How Can We Get More Women To The Top In Organisations?

I've been thinking a lot about HeForShe recently and what equality between the sexes means. Today I want to explore what it means for people in a professional setting, as I watched a TED Talk recently that put some things in perspective.

In her September 2014 TED Talk (see below), Susan Colantuono starts off by saying that "women represent 50% of middle management positions". Here we have an example of gender equality in the workplace, but only if you're in middle management.

Susan then asks "why are there so many women mired in the middle and what has to happen to take them to the top." We could argue that we don't see women in top management positions due to sexism in the workplace. However, if 50% of all middle management positions are held by women, surely this means that women are not being penalised due to their sex?

According to Susan, there are different elements of leadership, however only certain of these elements are communicated because some of the other elements are "a given" and are assumed to be known. Generally, what is communicated to people rising up the ladder is that they need to be able to successfully engage with people in order to inspire others and themselves to reach the goals set for them by the organisation. It is communicated that good leaders empower others, manage conflict well, are able to negotiate and are good communicators. 

For many middle management positions, that is all that is needed. However, to get to the top, there is some extra information that men take for granted and thus this is not communicated to women who are wanting to get to the top. It is taken for granted that the following concepts are already known to people (men and women) wanting to pursue top management positions. To use Susan's own words: 

"What about people who understand your business, where it's going, and their role in taking it there? And what about people who are able to scan the external environment, identify risks and opportunities, make strategy or make strategic recommendations? And what about people who are able to look at the financials of your business,understand the story that the financials tell, and either take appropriate action or make appropriate recommendations?"

For men, the above ideas are already a given. 

Later on in her talk, Susan mentions a comment by an executive who had mentored both a man and a woman, which sums up the above concepts perfectly. "I helped the woman build confidence, I helped the man learn the business, and I didn't realize that I was treating them any differently."

And so, to go back to my earlier point, when it comes to top management positions, women are held back, unintentionally, because they are not told about ALL* of the requirements that are needed in order to get to the top.

I think that the solution to this is to start opening up the communication channels and exploring what the women in top leadership positions are doing that allowed them to get to the top and sharing this knowledge with other people, men and women, so that in the course of their day to day jobs, both men and women can be aware of ALL* the requirements to get to the top.

* ALL in the context of Susan's talk

What I Think HeForShe Is About

A while ago I shared a link to a talk given by Emma Watson on the UN Women HeForShe campaign. I mentioned that I hadn't thought about feminism in depth before because I hadn't really needed to. Following that line of thought a bit further, I think the other reason that I haven't researched feminism more is because, all too often in our current society, feminists are portrayed as women who think they don't need men. I don't believe this either. I believe we need both men and women, working together and supporting each other in order to allow all people to reach their full potential.

I think the key difference that separates this campaign from other movements is  that men are the target of this campaign. Throughout history, women's rights have been fought for primarily by women. These women have needed to appeal to men in order to be allowed to vote. To be allowed to study. For rights to own property. By bringing men on board, HeForShe are directly targeting the people who are able to drive this change the fastest. Because, let's face it, currently in this world, many leadership positions and positions of influence are positions held by men. I am of the opinion that if the people who hold positions of influence start changing their mindsets, so will those that admire the influencer also change their mindsets. Women can drive and campaign for equal rights as much as possible, but if we don't have both men and women on board, we will never be able to reach equality.

The HeForShe campaign really appeals to me. I like that, at it's essence, it's a campaign about equality. Equality for women and men. This is what makes the HeForShe campaign different. It's a campaign that is asking societies to stop treating women as objects and start treating them as people. It's asking that society allow men the freedom to express emotion without fear that this is seen as a weakness. It's a campaign that is asking that people show each other respect. This campaign is asking for people to change their mindsets. And changing mindsets is quite possibly the most difficult task of all...

Equality

If you're interested in finding out more about this campaign, you can go to heforshe.org and sign up. 

(I've done it. I even ticked that little box. If you don't know what box I'm talking about, go to the site and find out!)

There are so many other thoughts and aspects to this that I want to explore - if you don't want to miss any posts, you can lik my facebook page or follow me on Bloglovin.

Have You Heard About HeForShe

You know, feminism hasn't been something that I've felt strongly about before. I've never needed to because that fight was fought for me and I have benefited from the results of past feminist movements. I've been privileged enough to be brought up in an environment where I was not limited because of my sex. I went to a school that encouraged women to be strong and independent and go-getters. I didn't have to fight to study an engineering degree. I worked in the maintenance department of a factory and I was lucky enough to never have been made to feel that my femaleness was a disadvantage, instead I became the in-house "expert" on some of our systems.

However, I recently watched Emma Watson give a talk on a campaign that UN Women have launched, called HeForShe. It struck a chord with me and has made me think. It has made me think so many thoughts that I can't even begin to pin them down in one post. Instead, like Emma, I am going to appeal to you - my readers, my friends, my family, male, female, young, old. To sign up for this campaign and start taking ALL gender inequality seriously. (In the mean time, I will carry on ordering my thoughts so that I can share them with you when I've figured them out!)

To find out more, watch Emma's speech below. 

Finally, now that you've watched Emma's speech, I am going to use the words of my friend Claire, who has summed this up much better than me:

"So if you haven't already, head along to the HeforShe website and sign up. Or don't. But do take a look at the awesome map. So far only 494* men from South Africa have signed up. Yes, many people don't have internet access, and yes, many men do not want to be spammed with emails, but this is not just for women. It's for equality. Something definitely worth being spammed for."

* This was up to 555 by the time I had signed up. Hopefully it's grown even more by the time you read this!