I recently was forced to stay at home because of the awful snow and a terrible cold that made me miserable and not at all nice to know. My mother decided to show me a favourite film of hers: 12 Angry Men. I am sure you all know it, but for those who don’t this classic 1957 film tells the story of an 18 year old man who has been charged with murder. The movie gives you an idea of the struggles juries face when convicting a prisoner to death. It was a harrowing film to watch, but I found it most unsettling as well to see the jury comprised 12 middle aged white men. Where were people from other ethnic backgrounds and where were the women?
In most developed nations the percentage of women in the labour market has increased dramatically since the 1950s. When 12 Angry Men was produced less than a third of the workers were female whereas today it stands at 47%.
Despite this change, men are still much more likely to hold a top position in a company than a woman.
In addition the ratio of female board members has lagged, with 14% of top positions in the largest companies listed on the DOW Jones index filled by women.The numbers also vary greatly from country to country. In Italy only 6% of board members are women whilst in France 22% are.
I am not usually a fan of government involvement in private industry but on this issue something needs to be done. Norway took the lead in 2003 when its legislature passed a law requiring that at least 40% of board members in public listed companies had to be women. They successfully met their target and now the figure stands at 44%.
A study by the British Government commissioned on this subject recommended that by 2015, 25% of all board members should be women. The Cranfield School of Management recently reported that 50% of companies have one women on their board, which sounds deeply underwhelming to me. The situation requires much more than just recommendations. Simply for pragmatic reasons business leaders need to take action.
70% of household purchasing decisions are made by women. This is not just children’s clothes, grocery and fashion shopping. Women also choose large items such as cars and holiday destinations. By my calculations, if 50% of employees in a company is female and women make the bulk of all buying decisions what possible rationale can there be for women being left out of the senior management, decision making process? Surely women know best what women want because they are the ones who are doing all the shopping! They are the ones making all the key decisions ! They know how half the population are thinking and feeling.
At Virgin for example, a company that pioneers the advancement of women in the senior positions of management, women are encouraged to rise to senior positions over time. At present the CEO of Virgin Money and Virgin Holidays are female and the person at the number two spot in Virgin Atlantic is a woman.
So how should women’s role change? Firstly, the way that career advancement in companies is managed should be looked at and revitalised and see what barriers women are encountering. Is there a great deal of male prejudice or sexist attitude in middle management? Are you limiting the progression of a woman in your company because you would feel emasculated if you were led by a woman?
Women encounter gender based stereotypes about what sort of job they can do which can sometimes exist in subtle ways and need to be challenged. It is common practise for men not to want young women in particularly sensitive positions because they will go off and get pregnant and there will be the inconvenient business of finding a short term replacement. Girls cry at inconvenient times. Girls are moody and you never know how to talk to them without getting your head bitten off. Instead of jokes, it would be much more constructive if help was given to women to introduce child friendly, flexible working conditions and both maternity and paternity leave should be more widely available to all workers, so that it is not women’s careers which inevitably suffer, even though the woman may have the greater earning potential and maybe even greater desire to work than the male in the partnership.
Fixing these injustices are really good for business. Several studies have shown that gender equality in senior management brings tangible benefits. A report commissioned by Credit Suisse Research Institute revealed that some firms dominated by men had recovered more slowly in the financial downturn than those with a more balanced male female ratio.
So take a good look at who is sitting around your boardroom table. If you see twelve angry men it is time to write a new script!!!
with love
Anonymous x
