What Women Have to Do

Sandrine Devillard is a Paris-based director at McKinsey and Company. She co-wrote "Women Matter," which assessed women’s role in the economic performance of corporations.

Numerous studies have demonstrated the positive impact on company performance of diversity in top management positions, and yet throughout the world, female participation in the boardroom and in the executive suite is very limited.

Women have trouble identifying with success, and need to promote themselves more assertively.

The problem is that persistent barriers prevent women from staying in the work force and achieving management positions. The main issue is that women remain at the center of family life, with all the attendant constraints (maternity, child care, organizing family life, care of the elderly). The impact of the constraints may vary from one country to another, depending on the support offered (services or tax policies to encourage women’s participation in the labor force), but on average European women continue to devote twice as much time as men to domestic tasks.

This "double burden" of work and family responsibility weigh heavily on women and is not always compatible with the performance model of "anytime, anywhere," or the constant availability and geographical mobility that corporations demand. The linear career path is also difficult for women because of maternity leave.

Barriers also exist within women themselves. Studies show that women need to be more comfortable promoting themselves and to be assertive about their performance, abilities and ambitions.

Our research at McKinsey highlights the difficulty women have in identifying with success, an attitude that appears to hamper their professional development. The absence of female role models is compounded by a heightened perception of the difficulty of achieving success in today’s business environment. "Opting out” -- a voluntary decision to discontinue one’s career -- is both the result of the barriers identified and an additional cause of the shortfall of women among corporate executives.

So how can we change this? Visible commitment by top executives and programs to develop women as leaders stands at the heart of any attempt at effective gender diversity. Of course, human resource policies and services are also critical to women's development.

But ultimately the means to removing the glass ceiling is in the hands of women themselves. Women will build their own way to the top mainly based on the supportive learning, coaching or mentoring initiatives that companies put in place. Achieving greater diversity is mostly about building a workplace where diverse talent can develop and grow without encountering specific barriers.


http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/07/05/how-can-we-get-men-to-do-more-at-home/gender-diversity-in-the-workplace-is-in-the-hands-of-women