Women Managing for the Millennium

PART ONE How did we get here?

WOMEN AT WORK: THE WAY IN, THE WAY UP AND THE WAY FORWARD

The career paths of a great many of today’s women managers often seem to have their beginnings rooted in a haphazard past. In the early 1960s, when I sat my A levels and wondered what I was going to do next, the career counsellors at my grammar school concluded that I was not university material and suggested I went to secretarial college. The choice was that or teacher training college or becoming a nurse. I believed the counsellors when they said I wasn’t clever enough to go to university, and having no idea of what the future might hold and feeling relieved to have got that far anyway, I went along with the idea of doing a one-year secretarial course in London.

For me the secretarial route proved to be an excellent way of moving into junior management and large numbers of my contemporaries (many of whom are now public figures) followed the same path. Today many parents actively dissuade their daughters from taking a secretarial course, primarily because they still perceive the role of secretary as the demeaning stereotype, or because they believe it has no prospects for a ‘proper’ job. Perhaps with more people learning keyboard skills within a job, good secretarial training – and the accompanying self-organization skills – are not seen to be as important in the workplace as they once were.

Another traditional way into management was via personnel and training and, until recently, many senior women in the private sector represented the human resources field. Some took the secretarial administration route, while others began as graduate trainees, choosing personnel as their preferred specialism. While personnel was somehow understood to be less ‘difficult’ than other areas of a company, and the ‘sharing and caring’ skills of personnel were always seen to be the preserve of women, it is now quite usual to find women managers in all other aspects of business, such as engineering, finance, law and marketing.

In the public sector, the health service has a markedly different male/female ratio among its managers from that of the private sector. This does not automatically mean that women have an easier time moving up the career structure, but it does indicate that they are probably more experienced at working with male colleagues who are, in turn, more used to working with women. ‘One of the reasons I have enjoyed working in the NHS is because I have always felt that equal recognition is given to good managers, regardless of their sex. There are excellent managers of both sexes in the NHS – it is very much up to the individuals to create their own opportunities.’

Many of the women managers I have met from the NHS, or local authorities, have spent the greater part of their working lives within the same organization, but have regularly changed jobs within it. They have gained invaluable experience from this, especially in learning how to keep an eye open for appropriate openings and in seizing any available opportunity for advancement and personal development.

As I mentioned in the introduction, there are increasing numbers of women who will no longer tolerate a strictly male management environment. But, having challenged the ‘jobs for the boys’ culture and moved up the corporate ladder, then many women, halfway through their careers, opt out.

Why do so many women having made it to middle management fail to take their careers and their management skills any further up the corporate ladder? The explanations for this include: lack of confidence and not pushing themselves forward; career breaks; the glass ceiling; not going on courses; being late developers (recognizing their abilities at a later stage than their male contemporaries); and being unwilling to play internal politics or ‘men’s games’.

The main points characterizing women’s current positions as managers, particularly those over 35, seem to be:

 career counselling, coaching and mentoring were not nearly as sophisticated in the early 1960s–70s as they are now

 the range of available jobs has broadened out immeasurably due to change in society’s attitudes generally, self-confidence and aspirations of individuals

 for many managers in their late thirties/forties/fifties, the career path to management is haphazard/snakes and ladders, with the necessary skills being picked up along the way

 nowadays, careers are and have to be better planned, with the emphasis on an open mind. This means focusing on acquiring skills through experience and training rather than aiming for a particular job level in one particular industry

MANAGEMENT BARRIERS

Women managers identify four main reasons for late entry into managerial roles, or for slow progress in achieving their career goals:

 Attitudes of organizations and managers (male and female)

 Lack of career guidance/career goals

 Family pressures and expectations

 Personal limitations

Attitudes of organizations and managers

Not surprisingly, women have found it particularly hard to progress within traditionally male-dominated cultures and organizational structures. They talk of ‘men and their perceptions of who and what is needed and the way to do things’. One human resources specialist spoke of ‘a company culture which is particularly hierarchical, conservative and control-oriented. This has made life difficult for me, given that my career has been about valuing human resources as a strategic and developmental activity.’

