So-called women’s skills are much lauded in the workplace these days, but will they actually get you where you want to go? Irene Krechowiecka investigates
Has the last decade been a good one for working women? Certainly there’s been much said and written about the value of women’s work styles and the latest National Management Salary Survey, released by the Institute of Management shows that the gap in earnings between men and women in the top jobs is narrowing.
Despite this, many women feel their working lives are conducted on a sloping playing field where men have the advantage. A slightly different view of working realities comes from this year’s UK Graduate Career Survey, in which female students were shown to have much lower expectations than their male counterparts. When asked what they expected to be earning five years after graduation men averaged out at £35,400 a year and women at £28,900.
Women make up half the country’s workforce and according to the IM survey, female managers have now almost redressed pay inequalities.
- In 1990 women earned on average 38 per cent less than their male counterparts, today they earn 8 per cent less.
- The average woman manager gets £33,000 a year - still £3,000 less than her male colleagues.
Despite almost universal agreement that women’s management styles are more effective, they are under half way to fulfilling their quota of management roles. Only 22 per cent of managerial posts are filled by women. At board level things are even worse. Although female board membership has increased from 1.6 per cent ten years ago to 9.6 per cent today, there’s still a long way to go before the much-acclaimed soft skills of the female manager make an impact on the shape of the working world.
So why the discrepancy? It has a lot to do with the fact that the strategy and culture of most organisations is still set by men and often takes little account of the patterns of women’s lives. Long hours, aggression and competitiveness are dominant factors in many workplaces. Presenteeism is more the norm than parental leave. Could it be that the soft skills women have, although valued by employees and writers on management theory, make it easy for men to remain dominant?
Women’s work styles are not, of course, confined to women. There are many male managers who display these characteristics, but even the language used to describe such behaviour is fraught with difficulties. How many males find it flattering to have any aspect of their performance described as soft?
It’s hard to write about gender specific characteristics without reverting to dangerous generalisations, outdated stereotypes or outrageous sexism, but the following are generally recognised as typical female behaviours at work:
- Less interest in status and hierarchy than job content
- Valuing and practising co-operation rather than confrontation
- Happy to praise others rather than seek credit for self
- Concern about achieving a satisfying work/life balance
- See achieving consensus as important
- Interested in developing relationships with work colleagues
Perhaps these characteristics also contribute to women being underrepresented in the top jobs. Even if everyone agrees that persuasiveness, team consciousness, and the ability to communicate and negotiate effectively are desirable, it would be naive to believe that they will always be recognised and rewarded. It’s not unknown for the more ruthless of either sex to take advantage of submissive behaviour to establish their dominance. If women really are less concerned about salaries, perhaps they are less likely to push for pay rises; if they’re less interested in status, are they less likely to seek out promotions and if they don’t push does it mean they get overlooked?
Men often dismiss debate on gender inequality in the workplace as a combination of troublesome feminism combined with unjustified paranoia. Ask a man if there’s a glass ceiling in the organisation and the answer is generally no. Ask a woman in the same organisation and you’ll get an in-depth analysis. Male managers are rarely interested in discussing such concerns – after all, they’ve got a job to do and no time to spend on vague issues that don’t directly affect them.
The good news, however, is that changes in our economy mean more knowledge-based jobs and movement away from old structures. It’s interesting that the most marked rise of women in the workplace has been in personnel, finance, business services and the public sector. Perhaps these rapidly changing, customer-focused organisations are better able to abandon the old hierarchies and working practices that prevent many women realising their full potential.