PROMOTIONS ARE MOSTLY A GUY THING
Study shows women hit glass ceiling earlier, and it may be putting damper on ambition
Just as women are paid less than men for the same positions, women are less likely to be promoted, according to a new workplace study.
A survey by consultancy McKinsey and Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg ’s LeanIn.org group found men are 30% more likely than women to be promoted from entry level to manager.
The result is a workforce with a nearly equal number of women and men at the entry level, but a widening gap as workers climb the ranks.
At the entry level, 54% are men and 46% are women. But at the manager level, 63% are men and 37% are women, and at the vicepresident level 71% are men and 29% are women.
By the time they reach the Csuite — which includes positions such as chief financial officer and chief operating officer — 81% are men and 19% are women. Representation is even worse for women of color, the study says.
“We really see that women are hitting the glass ceiling earlier than you expect,” LeanIn.org President Rachel Thomas said in an interview. “Women’s promotion rates still lag behind those of men.”
The study examined human resources data from 132 companies employing more than 4.6 million people and included a survey of more than 34,000 workers.
Thomas said companies can begin to make progress by auditing their own hiring data and ensuring diverse hiring priorities are implemented and not just rhetoric.
Dig into the numbers and you’ll see a few explanations for why women aren’t advancing as quickly as men:
u They are more likely to be ignored at meetings, with 74% of men “able to participate meaningfully” and 67% of women.
u They are less likely to get challenging assignments; 68% of men have gotten one while 62% of women have.
u They are less likely to be consulted for input on important decisions, with 63% of men being asked for thoughts and 56% of women.
Despite a few percentage points of improvement in this year’s numbers, the study “clearly shows women face an uneven playing field,” Thomas said.
Taken together, those slights disadvantage women in the rise to power.
There’s another subtle factor at play: inequality at home.
For women who share housework equally with a partner, 43% aspire to become a senior executive at their job. But only 34% of women who do a majority of the housework aspire to be a senior executive.
Quite simply, when you’re putting in more work at home, it’s harder to find the motivation to advance in the workplace. Call it human nature. That contributes to an ambition gap, according to the study, which found 80% of men desire a promotion while 74% of women do. Overall, 56% of men want to become a top executive, while 40% of women do.
The glass ceiling may also be dampening ambition for women. Only 24% “want to be a top executive and believe it’s likely they’ll become one,” compared to 32% of men, according to the study.
Women get “less access to senior leaders, you get less of the critical input that helps you improve your performance, you get less credit for your ideas. It’s not surprising that you’re less optimistic about becoming a senior executive and less interested in it,” Thomas said.