Women may come up against male prejudices at work in all manner of guises. Organizations which operate graduate traineeships and management schemes for ‘high fliers’ often tend to favour male Oxbridge graduates. One woman who was employed by such a company realized that being female and coming from an ex-polytechnic was so abhorrent to one of the male managers that he consequently successfully obstructed her progress within the company.

During my research, I heard numerous examples whereby male managers had deliberately excluded women colleagues from management team meetings, or had discussed important issues away from formal meetings so that women were not involved. Such feelings of discomfort and threat or fear of the unknown are experienced by many men when they face working closely with women – possibly for the first time – and they may employ tactics such as using their stronger, louder voices to drown out female colleagues in an attempt to halt their contributions. It is not unusual for the credit of a woman’s work to be taken by her male boss or colleague, but it is becoming less acceptable to excuse such behaviour on the grounds of male feelings of jealousy or vulnerability, or because men are assumed to be following their instincts to dominate, protect and provide.

One woman’s experience was:

‘There were two male managers who were in competition with each other over my work and resources and over who wanted to use my achievements to advance themselves. They always managed to keep themselves promoted ahead of me so my work could keep pushing them forward.’

A chilling example of some male managers’ attitudes is given by a woman working in the NHS:

‘I was aware there were helpful females in my own organization, but I was actively prevented by male managers from gaining legitimate access to them.’

One common experience shared by women managers is the failure to secure a deserved promotion or a higher level job, knowing that, in spite of the official reasons given, it came down to the fact that they were not male. Specific examples of this emerged from an ambitious local government officer who felt strongly that she would have reached the position of Chief Executive by now if she were a man, and another manager who was told: ‘On the face of it you have everything the job needs, but, you see, it wouldn’t do to have a woman. We’re not ready for that yet’. That was in 1986.

In spite of legislation, these practices still exist, albeit covertly, because employees in less enlightened and open organizations are aware that they could be subjected to charges of sexual discrimination, harassment and so on.

One of this book’s case study interviewees, Carol, had always said that she had rarely come across discrimination, probably because she never expected it, but she does have one personal example which she relates: ‘When the children were younger, I employed a nanny and one day, when she was ill, I grabbed some work and told my boss I had to collect the children. I did the work at home, but when I went back into the office the next day he said, “This is a problem. How do I know that this isn’t going to happen again?” I said, “How dare you. You gave one of the men in the department a week off work because his wife had hurt her back. You were all sympathy for him. The person who was looking after the children was ill – it’s the same situation”. He then saw my point and no more was said.’

Another interviewee, Judy, qualified as a barrister in the late 1970s but found that, in addition to there being too many barristers on the market, there were problems in being a woman in the law. She did not fit in with the stereotype set by the men – nor did she want to. Most of all she disliked the lack of sensitivity towards clients – what she called the ‘legal equivalent of a bedside manner’. When she tried to change the attitudes of those she worked with, she was totally ignored and moved from the legal department of her organization into a management training role. In spite of her many successes, ‘I was starting to experience problems with a boss who was finding my innovative approach both disconcerting and a threat. He realized that women’s issues was a topical subject that he should address but, although I was the only woman in my team with relevant experience of these, I was never asked to contribute’.

At the top of organizations, the unwillingness to appoint women to the board is commonplace. The experience of one director who was not promoted to her board despite seven years on the Group Executive Committee is not unusual. Private sector organizations, in particular, are seen as traditionally conservative, with chairmen appointing fellow board members in their own image – same background, same sex, same education, same professional training, same age. This lack of diversity, however, is now becoming subject to scrutiny and criticism, especially following publications such as the Cadbury Committee report which recommends the widespread use of non-executive, or independent, directors on boards. Growing numbers of experienced, professional women are proving valuable additions to boards across a wide range of business activities.

Yet it is not just the male managers who prove obstructive. Those women who, in the past, felt they could progress within their organizations only by becoming ‘honorary men’ affected other women in two ways. First, as many of them adopted the ‘I reached this position through my own efforts. Why should I help you?’ attitude, they positively impeded their junior colleagues’ progress. Second, this approach deterred many other women from moving forward as it was not seen as an acceptable way of behaving. The role model presented by these power-dressing, aggressive female managers was not perceived as a positive one and other women did not, therefore, feel inclined to apply for more senior jobs.

