Posts Tagged ‘mentor’
Take 5: The MBA Pay Gap
Attention Class of 2011: Women start behind, and stay behind, equally skilled men after graduating from prestigious MBA programs.
In today’s Take 5—a new Catalyzing feature highlighting five important Catalyst findings—we look at our research into our best and brightest: MBA grads from top business schools across the globe. A level playing field does not exist even for these high-potential women. Here’s why:
1) Women MBA grads earn, on average, $4,600 less than men in their first job out of school. This is after taking into account number of years prior experience, job level, global region, industry, and parenthood.
2) Mentoring benefits men most: Men with mentors received $9,260 more in their first post-MBA jobs than women with mentors.
3) Men got more promotions than did women, even after taking into account prior work experience, time in role, starting level, industry, and region.
4) Men’s salary growth outpaced that of women, perpetuating the gender gap established in the first job.
5) Each promotion in 2008 amounted to an extra 21% in compensation for men, while each promotion for women amounted to an extra 2%.
And FYI: Pay inequity is a reality—MBA or not. The typical woman loses $431,000 in pay over a 40-year career.
What would you do with that cash?
Voices on Road to Equality
One year ago, we launched Catalyzing with the belief that until women achieve parity in business leadership, we will be marginalized in every other arena. More than 70 blog posts and 65,000+ page views later, we’ve only scratched the surface.
What gives me hope amid entrenched pay and leadership gaps, and setbacks like defeat of the Paycheck Fairness Act, are inspiring interactions with women and men who share our vision of changing workplaces and lives. As I blow out the candle on our 1-year anniversary, I wanted to leave you with a selection of comments from readers. Brace yourself—they are funny, angry, and even sad. Taken together, they serve as a potent call to action, and a reminder that we will not stop until we achieve our goal:
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Ilene, congratulations on using your blog to “catalyze” the use of the gender lens. The Economist’s “We Did It!” cover aside, women have a LONG way to go and corporations need to look at their advancement efforts with fresh eyes before we get to the 50% at the top that women reflect in the pipeline.
Susan Colantuono 2010/02/16 at 9:33 am
The glass ceiling is not only still here, it’s an illusion that it is window pane thin. It is about 10 meters thick and all you can see when you look up is the bottom of a man’s $350 shoes looking down at you like a gerbil treading a wheel that goes nowhere for their own amusement.
susan clark 2010/03/04 at 6:00 pm
How can you fix what you don’t know is broken?
I have a much loved uncle who, when I told him about the wage gender gap refused to believe it existed….I then spent the remainder of that Thanksgiving breaking down how it occurs, why it hasn’t stopped, etc., and by the time he left, he was writing a letter to his congressman asking why there weren’t laws against it. Hopefully there are more ah-ha moments happening every day
Shayna 2010/04/09 at 3:33 pm
We hear so much about the importance of senior men mentoring women (and it is important), but it’s very refreshing to reverse this and think about the benefits of women mentoring men.
Lynn Harris 2010/04/28 at 1:54 pm
I have implemented many mentoring-projects for women with mentoring men in Austria. Thanks for your blog, because I really think that it is time for an change. We have so many good women, who would be great mentors for open minded men.
Daniela Stein 2010/05/04 at 3:19 pm
C This
Catalyst’s latest Census of female leadership in the Fortune 500 and our report, Mentoring: Necessary But Insufficient for Advancement, received strong media coverage last week. Below are two clips highlighting the new research. Also in C This, new studies point to the challenges that Indian women face in the workplace, the dearth of diversity programs in American companies, and the “glass cliff” women face when getting top jobs.
Sponsors Explained
“A sponsor is somebody who is really your advocate, your champion,” said Barbara Adachi, National Managing Director for Deloitte Consulting LLP’s Human Capital practice, in this interview about Catalyst’s 2010 Census and our new study on sponsorship. “A sponsor has a stake in your success and a stake in your career,” she added.
WATCH: “What Women Need to Know to Get Ahead,” Good Morning America, ABC, 12/13/10
To Find a Sponsor
Kerrie Peraino, Chief Diversity Officer at American Express, advised women to be bold in order to find a sponsor. “It’s not enough to say, ‘I’m doing good work,’ and put your head down on your desk,” she said. “To earn sponsorship someone needs to see your work.”
Get with the Program
A new survey of human resource and talent management leaders at more than 540 U.S. companies found that 43% had no formal activities or programs aimed at developing women leaders, and only 5% had “robust” initiatives. With numbers like these, it’s no wonder that the progress of women into business leadership is stuck—and has been so for years.
READ: “Why Are There So Few Women Leaders? Companies are not Trying,” by Joanne Cleaver, BNET, 12/8/10
The Cliff
Experts call it the “glass cliff”—the precarious place high up on the corporate ladder where women are judged more harshly than men. Victoria Brescoll, Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Yale University, studied the phenomenon. “Stereotyping thrives on ambiguity. Mistakes create ambiguity and call the leader’s competence into question, which, in turn, leads to a loss of status,” she explained.
READ: “On the Other Side of the Glass Ceiling, a Glass Cliff,” by Belinda Luscombe, Time, 12/8/10
Indian Ambitions
New research shows that 80 percent of Indian women want the top jobs and are prepared to work hard for them, but less than 30 percent of Indian women outside the agrarian economy are in the workplace. But, participation is likely to increase as the cultural stigmas attached to female-employment fade. “If we’re doing so well with only 30 percent of women in the work force, imagine what we’ll achieve when that goes up to 50 percent,” said Preeti Singh, a 21-year-old business management student aiming for the C-Suite.
READ: “Ambitions Meet Reality in India,” by Nilanjana S. Roy, New York Times, 12/14/10
The Ropes
This just in: the latest Catalyst research highlights deep challenges—and potential solutions—for women seeking to climb the corporate ladder.
