American author Shannon Goodson has written, in her book, The Psychology of Sales Call Reluctance, that women have only themselves to blame for failing to shatter male-dominated workplace hierarchies.
According to Goodson, who compared 11,500 female workers to 16,700 male workers across 34 countries, men had no qualms about self-promotion, and were even prepared to lie to get on at work. Women, however, still believe that being pushy is socially unacceptable, and remain convinced that hard work alone will put them on salary and status par with male colleagues.
Goodson found that women in the UK, the US and, perhaps unexpectedly, China were the most likely to speak up for themselves, while those in New Zealand and Sweden were the most reticent.
'Women did not create the glass ceiling, but they help maintain it', claims Goodson, adding that 'Good work is important, but good work alone does not speak for itself - you have to give it a voice'.
Alarmingly, Goodson's research also found that women who work their way up to senior roles tend to sabotage the chances of female workers below them - women executives are failing to support more junior female staff. The result of this, says Goodson, is that 'Many women in the study actually prefer male managers to female managers, claiming that men are more consistent and fair-minded than women'.
But is this true? Surely larger companies today have systems in place so that women feel comfortable and confident in speaking up for themselves? And shouldn't good work speak for itself - what about the employee, whether male or female, who are great at their job but lacks self-promotion skills? It's 2008, and we shouldn't still be operating in a workplace culture where personal progress is dependent on what we say rather than what we do.
Comments (4)
Posted by Maggie Berry | August 26, 2008 4:03 PM
In womenintechnology.co.uk’s research with Microsoft we did find some hostility between women. One participant said “as an ambitious single woman in a technology company, I sometimes get frustrated by the extent to which some working mothers are carried by their peers” and another commented “the biggest obstacles that I have had to face have all come from women, not men. Some women see it as their solemn duty to bully, bribe, undermine, tease and generally obstruct in any way possible a woman who chooses a technical career”. We need women to develop complete solidarity in order to stand a chance of breaking the glass ceiling.
Posted on August 26, 2008 16:03
Posted by Trish Lawrence | August 26, 2008 4:05 PM
Research shows that “typically” white males spend 80% of their time performing a task and then spending 20% of their time talking about their achievements, whereas women and minorities spend 100% of their time task-focused, believing their achievements will be noticed.
Instead of coaching women to self- promote, surely everyone should be working 100% of their time in the interests of productivity and changing the cultural norm. Managers should be trained, encouraged and rewarded for the key competency of developing others, taking at least equal ownership of the progression of the careers of their direct reports. I would suggest that some white males would also prefer not to self-promote.
Organisations claim to embrace diversity, value difference for competitive advantage and yet still appear to be trying to try to “fix” people instead creating cultures which reflect new contemporary styles of leadership and behaviours, informed by current opinions .
Women at the top of organisations can fail to achieve and fail to develop other women. CIPD Glass Cliff Research has demonstrated this can be due to women being placed in already risky positions because women good at crisis management, non acceptance by peers, insufficient information provided lack of resources and budget, mentoring and of flexibility. Having adapted to male behaviours, perhaps no longer operating in their natural styles and feeling insecure in their role, fail to recognise the potential of more junior females.
It could be argued that initiatives such as mentoring – to understand the “rules of the game” and leadership programmes for women collude with, and perpetuate the present culture. Instead, implement Reverse Mentoring to explicitly educate the Leadership on the real challenges facing minorities, tapping in to new talent. Implement Leadership Programmes for All, to include modules concerning gender and cultural differences as well as different styles of leadership, communication and learning.
Instead of coaching around self-promotion, provide coaching on how to be a change agent, so new cultures will facilitate the emergence of contemporary styles of leadership and ways of working, reflecting current staff, leading to more innovation and success and providing diverse role models.
This needs to be made a business issue, not a women’s issue. Capitalise on the perspectives of women and minorities and coach them to become change agents – as Ghandi said “You must be the change you want to see in the world”.
Posted on August 26, 2008 16:05
Posted by Sarah Churchman | August 27, 2008 3:13 PM
For many people working within the corporate world, both men and women, Goodson's comments just don't resonate. If, like me, you work for a Firm that understands the business drivers for diversity and inclusion, then you know the term "glass ceiling" over-simplifies the complexities of business psychology and human behaviour. The experiences of employees outside the mainstream therefore tend to be more labyrinthine. But increasingly many are making it; 29% of our new partners this year are female and 14% from a minority ethnic background. What we don’t want – and what Goodson seems to be recommending – is for individuals to conform to the mainstream to get on. Doing this risks losing all those benefits that diversity brings.
Posted on August 27, 2008 15:13
Posted by Rachel Daniel | August 27, 2008 3:16 PM
There are more complex reasons for workplace hierarchies being male dominated than mere women being to blame.
Has Shannon accounted for the ‘baby thing’ interfering with most women’s appetite for getting to the top? As a networker and a women’s business coach, I regularly see women opting out of the workplace in favour of running their own business. In this way women get the best of both worlds – working on their terms and having quality time at home.
Women aren’t maintaining the glass ceiling, they have simply moved to a new location!
Posted on August 27, 2008 15:16