Career Advancement Still Tougher for Women

CUNA’s E-Scan Website
July 20, 2010 | COMMENTS

In executive positions, many career-driven women are still marginalized within the workforce. Even after taking into account years of experience, industry, and global region, women were still more likely than men to start in a post-MBA job at a lower level, according to a report by research firm Catalyst, reported in Training & Development magazine.

The Catalyst findings held firm all the way up the pipeline, from first-level managers to senior executive positions.

Even while accounting for number of years of prior experience, time since MBA, and other factors, men still had higher starting salaries in their first post-MBA jobs than women. The findings estimate that women are being paid $4,600 less than men in their first executive-level jobs.

“The results were disappointing,” says report co-author and Catalyst Research Director Christine Silva. “We've studied the barriers facing women in their careers for years—for example, stereotypes or presumptions about their abilities or interests—but with this study, we had an opportunity to test whether this held true with a group of high-potential women and men.”

The survey included women and men who graduated from MBA programs and went on to work full-time. The study accounted for reasons employers might give for inequities, such as women having different aspirations or leaving the workforce temporarily to bear children. The findings held even when the women and men sampled had the same aspirations and didn't have children.

The report also showed that women who took nontraditional career paths were penalized more heavily than men who did the same. Catalyst research shows that entrenched barriers to women's advancement include:

• Gender-based stereotypes,
• Exclusion from informal networks, and
• Lack of role models.

“Having a champion or champions at the decision-making table, whether it's a decision about who gets laid off or who gets promoted, greatly helps,” says Silva.

The study used input from CEOs and senior leaders in major global companies to explore the reasons behind the data and offer advice on how to work toward a solution.

“Companies may need to offer additional training when employees first get people-management responsibilities,” notes Silva. Other suggestions for improvements in the workplace include:

• Don't assume that the playing field is level;
• Examine erroneous assumptions about demographics and life choices;
• Build in checks and balances against unconscious biases;
• Collect and review salary growth metrics; and
• Make assignments based on qualifications, not presumptions.

Companies should not assume that women will stay in jobs and overlook opportunities for advancement and better prospects elsewhere. Among participants, those who left for career growth and more money had greater salary growth than those who remained in their original positions.

“[This research] will hopefully serve as a wake-up call that we can't expect that inequality will disappear just by ‘giving it time' and waiting it out,” says Silva.

Among credit unions, one telling statistic is the ratio of men and women holding the top job—president, CEO or manager. The proportion of men to women tells a story similar to that of salary inequity. At the smallest credit unions, females most often hold the top position. That changes at institutions with assets greater than $50 million, at which point males outnumber females 70% to 30%. The greater the asset size, the more pronounced the difference: At CUs of $1 billion or more, 82% put men in the top slot versus 18% that put women in that job.

This article originally appeared on CUNA's E-Scan Online Research & Advice Portal. Reprinted with permission. For the latest information on credit union compensation programs, see the 2010-2011 Complete Credit Union Staff Salary Survey Report, available at the end of July.