For the fifth year in a row, our Census of women leaders in the Fortune 500 showed that women are stuck. Women hold only 14.4% of Executive Officer positions and 15.7% of board seats in F500 companies. A whopping 12.1% of public companies have no women serving on their boards and 27.4% have no women Executive Officers. And women hold only 7.6% of top earner spots.
While disheartening, a separate Catalyst report, Mentoring: Necessary But Insufficient for Advancement, pointed to a possible reason for the disparity. Men have more senior-level mentors who are in a position to provide sponsorship, which can lead to more promotions and greater pay increases. Women, on the other hand, are “mentored to death”—getting developed but not promoted or compensated as much as men.
There’s a big difference between sponsorship and mentorship. Mentors show you the ropes and teach you about the unwritten rules of your organization, but sponsors have clout and advocate on your behalf. They look out for you behind closed doors and ensure you’re visible when opportunities are on the table. “She can do it—trust me,” one might say.
Sponsors can make all the difference to your career. So if your company has a formal sponsorship program, you should express an interest in participating, while companies that do not should consider phasing one in.
But don’t just wait around for a sponsor to find you. Sponsorship is not an entitlement—you have to “earn it” by being a top performer. Connect with senior-level people and communicate your contributions, skills, and interests. Do a great job, get noticed, and you’ll attract a sponsor.
After all, mentors can show you the ropes, but sponsors help you climb them.
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UPDATE: To find out more about why you need a sponsor—someone “on the inside”to advocate for you—check out my new op-ed in WorkingMother.com!
C This
American women got the vote 90 years ago this month. It wasn’t easy. After 70 years of hard state-by-state campaigning, suffrage came down to a final vote in the Tennessee Legislature. The deciding ballot was cast by Harry Burn, a 24-year old who switched to “yes” after receiving a last-minute nudge from his mother. “I know that a mother’s advice is always the safest for a boy to follow,” Burn later said.
Read more about this historic struggle, plus all the news about women and work, in C This.
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Three’s a Charm
Elena Kagan joined the U.S. Supreme Court, and ForbesWoman asked: “Will three finally be the magic number that effects real change for women in terms of pay parity, access to education and sexual harassment in the U.S.?” I hope so, but let’s not stop there. Women make up roughly 51% of the U.S. population. To really reflect America’s diversity on the Supreme Court, let’s see at least one more woman—ideally, a woman of color.
READ: “And Kagan Makes Three,” by Meghan Casserly, ForbesWoman, 8/8/10
Know Before You Go
What can you do to counter gender biases that influence hiring decisions? In this article, Amy Williams lays out four rules, including learning about “illegal questions” and sex discrimination before you go in for the interview.
READ: “Four Ways to Fight Sexist Interviewers,” by Amy Williams, Ms., 8/16/10
Mentored to Death
In the latest edition of the Harvard Business Review, INSEAD’s Herminia Ibarra and Catalyst’s Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva reveal how high-potential women are not getting enough from mentors. Many are under-sponsored and over-mentored. “I am being mentored to death,” said one exasperated respondent. Are you?
Hear Them Roar
Who are the “new feminists”? The Guardian profiles seven courageous women “who dare to articulate what others would rather not see.” “I receive death threats all the time, but I’m not afraid,” said Shahla Farid, a lawyer who challenges the Taliban.
READ: “The New Feminists: Still Fighting,” by Susie Orbach and Shahesta Shaitly, The Guardian, 8/15/10
Rocking the Vote
What was the biggest obstacle to women’s right to vote in the United States? The U.S. Congress. Gail Collins recounts the long, hard slog to suffrage in this New York Times column. While we celebrate Women’s Suffrage Day on August 26, Collins prefers to commemorate August 18—the day of a tense final showdown in the Tennessee Legislature.
READ: “My Favorite August,” by Gail Collins, The New York Times, 8/13/10
Be Somebody—Get Sponsored
I’m nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
–Emily Dickenson
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How does a nobody become a somebody? By being sponsored.
Sponsors are like mentors—except they advocate for advancement. The latest Catalyst research on the careers of more than 4,000 M.B.A. graduates shows that more women than men have mentors, but these mentoring relationships are less likely to lead to promotions for women. A lack of sponsorship may help explain why women lag behind men in pay and promotions.
Sponsors combine power, influence, and a willingness to promote you—and they have the clout to do something concrete. The results can be dramatic.
Newly minted Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan had a powerful sponsor, Abner J. Mikva. Mikva learned the value of sponsorship early on. During his first year of law school, he tried to volunteer with the Democratic Party. “Who sent you?” asked the man behind the desk of local party office.
“Nobody,” Mikva replied.
“We don’t want nobody nobody sent,” the man huffed.
The experience, noted The New York Times, spurred his interest in public service and in “being the somebody who sent future somebodies.”
And that’s what he did for Kagan. According to the Times, he hired her as a clerk when he was a federal appeals judge in Washington DC. Mikva then recommended Kagan for a Supreme Court clerkship for Justice Thurgood Marshall. He promoted her for a professor’s job at the University of Chicago. Then he pulled her into a role in the Clinton White House. The rest, as they say, is history.
Sponsors stick with you—they don’t ditch you at your first promotion. They protect you from enemies. They push the right buttons. They understand the Unwritten Rules. And they ensure you’re visible. In short, they shape your career.
Of course, sponsorship is not an entitlement—you have to “earn it” by being a top performer. Your sponsor won’t take care of all the heavy lifting.
Companies are starting to realize the importance of sponsorship, and so should you. Mentors are important, but a good sponsor is gold. Seek one out. Become a somebody.
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