How To Lighten The Load For Women In Leadership

For decades, women have talked about juggling career and home life. Denise Wilson OBE, Chief Executive of the FTSE Women Leaders Review (formerly the Davies Review and Hampton-Alexander Review) likens the load that women carry to rocks in a rucksack. They may not only slow down progression along the career journey but also contribute to the unevenness of the playing field for men and women for internal promotion.

The FTSE Women Leaders Review is an independent but government-supported initiative in the UK. Its aim has been to increase the representation of women in senior leadership positions and on the boards of FTSE 350 companies. In February 2021, its reports showed real progress has been made. The FTSE 100, 250 and 350 all reached the target of women making up 33% of boards. 

This success—and the need for the continued push towards gender parity—has led to the relaunch of the Review and an expansion of its remit to ensure UK companies have at least 40% female board members.

However, its ambitions are beyond that of a simple percentage. Wilson explains that the next challenge is to ensure that women are not only present at the board table, but are appointed to the top, high-paying roles. The vast majority of chair, CEO and finance director roles are currently held by men.

She comments: “Women have so often watched the men they have grown up with in the organization, glide on to the top unhindered. These women are as competent as the men, but women just don’t seem to get the same opportunities.”

For Wilson, this can create a vicious circle. “With no women in more senior positions, women don’t have the role models to aspire to and, more often than not, simply stay put. They remain under-employed and fail to reach their potential.”

Making The Change

To make the shift towards more equal career progression for men and women, companies need to look at how to level up the playing field, regarding caring responsibilities outside of work and the balance of this with work.

Wilson comments: “The biggest lever to making the change happen is creating a fair and open playing field.” This lack of internal promotion is one of the most important barriers to be tackled in the next phase of the Review.

Some of the rocks in the rucksack can be removed by women. Others can be thrown out by a change in company practice and policy. Wilson adds that one of the frustrations is that companies looking to improve women’s representation at more senior levels, often start at the wrong place. They look to their recruitment and hiring practices and bring in new talent. Retention is often a side-show.

Chucking Out Some Rocks

Greater gender balance and equality is absolutely not an issue for women to ‘fix’. It requires systematic changes in workplace structures and practices.

However, there are certain actions that women can take to help reduce their load and manage their own career advancement.

Wilson offers these tips:

1. Love what you do—and do what you love. Work demands time and energy and if it isn’t something you are really passionate about, it can feel like a heavy load.
2. Be prepared to flex.  Work and family life make different demands at different times. Accept this and learn to flex, changing the focus and the time needed. Enjoy the ability to do this.
3. Choose the right life partner. The choice of partner makes all the difference. Look for someone who will share and support your ambition and believes in equality in the home too.
4. Negotiate a better deal at home. Look to buy in support, step across the toys on the floor and learn what to prioritize.
5. Relinquish control of the unimportant at home. Accept support and learn to focus on the big picture and not the small and irrelevant. There are, Wilson says, many ways to stack the dishwasher!
6. Don’t allow yourself to be under-employed. Recognize your abilities and strive for development.
7. Be authentic, be bold and be resilient. Characteristics essential for future success.

Levelling The Playing Field

There are actions too that the organizations must take in order to foster the development of women and their promotion into more senior roles.

Create women’s networks. Wilson observes the power of networks. Traditionally, men have forged their own informal and formal networks: spaces in which they have supported each other right through childhood and upwards. Women, she comments, tend not to behave like this. She says, in the past: “women haven’t supported each other as much as they could have, nor sufficiently celebrate the achievements of other women, and tend to internalise rather than openly tackling some of the issues”. And yet, women do find real energy and connection in networks once they join. It is merely that they tend not to happen naturally.

Improve the support and coaching around life events, such as pregnancy. There are, Wilson says, still too many reports of women who, once pregnant, have the brakes put on their career. They lose their job, they return to less of a role or people make assumptions about what the woman wants. Introducing mentors who are several years on from maternity leave can help to navigate this challenging time.

The Key To Progress is Action

The real challenge is to persuade senior leaders to act. Wilson suggests: “We have built a strong  ‘business case’ for gender balance—there is no lack of evidence on the business benefits of diversity, yet the loss of talented women, and cost associated exists at many levels and across all sectors of business. Then there is the moral argument too. Driving equality in the workplace is also  the right thing to do. This is no longer about personal motivations founded on the future of daughters, this is about 50% of the population being recognized for their talent and creating a better, fairer working world for all. Finally, we need to understand and build in greater diversity into our companies to create more inclusive cultures and increase awareness of cultural difference.”

This will better reflect the company customer base and bring about diversity of thought into the business.

Wilson also reflects on the legacy and change she would like to see as an outcome to such action. “I’d like to see gender-balanced leadership and a fair and equal number of women at every board and decision-making table. And to see women in fulfilling, well-paid careers with happy family lives. Frankly, I’d like not to be still talking about the need for gender balance. It is simply a given”