Posts Tagged ‘Canadian Census’
C This
New evidence of the recession’s toll on women has emerged—and it isn’t pretty. The latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals that of the 1.3 million jobs created in the last 12 months, about 90% have gone to men. This fact—combined with the Catalyst finding that women in senior roles were three times as likely to lose their jobs during the initial months of the recession—shows the true cost of the recent economic downturn. Some “mancession” this turned out to be!
Find out more about the recession’s impact, plus other important news about women and work, in this week’s C This.
Calling it Out
Media attention to the 2010 Catalyst Census: Financial Post 500 Women Senior Officers and Top Earners is still running strong. The Census revealed deep stagnation for women’s advancement in Canada’s top companies. In this article, my colleague Deborah Gillis targeted Canadian businesses for “vastly underutilizing talented women, even though women are the engine of our economies.” She’s speaking truth to power—go Deborah!
READ: “Women’s Advances in Workplace Not Always Easy,” by Darah Hansen, Ottawa Citizen, 3/15/11
Examining the Toll
Not only have men filled 90% of all new jobs in the past year, but women continue to lose jobs at a higher rate than men. Since the official end of the recession in July 2009, men have gained 600,000 jobs while women have lost 300,000 jobs. “I think that the recession has happened in stages,” said Myra Strober, a professor of education and economics at Stanford University. “The first stage hit manufacturing hard, and that’s where men have more jobs than women do, and now the recession has moved to state and local governments where women have a higher percentage of jobs.”
WATCH: “Women Lag Behind Men in Economic Recovery,” ABC World News with Diane Sawyer, 3/21/11
Leading the Way in Israel
Unlike in the US, women hold many of the top posts in Israeli construction, manufacturing and real estate firms. The new Catalyst Census of women’s representation in Tel Aviv 100 Index companies found that the companies Gazit Inc., Ormat Industries, Shikun & Binui, and Delek Drilling each have 50% women executive officers. Companies from other industries should follow their lead. “All studies show gender diversification in management is better for companies,” noted Ofra Strauss, Chairperson of the Strauss Group, upon the Census’ release.
READ: “Israel ranks global No. 2 for female board members, at 15%,” by Oren Majar, The Marker, 3/9/11
STEM Superstars
Although women make up roughly half of the American workforce, they hold only 14% of engineering positions and 25% of mathematics positions. Among the most powerful women to bust the myth that women can’t make it in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers is Ursula M. Burns, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Xerox Corporation. Ursula, who will chair the 2011 Catalyst Awards Dinner next week, made Working Mothers’ list of the “Most Powerful Moms in STEM.”
READ: “Most Powerful Moms in STEM,” by Leah Bourne, Working Mother, March 2011
Striking Ground
“There are museums in Washington, D.C., for everything from postage stamps to poetry to spies,” said actress Meryl Streep. So why isn’t there a museum to memorialize women’s contribution to America? Streep is the latest celebrity to lend her voice to the creation of a National Women’s History Museum. Supporters seek to raise funds and win Congressional approval to break ground in Washington DC. The museum currently exists only online—for now.
Cross-Post: War Over? Not Yet!
Our latest Census of women in leadership among top Canadian companies was released last week—and the media took note. Below is Deborah Gillis’s frank response to one topic that kept cropping up in interviews. See if you agree!
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Maybe it was the proximity to International Women’s Day. Or maybe it’s an issue whose time has come. But last week’s release of the 2010 Catalyst Census: Financial Post 500 Women Senior Officers and Top Earners has caused waves in the media across the country. In my five years with Catalyst, I don’t remember such strong media response to our work. The recognition of the quality and significance of Catalyst’s work is gratifying.
But neither do I recall being so frustrated by the level of understanding of the barriers that still block career advancement for many Canadian women. In almost every interview I did, I was asked questions like: “Are women not reaching the top because they ‘opt out’ to raise families?”
True, those questions aren’t answered by the Census, which is intended to be a snapshot and a check on the progress in Canada’s leading companies. Other research, such as Pipeline’s Broken Promise, provides some of the answers.
That study demonstrates that smart, educated women start their careers at lower levels and earn about $4,600 less than their male counterparts. And the gap never closes, even for women who remain single and childless. No opting out. No family before career. Just a glass ceiling and a sticky floor.
If anyone doubts that we have to keep gathering the statistics and telling the stories, a quick skim through the comments on any of the media coverage of the Census will quickly convince them. There you’ll find the folks who think that women have it made or that women gain at the expense of men. Some even declared victory, as Margaret Wente did in her Globe and Mail International Women’s Day column, where she stated “The war for women’s rights is over. And we won.”
