Finding the balance with Alicia Anderson
Women in construction (of custom glass ceilings, that is)
In a seminar I led yesterday, an attendee made this comment concerning a promotion to senior leadership in her global management consulting firm: “I can do the job. I just don’t want it.”
I had two distinct reactions to this statement (especially since there are female MDs, JDs, MBAs, and PhDs all over this nation who would say the same thing):
- Good for you! You have the power to make your own career choices. Kudos for taking control and doing what is best for you.
- Employers, this is BAD. Your smart, talented, trained experts are opting out of promotions not because they aren’t ready, but because you aren’t.
How can I say this? What do I mean by ‘employers aren’t ready’? Should they do something in response to these estrogen fueled power plays?
Much progress has been made concerning women in higher education. We get the degrees, we take on the jobs, then we feel forced to choose. How can we possibly see our kids we carried for 9 months and work 80 hour weeks?
How else can you explain these statistics? Per the January 2009 Catalyst Quick Take, for the 2006-2007 academic year, women made up 46.9% of law school students, but 32.6% of all lawyers and just 17.3% of all partners. In 2006, women accounted for nearly 40% of business school students, made up 50.6% of managerial, professional and related positions but only slightly over 15% of Fortune 500 corporate director and board seats.
One of three things is happening:
- Smart women are disappearing from the work force (Alien abduction? Untimely demise? Off-ramping?)
- Women are not given consideration for top level positions
- Women are installing their own glass ceilings to protect their work-life balance
Based on the comments I heard yesterday from very smart and accomplished women, I’m believing more and more that #3 is a real issue for a lot of women.
So, are companies helpless? No way.
But, business as usual won’t cut it (the glass ceiling that is).
What are women really saying when they say ‘I don’t want it’? The ‘it’ they don’t want is a role that forces them to be absent, inattentive, unavailable, too exhausted, too stressed out, too overwhelmed to be mom or wife or friend or ME. The ‘it’ they don’t want is to sell their soul to the company. The glass ceiling is a protective boundary from ‘it’.
So, how do you employer, get around ‘it’?
Address women’s work-life balance issues. Period. End of story.
Oh, you wanted to know how? Tune in 2 more weeks (or if you just can’t stand it, write me and I’ll give you a sneak preview – alicia@attacheservices.com).
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