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Is the "Mommy Track" and gender equality in the workplace myth or reality? The pioneering women who have made it to the top, or near-top, of corporate America say they've traded sleep and personal lives for deadlines and around-the-clock crisis management. According to the first large-scale survey of senior female executives, women in high places believe the best explanation for their success is that they consistently exceeded performance expectations. The second most important success strategy of senior management women: developing a personal style less threatening to male managers. Many take up golf and learn to follow sports. Contrary to the preconception that career women give up marriage and children, nearly three-quarters of the women surveyed are married-- 75 percent are the primary breadwinners in their households. 64 percent have children. April 24, 1996
ON THE DAY BEFORE "DAUGHTERS TO WORK" DAY, THE ONLINE NEWSHOUR ASKS: HOW ARE WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE FARING?Although balance still eludes most career women, many identified domestic help and clear priorities as important to success. Several of the women surveyed report they rise each day at 4 am to do paperwork and spend some time with their husbands and children before heading to work. They often work late into the evening. Physical stamina appears to be a key to success.
Are the sacrifices worth it? What do you think? What lessons do the experiences of the first generation of female executives hold for their daughters and granddaughters?
Catalyst Senior Vice President of Research, Bickley Townsend,responds to your questions.
A question from Janet Butts of Stone Mountain, GA:How do they do it?
Do you know of any resources that give a little more in-depth anaylsis to the balance of working outside of the home and raising children. I'm a single parent and a Business Manager at a major university and I feel at the end of my rope on a constant basis.
Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.Bickley Townsend responds:
At Catalyst, we continually hear from women who find it difficult to balance working outside the home and raising children. A woman participating in a Catalyst research project described the situation this way: "...In order to be fast-track and succeed, you've got to work 60-70 hours a week. We've got to change it. The two-career household is the norm now and we're going to have too many good people [leave] purely because of the hours and the lack of balance between family and work... I'm to a point where... compensation is not what's going to drive me."
You may want to begin discussions with your employer about the kinds of programs found in organizations committed to helping employees attend to family responsibilities. Catalyst has some materials that can help:
- Making Work Flexible: Policy to Practice [This practical guide, published in 1996, focuses on helping organizations and managers implement and manage flexible work arrangements in corporations and professional firms.]
- Child Care in Corporate America: Quality Indicators and Model Programs [A detailed analysis of corporate-sponsored care, issues pertaining to quality, plus a discussion with experts and six model programs. Shows how companies with child care initiatives achieve decreased absenteeism, lower stress levels, and increased productivity, recruitment, and retention.
Here are some books that might help you:
- Hoffnung, M. (1992). "What's a Mother to Do? Conversations on Work & Family" Pasadena, CA: Trilogy Books. Hoffnung, a professor of psychology, conducted in-depth interviews with 30 mothers of at least one preschool child. All were white, middle class women. The book includes portraits of 8 of these women describing the ways they responded to the expectations of them and the opportunities available to them.
- Laqueur, M. & Dickinson, D. (1994). "Breaking Out of 9 to 5: How to Redesign Your Job to Fit You" Princeton, NJ: Peterson's. This is a "how-to" book directed at individuals who want to redesign their schedules. The authors describe permanent part-time, job-sharing, compressed workweeks, flextime, telecommuting, and other types of flexible work arrangements. They offer advice on how to negotiate an alternative arrangement, how to redesign your job and how to maintain your career focus.
- Weisberg, A.C. & Buckley, C.A. (1994). "Everything a Working Mother Needs to Know About Pregnancy Rights, Maternity Leave, and Making her Career Work for Her" New York: Doubleday. This book is directed at individual women who plan to combine a career and children and provides very specific information about legal rights, state laws and options within companies. It covers maternity leave, child care options and flexible work arrangements. It also discusses advocating for change in the workplace.
Good luck!
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A question from Shirley Bumbalough of Fort Worth, TX:
Gender equality in the workplace is the biggest myth that women have ever bought into. You cannot have it all and must sacrifice something to gain other things. Unfortunately, children seem to be the sacrifice in today's families. It is harder than ever in today's world to instill the proper values in children when 'Mommy' has to be super woman at home and in the workplace. Where is self-respect when women have to 'play the game' in order to get ahead in the business world?
Bickley Townsend responds:
You raise the important issue of children's well-being in today's economy. This is indeed a major issue -- but one that must be addressed by our society, not by women going back home to a 1950s existence. Women today are not working to "have it all" -- like men, they are working to put bread on their tables. Most families today need two incomes to lead a middle-class life; our economy no longer pays a "family wage" that allows a single breadwinner to support a stay-at-home spouse and several children.
Yet our social institutions are still designed for the workforce of yesterday -- with, for example, school schedules that totally fail to mesh with work schedules.
