Catalyst Blog

Corporate boards have grown less diverse over the past six years—but why? Is the recession to blame, or an uptick in African-Americans choosing to retire from boards, or an unintended consequence of U.S. financial legislation? To find out more about the culprits—and what you can do to help reverse the trend—check out today’s C This.

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Dropping the Ball

Last year, white men made up 72.9% of board members at the nation’s 100 largest companies, up from 71.2% in 2004. Why are the numbers going backward? As I suggested to MSNBC, amid the recession many companies took their eye off the ball when it came to diversity. Companies are not actively excluding women—they’re just not making a focused effort to include them.

READ: “Minorities Lose Ground in Big Corporate Boardrooms,” by Allison Linn, MSNBC, 5/3/11

Just Say “No”

Study after study has shown that companies with more women in senior positions outperform those with fewer. Joe Keefe, CEO of Pax World, argues that shareholders should say “no” to all-male corporate boards on annual proxies, and say why. And I agree. If you have a voice as a shareholder—use it!

READ: “Women-Savvy Companies: A Better Investment Bet,” by Linda Tarr-Whelan, The Financial Times, 4/25/11

Messing Up Mentoring?

What are the pitfalls around mentorship programs? At the top of the list: a lack of clear goals. “Without a goal—a reason for the mentoring program—there can be no strategy, and without strategy, you won’t create a mentoring impact, let alone a mentoring culture,” said Ann Tardy, a San Francisco-based management consultant. “Before you do anything else, determine why you want a mentoring program, what goals you have for the program, and what success will look like.”

READ: “How Companies Mess Up Mentoring,” by Harvey Schachter, The Globe and Mail, 5/9/11

Top Earners Mostly Men

A survey of the salaries, bonuses, and long-term incentive awards of CEOs from America’s top 350 companies found that median compensation surged 11% to $9.3 million this past year. Poring over the names of the 350 top earners, I was disappointed to see only a handful of women. Since most top earners are men, it’s no wonder that women lag men in pay throughout the rest of the system.

READ: “CEO Pay in 2010 Jumped 11%” by Joann S. Lublin, The Wall Street Journal, 5/9/11

Macho Men

Bad news for “macho” men: New research has shown that sixty-five-year-old men with macho attitudes are about half as likely as their peers to have gotten basic preventative medical care in the past year. And Catalyst research suggests that dropping a “macho” attitude is a key determinant of whether men support or resist efforts to close gender gaps in the workplace. So, do you still want to be a macho man?

READ: “Machismo Kills Men,” by Christopher Shea, The Wall Street Journal, 4/26/11

To mark the end of 2010—and my final Catalyzing post until January 2011—I asked my colleagues at Catalyst what they wish for in the days ahead for women and work. Here are Catalyst’s top ten wishes for 2011:

We wish for…

10. Inclusive, agile work cultures that reward results rather than face-time.

9. Companies around the world to “get it” that more women in senior positions can improve financial performance.

8. Men to champion and sponsor the many talented women they work alongside, question the tyranny of macho norms, take more responsibility for child-rearing and the division of labor at home, and  become truly equal partners to women.

7. An acknowledgment that women are the key to solving the world’s problems.

6. Managers to accept and celebrate the career commitment of mothers returning from maternity leave.

5. Headline writers to actually link headlines to story content—instead of writing unrelated, misleading, or “sexy” headlines that do not reflect the more thoughtful points in the article.

4. An end to the false notion that women don’t help each other advance in the workplace.

3. The realization that diversity is not a zero sum game—women, men, families, business, and the economy have a lot to gain from inclusive workplaces.

2. Equal pay for equivalent work—eliminate the gender pay gap once and for all! 

1. More optimism from both women and men who doubt that all this change is possible.

What do you want to see in 2011 for women and business? Let me know in the comments below!

What are men so afraid of?

Seventy-four percent of the men we interviewed in our recent series, Engaging Men in Gender Initiatives, identified fear as a barrier to supporting gender equality.

Some feared equality could only come at the expense of men—the zero-sum myth I wrote about previously. Others feared that they would make mistakes—such as an inappropriate comment—in the presence of women and open themselves up to criticism. Still others feared they would be made fun of by other men—be called “wimps” or “whipped.”

Perhaps the only thing men should really fear is better health, higher profit and more personal freedom. Not too scary after all, huh?

We know that companies with more women in senior positions and in the boardroom, on average, outperform those with fewer. And when the burden is off men to act macho or be the sole provider, everyone wins. They get more time with their kids and closer relationships with their partner or spouse, not to mention the freedom to define themselves according to their own values rather than traditional gender roles. And when men lose the macho “go it alone” attitude and share more with the people in their lives, they experience less stress and better mental and physical health.

So listen up, guys. Your job, health and freedom are at stake.