the attitudes of those she worked with, she was totally ignored and moved from the legal department of her organization into a management training role. In spite of her many successes, ‘I was starting to experience problems with a boss who was finding my innovative approach both disconcerting and a threat. He realized that women’s issues was a topical subject that he should address but, although I was the only woman in my team with relevant experience of these, I was never asked to contribute’.
At the top of organizations, the unwillingness to appoint women to the board is commonplace. The experience of one director who was not promoted to her board despite seven years on the Group Executive Committee is not unusual. Private sector organizations, in particular, are seen as traditionally conservative, with chairmen appointing fellow board members in their own image – same background, same sex, same education, same professional training, same age. This lack of diversity, however, is now becoming subject to scrutiny and criticism, especially following publications such as the Cadbury Committee report which recommends the widespread use of non-executive, or independent, directors on boards. Growing numbers of experienced, professional women are proving valuable additions to boards across a wide range of business activities.
Yet it is not just the male managers who prove obstructive. Those women who, in the past, felt they could progress within their organizations only by becoming ‘honorary men’ affected other women in two ways. First, as many of them adopted the ‘I reached this position through my own efforts. Why should I help you?’ attitude, they positively impeded their junior colleagues’ progress. Second, this approach deterred many other women from moving forward as it was not seen as an acceptable way of behaving. The role model presented by these power-dressing, aggressive female managers was not perceived as a positive one and other women did not, therefore, feel inclined to apply for more senior jobs.
I was interested to hear one fifty-year-old executive, who is the only woman at her level in the organization, say that she feels she has little in common with other, much younger, female managers and that there are none anywhere near her age or experience. Because of her position she naturally has more contact with her male peers on a day-to-day basis, but she feels she is missing out by not working with other women. One disadvantage of the recent fashion for ‘down-sizing’ and ‘right-sizing’ is that there are signs of a small, but significant, counter-trend where some women have been forced out of top-level posts and those who remain may well find themselves in a similar situation of becoming isolated and lonely. Other women say that in such cases it is the duty of the older female manager to act as a mentor or coach to others as a way of helping them through the organization, as well as keeping in touch with the issues that affect the younger women – such as, how to communicate their opinions and needs in a positive, assertive manner, while maintaining their womenliness; combining home and work; influencing the corporate culture so that men and women value what they each bring to the workplace.
Very