Square pegs in round holes? -The gender equation @ work

The woman, they say, has come a long way. She is no longer a nameless consort in the harem, a witch hanged in the Middle Ages or a house wife who could not vote because the world after all is a gentleman’s game. The question is ‘Have we done enough?

Why take the 'gender' factor seriously when the world is rife with major divisions and classes of discrimination ? I am yet to read a story of infanticide triggered by the infant’s caste, creed or religion. Gender is the quintessential factor that determines an infant’s right to live in most villages in India. It is still the determining factor while choosing an educational path and more times than not, the freedom of 'choice' itself. Financial freedom could help. But that is a tricky road too. Women contribute to more than 50% of the graduates passing out of major Universities but the figures in the corporate world in terms of women leadership is nothing to be proud of.

Women in the workforce come from different backgrounds, some hammered with the 'women as a ‘helper’, not the ‘leader’' ideology and identifying with the success of other women is important for most of them. An interesting study states that 64% of women in US see the absence of women role models as a barrier and 77% of women believe that their career development faces barriers. Ironically, some women who find success have a propensity to promote men than women and many women leaders succeed because of male mentors.  So this is not really about women fighting for women but rather about men and women who choose to change the rules to build an egalitarian work space. Does it bear results? Yes!

1. Women Matter

A McKinsey study of 101 companies showed that those with three or more women in senior management scored higher, on average, for each organisational criterion than companies with no women at the top.

Corporate performance increased ‘significantly’ upon attaining critical mass (at least three women on management committees with an averagemembership of ten people).

Another McKinsey study of 89 listed European companies showed that there is likely to be a correlation between the number of women inleadership and good financial performance:

11.4% return on equity compared with an average of 10.3%

EBIT operating result of 11.1% against an average of 5.8%

Stock price growth of 64% against the average of 47% over the period 2005–2007

2. Women Matter 2

A later McKinsey study, known as Women Matter 2,produced in 2008, established five leadership behaviours where women performed better than men:

Participative decision making: Building a team atmosphere in which everyone is encouraged to participate in decision making.

Role model: Being a role model, focusing on building respect and considering the ethical consequences of decisions.

Inspiration: Presenting a compelling vision of the future and inspiring optimism about its implementation.

Expectations and rewards: Defining expectations and responsibilities clearly and rewarding achievement of targets.

People development: Spending time teaching, mentoring, and listening to individual needs and concerns.

Men performed better than women in the areas 'Individualistic decision making' and 'Control and corrective action' and both men and women performed equally on 'Intellectual stimulation' and 'Efficient Communication'. We cannot say that women make better leaders than men just as we cannot say that men are better leaders. Men are good at 'being men' as women are good at 'being women'. Men and women are different with different standards. We need both so that the company could imbibe diverse standards to build a better corporate model. We need both to reinforce the collective strengths and mitigate the collective weaknesses unique to the respective genders.

You can download the Mickensay reports on women from 2007 to 2010 here

The success of the women workforce is also about the success of the company at large. If the Industry workforce is still predominantly men, women would have to play by those rules. It’s like trying to fit square pegs in round holes. How can a company succeed if the women cannot? How can the women succeed if they are not represented enough? How can they represent if they are not hired?

The butterfly effect demonstrates how small changes in the initial stage can cause major changes in the outcome, for example, the presence or absence of a butterfly flapping its wings could lead to creation or absence of a hurricane. Every small step that we take in the direction of an inclusive work place will change the rules and the world as we know it will change with that too.