I was interested to hear one fifty-year-old executive, who is the only woman at her level in the organization, say that she feels she has little in common with other, much younger, female managers and that there are none anywhere near her age or experience. Because of her position she naturally has more contact with her male peers on a day-to-day basis, but she feels she is missing out by not working with other women. One disadvantage of the recent fashion for ‘down-sizing’ and ‘right-sizing’ is that there are signs of a small, but significant, counter-trend where some women have been forced out of top-level posts and those who remain may well find themselves in a similar situation of becoming isolated and lonely. Other women say that in such cases it is the duty of the older female manager to act as a mentor or coach to others as a way of helping them through the organization, as well as keeping in touch with the issues that affect the younger women – such as, how to communicate their opinions and needs in a positive, assertive manner, while maintaining their womenliness; combining home and work; influencing the corporate culture so that men and women value what they each bring to the workplace.

Very few companies provide adequate if any childcare arrangements for their employees. This has a considerable effect on working mothers, who wish to pursue their career but who are not prepared to settle for unsatisfactory childcare facilities in order to continue working. Susan Hay, who founded her own workplace nursery consultancy because she could not find suitable childcare for her own children, has ten years’ experience in this field and knows that the position of working women has been hindered because of the lack of investment in childcare by organizations. ‘Access to childcare, as well as the cost and varying quality of it, has been a major influence on the development and expansion of part-time work for women. This often means that women are working below their abilities because the better jobs are full-time jobs. There is also a tendency for higher-level jobs to be in the key cities and this is not always compatible with acceptable childcare provision.’

The growing importance of childcare issues was underlined in November 1997, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, announced the establishment over the next five years of 300,000 ‘After School Clubs’, which will offer places to up to one million children.

Case study – Alison

Alison, 41, is married with no children. She trained as a nurse and worked as a medical secretary, before moving into the field of management education and training. She was the founding director of a medical charity; set up a management consultancy; founded her own charity, Action on Depression; and is Director of the British Vascular Foundation. She was a former Chairman of City Women’s Network, and has served on the Women’s Advisory Panel of Opportunity 2000 and on the board of Fair Play for Women. She is a trained counsellor; Fellow of the RSA; a member of the National Association of Chief Executives of National Voluntary Organizations; and also sits on the board of The International Alliance (a global organization of senior women’s networks).

‘My girls’ public school had few expectations for its pupils and after leaving I became a nurse. I wanted to live in London and to be self-supporting after all the financial sacrifices my parents had made to pay my school fees, but I couldn’t stand the rigid hierarchy at the hospital where I worked and felt totally unstretched intellectually. I realized that I should have read medicine, not nursing, but financially it was not possible to give up work to take the necessary A levels, nor did I have the confidence to make the switch. After qualifying, I became a staff nurse at Guy’s, but at the back of my mind was always the niggling thought – “Is the rest of my life going to be like this?”

‘I decided to give myself a year away from hospitals to see what was happening in the outside world and thought again about studying medicine. I have always regretted not doing it. With the misguided idea that becoming a secretary would be a clear route into management, I enrolled for a six-week typing course and invented my own shorthand. I boldly put myself forward as a medical secretary and went to work in a hospital where I was tucked away in a back office with only the occasional consultant for company. This was not at all exciting – there wasn’t even the patient contact that I had so enjoyed as a nurse. So, making yet another mistake, I joined a firm of accountants because I thought it would be fun in the City. It was very jolly there, but my boss fell in love with me and, as I wasn’t interested and three years of accountants was ample, I left to help set up a private medical screening facility. It was the first of its kind and I soon realized that I actually possessed some entrepreneurial talents and obviously enjoyed starting new projects. However, once it was up and running successfully, I thought, “Where do we go from here? All this experience, no clear career path, no way to use the experience, so what should I do next?”