Where is "daddy" in your picture? Ideally, children's well-being depends on having two loving, involved parents. Men need the flexibility to be good fathers, just as women do to be good mothers. Neither women nor men should have to be "superpeople" in order to have a satisfying work life and a fulfilling family life!
And finally, where would self-respect be if women with talent and training were prevented from contributing their work skills to the needs of society?
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A question from Michael Kaplan of Aiken, SC:
What traits or characteristics did you find to be helpful in rising to and staying at the top? Which traits appeared to be the most essential in making it to the top?
Bickley Townsend responds:
The women we surveyed strongly believed that superior performance was critical to their success. When asked to rate 13 possible strategies women might use to advance to senior management, 99% of respondents indicated that consistently exceeding performance expectations was critical or fairly important to their success. Women interviewed conveyed that they must work harder to prove themselves to their peers and superiors at work.
The second most important career strategy of these women was having a style with which male managers are comfortable. Many women had to adapt to a predominantly male work environment in order not only to survive, but to succeed. With the influx of women into the work place, younger women may be less willing to adapt and there may be less need for women to adapt as the work environment changes to become more inclusive of "female" and "male" values alike. However, for these pioneering women, adaptation was key.
Lastly, the majority of respondents (94%) reported having sought out difficult or high visibility assignments as a successful career strategy. This suggests that these women had to take the initiative and assert themselves in order to get the developmental assignments that would lead to more responsibility and eventually senior leadership positions.
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A question from Danielle Allen of Cambridge, UK:
How do American women fare when compared with women in other western countries? Are women in other countries less frantic about having it all, and more receptive to traditional roles? Holland is almost bankrupt and will soon have to curtail social services such as child care. How will this effect women in the workplace in a country where superior childcare and flexible hour policies made up for a greater wage disparity between men and women?
Bickley Townsend responds:
A recent cross-national study finds that because of strong governmental supports, most European employees are better able than American workers to balance work and family needs. (See The Family Friendly Employer: Examples from Europe, a 1992 collaboration between the Daycare Trust in the UK and the Families and Work Institute in New York.) It would be unfortunate if, as you suggest, economic pressures to curtail social services such as child care were to dismantle those family supports, which have inspired many of us in the U.S. who are concerned with work/family issues.
Although Catalyst is moving into the global arena, our research to date has focused primarily on women in North America. Catalyst's limited experience with European employers suggests that while many have adopted family-friendly policies, they are behind the U.S. in fostering women's leadership development. This is not necessarily because European women are "more receptive to traditional roles;" it could be that European men are less receptive to women occupying non-traditional ones, including business leadership roles.
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A question from Dave Geston of Kansas City, MS:
Is there a demographical difference in opportunities for women? Is it harder to be a working woman in a small town?
Bickley Townsend responds:
Women may bump up against the glass ceiling sooner in a small town if only because advancement opportunities generally are more limited. There is also anecdotal evidence in Catalyst's research that, because of the "rumor mill," it may be more difficult for women in small towns to establish mentoring relationships with male managers who could provide career guidance and assistance. On the other hand, lots of major manufacturing companies have important production facilities, plants, mills etc. in out-of-the-way locations -- so small towns can offer real opportunity.
One key is to be flexible and willing to relocate, which can be a problem for women but is more often assumed to be a problem than is the case in reality. Catalyst advises employers, when considering women for an assignment requiring relocation: "Ask, don't assume women won't move!"
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A question from Jessica Rosen of New York, NY:
How has the corporate culture changed with the influx of women?
Bickley Townsend responds:
Corporate cultures that were designed by and for another gender are very much in transition as they adapt to the "feminization" of the workforce. Some of the changes Catalyst has documented in our research include creating more inclusive business entertainment and offsite meeting locales (besides the golf course, the hunting club and the strip joint, for example); developing more objective hiring and promotion practices (such as team interviewing by a diverse group of managers); and, of course, launching family-friendly policies including flexible work arrangements and parental leaves.
Catalyst finds that many of these changes benefit all employees -- not just women. Not all men hunt or play golf -- some would prefer a night at a Broadway show, just as many women would! And with dual-earner couples as the majority of today's work force, many fathers need the flexibility to spend time with their children -- just as many mothers do.
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A question from Julie Rosen of Palo Alto, CA:
You list an interesting fact that 54 percent of the top 100 companies by revenue have multiple female directors, versus one-third of the fortune 500 overall... Why do you think that is? Are the women at the top younger and better educated? What is the break-up in terms of age?
Bickley Townsend responds:
While we can't say for sure, it seems logical that those companies whose boards of directors reflect the greatest diversity are those that are more open to new ideas and new voices, more attuned to the changing marketplace, and therefore more apt to be successful as indicated by their revenues.
Women in senior management, according to Catalyst's recent study, are most apt to be leading-edge baby boomers, with an average age of 45. They are definitely much better educated than the average woman (or the average man, for that matter): Almost two-thirds have advanced degrees, with an M.B.A. being the most common.
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