Please see updated article.

Please see our updated post.

Honest, There Are Lots Of Men Who Want To Help Us!
 
 
 
Many men would be sympathetic to the working woman’s plight, if only they knew 2 things:

1. How bad is the situation?
2. What in the world can I do to help?

 
 
How bad is the situation?

Give ‘em the numbers—guys like numbers! Today, women make up almost half our workforce in the U.S., 46.5% to be exact—and we should be exact. Women are doing as well as men in mid-level management—that’s fair. But when you get above mid-management, things deteriorate rapidly. In the top 2 tiers of the Fortune 500, women fill only 16% of the positions. Now some conventional wisdom is still lurking around saying that women don’t want to be CEO’s. Well, research by Catalyst showed that one out of four women at the second-tier level did not want to be the CEO. Guess what? One out of four men at that level felt the same way.
 
The other bit of conventional wisdom that comes up is that women drop out of the race to the top because they want to raise families. Many women do take breaks in their careers to start families—that’s true. This usually occurs early in their careers, and slows up progress a bit, but doesn’t dampen aspirations for upper management. We have a man to thank for researching and discovering this fact:  Mike Cook. When Mike was the CEO of Deloitte & Touche, he couldn’t understand why women were leaving in great numbers before reaching senior management. He asked the men and they said the women were leaving for “personal reasons,” which sounded like “family reasons.” Fortunately, Mike wanted to be thorough in his research. Although women were saying “personal reasons” when they left, when he contacted them later, most of them told him they had already started families before that time, so that wasn’t the problem. The problem was they were not being promoted as quickly as the men, and they didn’t see enough women above them to be encouraged that this would change. Conventional wisdom was proven wrong. Mike Cook got involved. He required all of his managers to take gender awareness training so they would recognize when they were holding back promotions for gender-related reasons. Are you saying: What?? Good, that’s where the next part comes in.
 
What in the world can I do to help?
 
I have to give you my disclaimer first: Not all women are alike and not all men are alike. But this is what generally happens when you ask a man if he can do a new job that’s one step up: “You bet I can do it!”  Now, he’s worried as much as a woman at this level would be, but he’s careful to not show it. The woman will most likely tell you her worries about the 5% of the job that’s new. Then she’ll say she can figure out how to find the answers and that she can do the job. Mike Cook found that the die was cast by this point. His managers were deciding, one at a time, that the woman was “not quite ready to be promoted.”  When you add this to the subtle expectation that men are doing better in the company—when you look at the upper ranks—you have the formula for a losing battle for women.
 
So, a man can help us when he’s conducting a promotion review by looking at the woman’s production record before talking with her. Then, if she seems less confident than a man, remember that women often verbalize their worries. I’m doing my part by continually telling women to keep minor worries unverbalized—if you know you can find the answers.
 
That problem had to do with talking. The next problem has to do with not talking! When women are in meetings with men, some of them keep their suggestions, contradictions, and challenges to themselves. Amazing, isn’t it? If you’re running a meeting you can help our plight by asking a silent woman, “What are your thoughts on this?” You’ll be getting more out of women, and women will be happy about it. And don’t you think a company is better off if it looks at a full range of possibilities before making decisions? Yup, it’s good for business!
 
Men, you can help us! We want you to!
 
 
Here’s the tip of the week.
 
Tip:
 
Think of all the men you know who might be sympathetic to the working woman’s plight, if only they knew the answers to these questions:

1. How bad is the situation?
2. What in the world can I do to help?

 
Then plan a coffee break with the men—one at a time. Tell each man what he needs to know. Tell him you’ll appreciate his help. Now, get out there and talk to the guys!
 
 
Further Reading:
 
Podcast (always less than 10 minutes), Working in Heels, by Nancy Clark, Gender Communication: Nature Or Nurture?  —Why Do We Have Mars-Venus Communication, And Why Is Mars More Powerful?
 
Website, Harvard Business School, Winning the Talent War for Women, by Douglas McCracken (about Mike Cook and Deloitte & Touche)
 
Blog, Women’s Lunch Talk, by Nancy Clark, Gender Communication: Nature Or Nurture? —Why Do We Have Mars-Venus Communication? And Why Is Mars More Powerful?
 
Website, WomensMedia, by Bonita Banducci,  Equality and Equity— Equal and Different

 
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Tags: gender, differences, business, women