‘I was twenty-seven, had spent ten years in London and was bored, footloose and fancy free. I had the urge to go abroad again (as the daughter of a naval officer, I travelled a great deal), so I stuck a pin in a map and hit Hong Kong. I had no job planned, nowhere to live and not much money, but six weeks later I was on a plane. Hong Kong is a sink-or-swim place and there is nothing so motivating as having no money. The most useful thing that happened was being introduced to a residential club for business-women, the Helena May, where a group of us shared experiences, jobs, contacts and so on. I nursed for a short while, but felt even more exploited than I had done in the UK, so was soon looking for something else. Through the Helena May network, I went to a cocktail party and met a businessman who ran training courses and who had been badly let down by one of his tutors – who should have been running a programme in China, but had been taken ill. After talking for a while, he asked if I would like to take the tutor’s place – “Can you be on the 8.30 flight tomorrow morning?” Having agreed, I found myself in what felt like the middle of nowhere with sixty hand-picked Chinese executives who were there to learn about Western management methods. It was exciting, frustrating and I loved it. I developed a great love of China, in spite of developing malnutrition, surviving banquets of three-snake casserole and sea cucumber, and went on to learn Mandarin at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Later, I was headhunted to set up the Asian arm of an American computer company and my boss delegated everything so I ran the whole show.

‘Between contracts working in China and return trips to Hong Kong for much needed R&R, I went to a tea party and met my husband. We were married in England while still living in Hong Kong – so don’t ever complain about organizing a big wedding, unless you’ve arranged it from a distance of 8000 miles! I was thirty-three and keen to stay in Hong Kong, but my husband wanted to come home. I had been away for five or six years and felt very out of touch – the sort of things I had been doing were not to be found in the UK. My first mistake was to work with a bunch of cowboys who were establishing a rehabilitation centre. When I realized what they were up to, the matron and I left on the same day.

‘When I later became founding director of a medical charity, the entrepreneurial side of me enjoyed that very much, but the experience was marred by the macho power games always going on. There was only one woman on the board, and there were many conflicts of interests. It is a myth that charity trustees are driven only by altruism. Aware of a crying need for specialists who understand the voluntary sector, two colleagues and I set up a consultancy which offers advice to charities on strategic planning, marketing, trustee selection, training and forth. I did this for three years and am still actively involved, but I missed the hands-on operational side of work and decided to return to being a charity director. In 1995 I was recruited to head up the British Vascular Foundation. Raising funds, launching appeals and so forth – all these involve my skills as a businesswoman and marketing professional.’

Lack of career guidance and career goals

What goals? All too often, at the beginning of their working lives, women have not set themselves clear goals; or, in the case of many women over the past three decades, ‘did not recognize I was setting out on a career’. Although the situation has improved over the last ten years, I still hear many women talking about their schools and the expectations (or lack of them) for the female pupils. The family environment and the school careers advice often reinforced the idea that some kind of professional training (nursing, secretarial, teaching), or perhaps university, would be followed by marriage, homemaking and motherhood as sure as night follows day. What was rare was the chance to look beyond that scenario and consider the different options, including following a life-long career, of not necessarily getting married, of possibly not having children, of changing track if the first choice didn’t work out, or of pursuing several different types of employment.

The paradox here is that in the 1960s and 1970s, when this attitude was still prevalent, there were plenty of jobs for everyone. As Beverley points out, ‘One of the most significant changes from when I was at school and the present day is that we knew we could get a job. That doesn’t happen now.’

Theresa went to ‘a wonderful girls’ school where everyone assumed you would all do very well – which usually meant working for a few years, marrying and having children. If you were outrageously clever, you might carry on doing something as long as the children didn’t suffer. I knew of only one woman who went out to work. She was something in the Treasury and this was much derided. It probably meant that the children didn’t have puddings during the week!’ Theresa also talks about the conflicting assumptions made by the school and the outside world. ‘Until I was sixteen I was under the delusion that you set your sights on Cambridge or somewhere like that, but I was told that Cambridge was not the sort of place that girls went to. It was full of boys and not right for girls. That was the prevailing wisdom and before I heard that it had never crossed my mind that boys and girls were treated differently’.

Julia was privately educated in the 1970s at a school which assumed that women would have a career, and university was both expected and encouraged. Paradoxically, it was Oxford which let her down. She found the University and the Career advisers to be of virtually no help in offering her guidance about what she should do after her degree.

Alison, on the other hand, also privately educated, fared differently again. She found that her school had few expectations for its pupils beyond working as a secretary, teacher or nurse and waiting for Mr Right to come along.

Women who went to mixed-sex schools reported on different experiences. One woman mentioned that she was fortunate enough to be one of seven particularly bright girls in her year and they were encouraged to perform well in class and in exams. She is not so sure that the same would have happened if she had been the only girl with academic aspirations in her form.