ILM research: what's hindering equality in senior management?
Despite the strong business case for gender diversity at any level, only 12% of FTSE 100 board members are female. The Institute of Leadership and Management spoke with 3000 mangers to explore what is barring women's progress in senior management and leadership roles - read on for a summary of the results or read their report in full on their website.
73% of women believe barriers exist preventing them from progressing to top management positions. In addition to maternity and childcare, ILM found there are often some lesser known obstacles.
A key problem is lower self belief and confidence, with the higher expectations and confidence of male managers leading them to take up management roles on average three years earlier than women. Similarly, ambition was a factor, with the lower sights of women perhaps being why their career progression was limited to a more junior management role, with more men expecting to reach a general manager or director level by the end of their careers.
Alongside this only 50% of women were found to have high or quite high self-confidence (70% of men) and 50% also said they suffered from self-doubt (31% of men). Lack of self-confidence and ambition can throttle chances of advancing to senior management levels from the offset, with this also evident in the crucial and highly competitive area of job applications; 14% of women would apply for a role where they met only part of the job description, in contrast to 20% of men.
A further problem is women's less clear career paths with 52% of male managers having a 'fair idea' or 'clear ambition' to work in a certain role, compared to only 45% of female managers. Furthermore a difference was found between ambition and expectations, with only 50% of women surveyed expecting to become managers, compared with 62% of men.
Women were also found more likely to slow their career progress with 42% having taken statutory maternity leave (9% of men had taken paternity) and 21% having left work for childcare (2% of men). The role of childcare was enforced when the male and female managers with children were compared; 41% of women surveyed were childless, but only 28% of men.
Perhaps surprisingly in light of the many differences between men and women managers, there was found to be no difference in job satisfaction. Women were found to aim lower and settle for less than male counterparts with similar skills and experience.
Next, ILM addressed whether legislation could be the route for a fairer balance of male and women managers on boards. 47% of women managers support quotas for this, compared to only 24% of men. Some form of 'positive action' was supported by 62% of women and a higher 42% of men.
How to readdress the balance?
Finally, ILM concluded that its findings showed leadership failure, something that introducing any government quotas would only be a further sign of. They suggested that organisations should take the lead by setting their own targets for female representation at board level. Similarly senior leaders should be accountable for their organisation's talent recruitment, making it a "commercial priority to proactively identify, develop and promote high potential leaders of both sexes".
Another recent report from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) also echoed this perspective, suggesting companies set targets for female representation at board level based on the proportion of female employees.
Although research found training and development were equally accessible to men and women, ILM suggest that employers need to ensure investment is effective by tailoring development to the different needs of male and female managers. For ILM coaching and mentoring were particularly effective ways to help women realise their potential, dealing with their issues of confidence or lower ambition.
Flexible working, job and career sharing and work-life balance policies were put forward as important ways to stop women opting out of leadership careers, although when readdressing the male / female balance at board level talent management may play a more key role. ILM suggested that recruitment consultants needed to responsible for widening the net and identifying a balance of candidates of both sexes. The report also claimed that talent and potential should be focused on over experience, in order to even the playing field between men and women.
A recent article from Asda's people operations and policy director Sarah Dickins also echoes these suggestions, claiming that to achieve equality the focus should be on business culture, coaching, mentoring and talent management - before statistics.
Let us know what you think - if you have a different perspective get in touch and perhaps we could include it in our blog.
