PROMOTION MOTION LAGS
Fewer women moving up
By now the statistics are wellknown, if still unsettling: Women make up less than five per cent of the CEOs at the biggest corporations. Just under 20 per cent of directors at S&P 500 companies are female. Only 18 per cent of computer science degrees are awarded to women, and under 30 per cent of the science and engineering workforce is female.
To try and improve those consistently low numbers, high-profile initiatives have been taking aim at them, from the Rockefeller Foundation’s initiative to get 100 female CEOs in the Fortune 500 to Melinda Gates’ newly announced decision to dedicate more resources to getting women into tech.
Yet while attention has been showered on these important, widely covered problems — the lack of women in leadership positions, and the rarity of women in STEM fields — there’s another pipeline problem that doesn’t get nearly as much time in the spotlight. And while it’s persistent and pervasive, it stands to be fixed much more easily than the others.
For every 130 men who are promoted from the entry level ranks to manager, a new report showed this week, just 100 women are promoted at similar levels. That revealing number, included in the comprehensive annual study on women in the workforce by McKinsey & Co. and LeanIn.org, the organization founded by Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, is a reminder of the yawning gap that men and women face even at the earliest stages of their careers.
First reported in the Wall Street Journal, the study gathered data on promotions and careers of employees at 132 companies and surveyed some 34,000 men and women about their careers. It showed that men are 30 per cent more likely than women to see a promotion at this initial jump up the ladder, noting the gap is “the largest” at this early first stage.
“For us it was a real surprise — to see that this first promotion is so critical, and there’s such a disparity,” said Alexis Krivkovich, a partner in McKinsey. “The public narrative has focused on left of the pipeline (do we have women with the degrees necessary?) and the right of the pipeline (do we have women in senior roles?), but it’s underemphasized what happens to women early in their careers.”
What’s driving the gap? Given all the research that’s been done on the effect of motherhood on hiring and wages for young women, one might think a change in family roles is behind it. But that doesn’t appear to fully explain it, Krivkovich said. The new data shows men and women cite family balance in equal numbers as their top worry when asked about why they do or don’t want the next promotion. That suggests “this is not just about family concerns,” she said.
The shift from entry-level into managerial jobs typically comes about five to six years in, Krivkovich said. That’s before the mid-career years when heightened work expectations and the increased family demands of children and aging parents often really take their toll. Conventional wisdom about women’s careers, she said, “suggests that’s the real pinch point, but such a pronounced gap right at the outset suggests there’s more going on here that companies need to address.”
Meanwhile, the responses of men and women revealed two very different experiences: In the survey, women said they get consulted on fewer important decisions, didn’t get as many stretch assignments and didn’t feel they could participate equally in meetings. They also had different experiences with feedback: While men and women asked for feedback in similar numbers, and managers thought they gave it out to both, women said they actually received the kind of critical feedback that helps them advance much less often than men.
Krivkovich said unconscious bias is a culprit: “I think bias is a huge piece of it. I think a lot of companies think they’ve put in the training, the policies, and the leadership engagement. What the data suggests is those are important steps, but somewhere in there you haven’t yet solved for the bias underneath that’s getting in the way.”
Correcting the promotion gap is usually about better execution of the programs and policies they already have in place. “There’s a huge opportunity,” she said. “The first promotion? Companies can solve that today.”