By the Numbers

Apologies for the delay in posting – I’ve been doing diversity training in Glenwood and working on other projects. But now, as promised – here are the numbers[1]:

• Women make up 26% of first-level managers, 37% of mid-level managers, 28% of senior-level managers, and only 9% of executive-managers (sometimes referred to as “falling off the cliff” or “falling off the management ladder”)
• More than 70% of the top 1,500 U.S. firms have no women on the senior leadership team (Dezso & Ross, 2008)
• Among executives, 50% more men than women are [identified as] high-potentials
• “Even when women make up the majority of leaders in an industry, they are still vastly underrepresented at the top. Male executives outnumbered females by 2 to 1.”
• Women in the U.S. make roughly 81 cents for every dollar earned by a man for the same work.
  

Whether you are talking about pay or title, these numbers send a clear message that work performed by women, even when it’s the same work as performed by men is not valued as much as that done by men.

So even though women are graduating from high schools and colleges at a higher rate than men, and even though they constitute half of the workforce, they and the work they perform are still being undervalued.

And what happens when a company continues to devalue members of its workforce? They leave. They either go to a company that does value them, or start their own companies. Women have been the leaders in start-up businesses for quite some time now. [2] For employers this means lost talent (both in terms of the woman leaving, as well as future “stars” when the employer develops a reputation for not promoting women), lost dollars (in terms of turn-over costs) and lost opportunities.

Are women valued at your place of employment? And don’t just automatically say yes – dig deep, and get the real answer.

[1] Howard, Ph.D., Ann, and Richard S. Well. Holding Women Back: Troubling Discoveries - and Best Practices for Helping Female Leaders Succeed. Rep. DDI's Global Leadership Forecast 2008/2009, 2008/2009. Print, citing Desvaux, G., Devillard-Hoellinger, S., & Meaney, C. (2008). A Business Case for women. The McKinsey Quarterly, (4), 26-33[3]Ibarra, Herminia, and Obodaru Otilia. "Women and the Vision Thing." Harvard Business Review (2009): 62-70. Print.
[2] According to the Center for Women’s Business research, the number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. grew at twice the rate of all firms between 1997 and 2002.