Seven Steps to Leading a Gender-Balanced Business. Avivah Wittenberg-Cox
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managers are familiar with the science, the data, or the debates surrounding gender issues. The often adversarial perspective of a “war between the sexes” portrayed by the media may be their only introduction to a subject that now often concerns more than half their employees and more than half their customers. This lack of understanding requires education and attention. Simply setting targets to bring more “women into management” does not help leaders learn how to manage across genders; rather, it usually builds a solid wall of resistance among the male majority within a company.
FRONTLINE FEEDBACK: “We realized that it’s sometimes a difficult topic to talk about. It was also clear that change does not happen overnight. It’s not just about filling a few positions. To make real change, it’s easier said than done. We got a better understanding of what it takes.”
Companies are failing to take advantage of the global talent and purchasing power of women, in part because of the way gender issues were positioned from the start: as a diversity dimension, with women seen as one minority among many. While nearly every large American multinational has a “diversity and inclusion” department, few have achieved anything close to real gender balance.
The other challenge with “diversity” in many companies is that it is so often focused on promoting more women. Companies try to hide an urgent focus on “women” that might displease the majority of their male employees by labeling it with a more “inclusive” term. This backfires as managers are then even more frustrated by the misuse of terms, and claim—quite rightly—that “diversity is much more than gender.”
FRONTLINE FEEDBACK: “The CEO’s Gender Commission is all women; he needs to invite three male leaders. Part of the misunderstanding of the issue is an antiquated view of whose responsibility it is. It’s men’s.”
One other important note: equal does not mean the same. Most of today’s managers, both men and women, were educated to think that the very idea of gender differences was a regressive idea, steeped in stereotypes. Being progressive meant treating everyone exactly the same. Progressive managers always tell me that they “couldn’t care less whether someone is male or female. Only competence counts.” Yet we are discovering through all kinds of sciences—neurological, biological, psychological, and physiological—that men and women are different. And today’s women are confident enough to ask that those differences be recognized, understood, and adapted to.
FRONTLINE FEEDBACK: “When you walk into an office, you can smell and breathe when there is a culture that allows for good gender balance—and when there’s not.”
Before you decide how to implement any change, it’s useful to define what you’re after and what success will look like. Clarity, transparency, and prioritization are the best protection against backlash. When you’re promoting gender balance, explain why you’ve chosen that term and what you expect the benefits to be for your company’s bottom line.
Bundle Gender Balance Initiatives
Many companies are uncomfortable focusing specifically on gender. This is especially difficult in traditionally male-dominated sectors where an outright focus on gender is not always well received. Unless the gender balance issue is urgent and very obvious within your sector (for example, if 80 percent of your customers and consumers are women and 80 percent of your leaders are men), I recommend bundling gender-balance improvements with other strategic change initiatives.
FRONTLINE FEEDBACK: “We need to begin by clarifying the facts and working through the upfront analysis. We need to understand what is the balance of men and women by region, by country, by function and level. As with any other strategic business issue, we need to segment the issue, understand the business impact, and set priorities. Only then can we tackle gender balance in a clear, focused way, with a strategic program and clear actions. Otherwise it is just a lot of words, with no real substance.”
For example, many multinational companies are pushing to hire more Asian and Latin American executives. Executives recognize this as simply keeping pace with the way the world is changing—even though they don’t necessarily intuitively grasp the same logic behind gender balance. Therefore, it can help to reframe gender balance as akin to the globalization push. Understanding, serving, and representing gender becomes like understanding, serving, and representing another country or culture. Both have to do with changing market realities.
Alternatively, gender balance can be framed as part of an effort to make technology-driven or manufacturing-driven companies more focused on building customer relationships. Or as a push toward cultivating a more progressive leadership culture that is based less on command-and-control hierarchies and more on responsive, networked, and stakeholder-respecting values.
The number of companies I have seen roll out policies and communications that pair women and gender issues with disability issues is remarkable, labeling them, as I have often seen, “women and handicapped” initiatives. This positioning couldn’t be more unhelpful or counterproductive. It smacks of unstrategic, diversity-led political correctness at its worst.
It’s much better to repeat the message that no manager will debate: You want to reflect internally the markets you serve externally, and to do this, you need to attract the world’s best talent—which most certainly includes women.
Clearly Identify Your Goal
Most companies regularly communicate statements about their diversity initiatives aimed at women. And yet very few executive teams reflect actual gender balance. Organizations must learn to be more transparent and open about their gender-balancing plans. The less clear companies are about their gender goals, the less likely they are to reach them.
Very few companies have websites that don’t present statements about their initiatives aimed at women. And very few companies have executive teams that reflect actual gender balance. Organizations must learn to be more transparent and open about their gender-balancing plans. The less clear companies are about their gender goals, the less likely they are to achieve them.
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