Pointing to advances women have made is good—it’s the encouragement we all need to keep going. But we can’t ignore the lack of equity at the top. The confusion of the past week shows that we have to keep challenging pat assumptions that women have made it—or risk being lulled by complacency and a clever headline.
C This
American accounting firms lead the way in providing flexible work arrangements. Flex policies saved Deloitte more than $45 million a year by reducing turnover, while PricewaterhouseCoopers’ estimated turnover dropped to 15 percent a year, from 24 percent. “Every night, our assets walk out the door and go home,” said James S. Turley, Ernst & Young’s CEO. “And we need to be the kind of place that they want to come back to the next day.”
If these companies can operate flex programs—even during tax season—and find it good for their bottom line, why can’t all of corporate America follow suit? More details on the benefits of flex—plus news about women in tech (or the lack thereof), gender bias in India, discrimination claims in the United States, and Canada’s top earners—in today’s C This.
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Web 2.0 Lacks Women
Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized the way we communicate, but their boards look like they’re straight out of the Ma’ Bell era. These two Web 2.0 behemoths—not to mention Foursquare, Groupon, and Zynga—do not have any women on their boards. The women are out there: Oracle and Google have two women on board, while Yahoo has three. Women rule the social web, so shouldn’t they be on the boards of the companies that serve them?
READ: “The Men and No Women of Web 2.0 Boards,” by Kara Swisher, Wall Street Journal, 12/21/11
“The Ultimate Boy’s Club”
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’s list of Canada’s 100 best-paid CEOs includes only men. The dearth of women on the list reflects the lack of female corporate leaders in Canada. In our most recent Census, Catalyst found that 19 of Canada’s top 500 businesses were run by just 16 women. According to Deborah Gillis, Vice President, Membership & Global Operations, Catalyst, Canadian companies have a lot to lose by overlooking half of the population. “This is a talent issue,” she said. “No organization wants to be playing with half the deck.”
READ: “No Women in Best-Paid CEO Club … At Least Not Yet,” by Josh Rubin, Toronto Star, 1/8/11
The Bottom Line on Workplace Flex
Accounting firms estimate that the cost of hiring and training a new employee in their industry can be 1.5 times a departing worker’s salary, so reducing turnover by 200 employees saves roughly $30 million. Workplace flexibility programs are the key to reducing turnover. “Some businesses treat flexibility as just a set of policies—if we put policies on the books, that’s all we need,” said Kathleen E. Christensen, director of workplace flex programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “But what you really need is to have those policies embedded in the way work is done, and that’s what a lot of accounting firms have done.”
READ: “Flex Time Flourishes in Accounting Industry,” by Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times, 1/7/11
Re-think in India
Patna High Court Chief Justice Rekha M. Doshit—the first woman to hold this office—said that laws alone cannot end gender bias in India. According to Doshit, “there are several provisions in our Constitution aimed at empowering women, but they are hardly able to make any perceptible difference in our behaviour.” What’s needed, she said, is an attitudinal change to wipe out the root causes of gender bias.
READ: “Laws Alone Cannot End Gender Bias: CJ,” by B. K. Mishra, The Times of India, 1/10/11
Discrimination Spikes, But Why?
Accusations of workplace discrimination in the United States spiked last year to 99,922 claims made to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—an increase of 7.2 percent from the previous year. The largest increase in claims came from people who said they had been discriminated against due to disability. But experts cautioned that the increase may stem from an expansion of the legal definition of “disability” or tied to more employees challenging their termination amid the recession.
Women on Board?
Canadian and American women dominate the ice— but not the boardroom.
Our new Canadian Census reveals that women make up 47% of the labor force in Canada, but only 14% of board directors in FP500 companies. In the United States, the numbers are also low. Women comprise 47% of the U.S. labor force, but occupy just 15% of the board seats. What’s worse, these numbers have remained virtually unchanged the last few years.
You may think board directors are so high in the org-chart stratosphere that they couldn’t possibly affect you or your job path. But they do. That’s why it’s important to look for diversity when deciding where to work.
The boardroom sets the tone for the organization. The more women on a corporate board, the higher the percentage— five years later— of women in senior positions, especially senior line positions.
Companies with more women board directors, on average, financially outperform those with the fewest. In fact, the more women on board, the better the performance. And companies with three or more women on their boards, on average, perform even better! Chances are that these more successful companies afford women greater opportunity for advancement and development.
So when you are looking for a job, first check that annual report. Skip the pretty pictures, and head for the board listing. If it doesn’t include at least one woman— and preferably three or more—your odds of developing a satisfying career and rising to leadership have just taken a serious hit.
Choose an organization that invests in women. Vote with your feet.
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