As you know, 2012 was a year of women’s accomplishments – we were primary
breadwinners in a majority of US households, we were more educated than ever
previously, and we saw females named to leadership positions in the political
and corporate world.
But the Harvard Business Review noted earlier this month that there
are still puzzling issues females will be facing in 2013, which continue to
make us wonder about how much progress we have yet to make:
PAY: According to the latest research, women are better
educated than ever – earn nearly 60% of college degrees. But we are still
paid, on average, 23% less than men. Career and life choices may cause
some of this disparity, but in an analysis of full-time employees 10 years out
of college, there was still a 12% difference in earnings not explained by
profession or educational level.
GENDER STEREOTYPES: Catalyst,
a research firm tracking women’s progress in all fields, confirms that gender
stereotypes make it difficult for female leaders to feel comfortable taking a
“leadership” attitude because they are perceived as either competent or
liked, but not both. Forbes recently reported, "Studies show
that assertive women are more likely to be perceived as aggressive; that women
usually don't ask for what they deserve but when they do, they risk being
branded as domineering or, worse even, "ambitious."
PROMOTIONS: Females still attain far
fewer job slots at the top of the corporation – only 4% of CEOs in the Fortune
1,000 top companies are female, and Congress is still less than 20%
women. There may be many ways to rationalize this fact, but the pool of
qualified candidates for top jobs or leadership positions gets smaller when the
best women leave to raise a family or for other opportunities.
NETWORKING: Women may build wonderful
relationships, but we seldom use our connections for jobs or promotions.
When we network, we typically don’t exchange business ideas or ask for jobs,
and we need to use this opportunity for the career potential it offers.
BUSINESS OWNERSHIP: Females are
wonderful entrepreneurs, but it’s tough to find venture capital. A
2012 analysis by Dow Jones VentureSource reported that women launch
nearly half of all startups, and the most successful startups have more women
in senior positions than unsuccessful ones. Yet less than 7% of
executives in over 20,000 companies studied by Dow Jones were women.
“HAVE-IT-ALL” SYNDROME”: Women
today still feel pressure to “have it all” and can become stressed or
discouraged when we realize this seems impossible. Both women and men
feel this pressure, but more often, women leave work or change schedules when it’s
needed.
