Women in business: Cracking the glass ceiling

If you ask any woman in business about the existence of the glass ceiling in today's workplace, few will deny it is still very much alive and well, albeit cracked and chipped in places. So is the glass ceiling a barrier created by organisational structures, and is it too simplistic to blame men? Or are women at fault for imposing their own barriers?

Talking to Dr Sara Connolly, an expert on sex discrimination in the labour market from the University of East Anglia, she observes: "The gender pay gap is closing, more women are working, and what we also know is that female education and attainment has really been improving, and those things combined, you expect to see a cracking in the glass ceiling."

It could be that the introduction of the gender equality duty, the first major piece of legislation since the 1970s, has made it easier for women to work their way to management level. Dr Connolly disagrees. "I think it's quite clear that legislation hasn't given women the protection, and hasn't put enough responsibility on the employer to show that they do ensure equality of opportunity."

The introduction of the Equality Bill in June, announced by Equalities Minister Harriet Harman, has been hailed as a `step in the right direction' for women in male-dominated industries. However, Dr Connolly firmly believes that legislation does not always create a healthy diversity. "My general view is that all of this is better managed if women are there through merit and can change things within the organisation."

Jenny Ungless, life coach for Monster UK and Ireland, thinks the solution lies elsewhere. "I think the answer really, and it applies whether you're male or female, is about being yourself, finding your own professional style and sticking to it." Having worked in male dominated environments, including the civil service and the Home Office, Ungless believes this does not have to be a barrier to success. The idea that women impose the glass ceiling on their own careers is another facet to the debate and raises questions about whether many women want to make it to the top. If and when women achieve senior status, of course there is still the pay gap issue, which can be as disparate as 35 percent or more.

The organisational structure of companies is perceived to be at the heart of the glass ceiling. Sue Hewitt from Mile Castle Consulting, which runs women's development programmes, recognises that gender discrimination is inherent in organisations, "If you look at recruitment, what tends to happen is that we recruit people like us and, as long as we haven't got women at the top, men are still getting appointed." Part of this catch-22 is that women need role models to encourage them to succeed. Hewitt explains, "I think the answer comes from two places: It comes from mending what's not working in organisations, and giving women the opportunity to develop their own self-belief and confidence."

The structure of companies is such that, as Dr Connolly points out, women choose careers that facilitate proper parenthood. Human resource roles, with their more predictable working hours, are a popular career path among women. "I think it may well be that as you approach or become a mother, those roles with more regular hours, with less travelling but still with more seniority become more appealing," observes Dr Connolly.

It is also women's natural ability to communicate which sees them fulfil positions in welfare and human resource departments. Talking to Janette Faherty, CEO of Avanta, she identifies an `old-fashioned thinking' in business. "Women are more likely to enjoy opportunities and working practices where they can work with other people - they're very flexible and they like working in teams. Often in industry, those are not things that people recognise as traditional leadership ways of working."

Ungless has also noticed a majority of senior women in the public affairs industry, which she puts down to the fact that communication is at the heart of this sector. "If an organisation or an industry sector has traditionally been male dominated, then it stands to reason it's going to be disproportionately difficult for women to break into that," says Ungless. She also questions whether women would want to work in an organisational culture that promotes the `old boys' network'.

Once again, it comes back to women's natural leadership skills and the fact these are not traditionally recognised as such by organisations. One solution to all this is for women to set up their own business or consultancy, a trend which Janette Faherty has observed in the last five years; "One of the reasons women are not going up into very senior board positions is that you see quite a lot of women decide they do not want to carry on with the office politics." She adds: "I think somewhere between a third and 40 percent now of all new businesses are started by women."

Certainly, the glass ceiling can be a rather one-sided and simplistic debate as stereotypes and clichÈs are rolled out but Ungless emphasises that this is a multi-faceted issue. She believes that despite government efforts to promote diversity and flexibility, and to bridge the gender pay gap, a resolution will take time. "That's a big mindset to change, and maybe it's not going to change and it's about the next generation."

A sense of frustration and disappointment is tangible among these senior women, despite the fact that many of them are what we consider to be success stories and role models. It is apparent that the glass ceiling and the pay gap are still prominent issues for women and employers. As Hewitt explains: "I still think the glass ceiling is well and truly there but I think some of us have been given glass cutters to get through."

View the article on the glass ceiling in Exec magazine.