Why Women Mean Business, Understanding the Emergence of our next economic revolution

09 Oct 2008

Welcome to the Why Women Mean Business Blog!

Our London book launch January 30th, hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, was an animated event. Over 100 people participated in a lively Q&A with Alison and me, and with the panel of distinguished male guests we'd invited because we believe that things won't change until men realise they are a big part of the solution. So we invited them to engage. Joining us were:

• Kevin Daly, Sr Economist from Goldman Sachs
• Sumitra Dutta, Dean of External Relations from INSEAD and
• Paul Cleal, Chief Talent Officer from PwC

The debate was facilitated by Stefan Stern of the Financial Times who noted his appreciation for the book's inclusive conclusion that the changes we are proposing represent "a desirable, not a threatening, revolution. Rather than thinking that men and women are from different planets, we have the more amusing challenge of learning to run this planet together."

After we had presented the key findings and messages of the book, Kevin Daly reinforced these by making a strong case for recognising that the economic argument in favour of developing the participation rate of women around the world is very strong. That it leads to both healthier economies and higher birth rates. He says that few countries in the world can boast a level playing field (it's comforting to hear a male, Senior Economist from Goldman Sachs confirm what many women have been muttering among themselves for some time), and that the Anglo-Saxon world is not as advanced in these respects as it thinks.He also, interestingly, suggested that although culture is a factor in the debate, it was quite clear from experiments in countries like Spain, that if you adjust policies to be more supportive of women, culture does not
prove to be much of a barrier to change. I think that is probably true in companies too. Correct the unconscious, systemic bias issues, women will respond, and cultural adaptation will follow.

Sumitra Dutta and Paul Cleal explained what their respective organisations were doing in trying to achieve greater gender balance. For PwC, they've made great progress on retention, and are no longer losing women during the maternity years. However, the challenge is still to get suffcient numbers of women promoted to partner level, which has proven a harder issue to crack. As for INSEAD, Sumitra was very pleased to announce that they had managed to increase the percentage of women on the MBA programme to 30%. They are still struggling (as are many other business schools) with getting any kind of female representation among the faculty.

I think both of these issues get at the crux of the issue. It is relatively simple for organisations to manage retention in the middle management ranks. It requires a bit of flexibility and understanding. The issue of
promotion is a deeper one, because it requires a greater degree of adaptation from the leadership currently in power. It requires questioning the assumption of gender-blind meritocracies, and starting to understand just how the system, culture and processes currently favour male career cycles, communication styles and leadership behaviours. It mostly requires these organisations coming to recognise that, if they want gender balance at the top, there is more to change than just maternity leave management. It requires that we stop focusing on fixing the women... and that we start changing the men...

We think our book launch events, bringing together men and women to debate these points, is a wonderful way to start.

Posted at 12:25 PM by Admin Y Women Mean Business in | Permalink

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