Women@Work Topic of the Month
Sept 2009
Women & Leadership
In May 2009, Marks and Spencer chairman Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of Marks and Spencers, claimed that women have "never had it so good" in the workplace, saying there is no reason why they should not make it to the top of any profession they choose.
But what do the statistics show?
Political leaders:
- In 2007, 33% of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament are women (down from 39% in the 2003 elections).
- Women hold only 19.3 per cent of the positions in the UK Parliament.
- At the beginning of 2007, 19% of local council leaders were women and 81% were men, while 13% of local authority Chief Executives were women and and 87% were men.
- In 2006, 34% of appointments to Scottish Executive sponsored non-departmental public bodies were women and 17% of chairs of such bodies were women.
Leaders in the workplace:
- As a whole, in Scotland in 2006, only 36% of mangers and senior officials were women. Women predominate in key public sector workforces such as teaching (93% of primary teachers, and 58% of secondary teachers in 2004), the NHS (78% in 2005) and local government (67% in 2005), but remain under-represented in senior positions.
- Women hold just 11 per cent of FTSE 100 directorships
Leaders in Education
- Even in professions where women predominate, such as teaching (93% of primary teachers, and 58% of secondary teachers in 2004), the NHS (78% in 2005) and local government (67% in 2005), they are under-represented in senior positions.
- The Women’s Leadership Network researched the number of women principals in post. They found that 36% of college principals are women, up from the late 1990s when women comprised 25% of principals in England. But this percentage falls short of what we would expect if we consider that the percentage of women in the FE workforce is 63 per cent, the percentage of teachers in FE is 59% and the percentage of women managers in colleges is 60 per cent. And we know that, in spite of the increases in BME principals, black and minority ethnic women continue to be under-represented at this level.
The issue is also linked to equal pay: women in leadership positions still often earn less than their male counterparts.
The gender earnings ratio also varies by occupation. For example, in 2005 in Scotland women full-time workers in professional occupations earned 86% of their male counterparts' earnings, while women process, plant and machine operatives earned 70% of men's earnings.
An Equality and Human Rights Commission report found that women earn up to 60% less than men in the finance sector. The research indicates that although numbers of men and women in the sector are equal, the pay gap is more than twice the national average. This has led the TUC to declare that the ‘glass ceiling’ is still very much in effect in this industry.
Sex and Power, the Equality and Human Rights Commission's annual report looking at women in positions of power and influence across the public and private sector, suggests a worrying trend of reversal or stalled progress - with only a few significant increases.
The last report, published in September 2008, showed a downward trend in women holding top posts in 4 of the 14 categories. In another 6 categories, the number of women has remained unchanged since 2007's index. Women's representation has increased in just 4 areas.
To highlight the scale of the challenge the Commission has calculated the women 'missing' from senior positions in Scotland.
Among the 'missing' women are:
- 130 missing from public appointments
- 85 missing head teachers in Secondary Schools
- 21 missing Members of Parliament
- 13 missing judges of the Court of Session
- 11 missing senior police officers
- 12 missing local authority chief executives
For the UK as a whole, if women were to achieve equal representation among Britain’s 31,000 top positions of power, the Commission estimates nearly 5700 ‘missing’ women would rise through the ranks to positions of real influence.
As Morag Alexander, Scotland Commissioner with the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said:
‘We always speak of a glass ceiling. These figures reveal that in some cases it appears to be made of concrete. We need radical change, support those who are doing great work and help those who want to work better and release talent.’
The Commission’s report argued that this is not just a 'women's issue' but is a powerful symptom of a wider failure. We await the 2009 report to see if any progress has been made.
Lack of women in leadership positions is also holding back potential growth, as a recent report by Ernst & Young, ‘Groundbreakers. Using the Strength of Women to rebuild the World Economy’ showed. This report concluded showed that companies with more women in leadership roles have better financial performance.
In Norway, the government took the bold step in 2003 to introduce quotas for women on the boards of public limited companies, after voluntary measures had not yielded much progress. As a result, today all have at least 40% women. This in turn has resulted in greater diversity and perspectives. An article in the 2009 magazine of the Nordic Gender Institute discusses the implications of this very interesting initiative.
Of course, leadership is not a gender issue in itself. Women in leadership roles do not have different needs from men, but they face additional barriers. As a minority, they can feel isolated. They can also have less opportunity than male colleagues for informal mentoring. And of course, they can also struggle to combine family and work commitments.
Having more women in leadership roles can only benefit business and society, by providing a wider and more diverse perspective and skills. As Sex and Power, the Equality and Human Rights Commission's annual report for 2008 concluded, this failure of women in leadership roles leads to a squandering of talent.
Clearly it won't all happen at once, but if women gain skills and confidence to become effective leaders in their organisations, hopefully the glass ceiling will become less like concrete and more like mesh.
The W@W project has joined forces with the Social Enterprise Academy to offer women-only training in leadership for women in the Highlands. The first course was oversubscribed, and we hope that a second will run in the new year. Initiatives such as this can help redress the balance, and lead to more qualified and effective women providing leadership in a number of organisations.
Further information:
Sex and Power, the Equality and Human Rights Commission's annual report looking at women in positions of power and influence across the public and private sector in Scotland
Sex and Power 2008
Sex and Power report for the UK as a whole.
Scottish Government Statistics on Men and Women
This also links to a full report A Gender Audit of Statistics: Comparing the Position of Women and Men in Scotland
Engender
Engender is an information, research and networking organisation for women in Scotland. Its Power and Participation Subgroup looks at issue of women in leadership roles.
Nordic Gender Institute
NIKK is a transnational resource- and information centre on gender research and gender equality in the Nordic countries. The 2009 issue of their magazine featured articles on Women and Leadership.
Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership
The site contains lists of female Heads of State listed by country, a chronological list of Women in Power from B.C. 3000, female Prime Ministers, Ministers of Finance and Ministers of Defence and Ministers by country, female Chairpersons of Parliament, female Governors, Premiers and local Leaders by country, female Party Leaders for each country, a chronological list of female Presidential Candidates, Ambassadors to the United Nations and first female ambassadors for each country, lists of women's ordination to priesthood and female bishops and finally a list of female Danish leaders.
Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics (CAWP)
Formed in October 2000, and based at Queens University Belfast, CAWP aims to foster an appreciation of women's contribution to politics, government and public decision making in the UK and Ireland. It considers women's political participation as having two important dimensions - the proportion of women in decision making and the inclusion of women's perspectives in government policies and programmes. Alongside research and statistics, CAWP also offers a leadership programme.
Council of Women World Leaders
The Council of Women World Leaders is a network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers. The Council currently has 35 members – which perhaps is eloquent in itself.
Women’s Leadership Network
Based in Oxford, the WLN aims to develop a strong, dynamic and influential network of women leaders, to ensure equality of opportunity throughout the FE system.
The Prince's Trust Women's Leadership Group
Of the 40,000 young people The Prince’s Trust helps each year, only 15,000 are young women. The majority of their donors are male. The Prince's Trust Women's Leadership Group wishes to involve more women in their work and to motivate female supporters to help them target more disadvantaged young women.
Social Enterprise Academy
Contributed by Susan Kruse, W@W Website Co-ordinator
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