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What’s Holding Women Back in the Workplace? WSJ 9-30-15 Instructor Notes & Suggested Tools Article: What’s Holding Women Back in the Workplace by Nikki Waller and Joanne S. Lublin, Wall Street Journal, September 30, 2015 Summary: A study by Leanin.org and McKinzie & Co., involving 118 companies and 30,000 women and men, on women in the workplace shows efforts toward diversity haven’t significantly enhanced women’s upward movement in organizations. Some significant insights from the study include: • A lot of companies espoused that gender diversity was important; however, fewer than half the participants surveyed perceived it was high on their leaderships’ priority list. • Senior women are more likely than men to be found in staff roles versus line roles with profitand-loss responsibilities that more directly lead to the C-suite. The lack of profit-and-loss experience may cause mid-level women from seeking high-level jobs. • Worries about balancing work and family life rank among the biggest deterrents from both women and men from seeking an executive role. • Women are hurt by having less access to senior-level mentors and sponsors in the workplace compared to men. • Women must overcome cultural stereotypes about expected female leader behavior that impact performance ratings and selection for higher positions. • Senior leaders committed to shaping an organizational culture which values diversity seems to be the answer to affecting real change with regard to providing opportunities for women to earn C-level suite positions. • Honorable Topics • How ethical leaders can reduce gender obstacles • Shape culture that values diversity and equal opportunities for all Suggested Best Practices to Shape a Culture that Values Gender Diversity: Main Tools to Shape Culture Leaders’ focus (pay attention to, measure & control) • Senior leaders must measure their organizations’ progress to promoting women into senior leadership positions (LeanIn.Org) • Twice annually, leaders get a breakdown of their organizations’ diversity and are held to individualized goals (Johnson & Johnson) • Establish diversity goals for leaders and hold them accountable (BAE Systems) • Publish regular reports on the organization’s progress to reach diversity goals (Slack Technologies) • Publish your organization’s data on gender diversity and engage leaders in frank discussion on how the organization is going to reach its goals (McKinsey & Co) • Get granular with the metrics and keep feedback on progress timely to make a difference (Intel)

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2 Leaders role model, coach, and engage • Create a sponsorship program where senior leaders work with mid-level leaders to help prepare them for and advocate to get them key positions that lead to C-level promotions (Intel) • Senior women leaders host events to provide mid-level female leaders a real view of work and family balance at the C-level (Prudential) • Encourage senior male leaders to get involved in programs to develop mid-level female leaders (Morgan Stanley) • Ask employees to help create strategies to assist in changing culture to support gender diversity (McKinsey & Co) • Leaders need to create and use policies that allow flexibility in work to achieve more balance between work and family responsibilities to communicate to employees it is safe to use these policies (Moody’s Corp.) • Senior leaders need to engage in sponsorship programs to provide all potential C-suite leaders the support and flexibility to be a good business partner and family member—this makes it easier for women to ask for help (GM) Resource allocation • Resourcing training programs to transparently address the obstacles women face in the workplace is important to help increase gender diversity (LeanIn.Org) • Provide high potential women, across age groups, programs, symposiums and events to further their development for C-level positions and enhance participants’ sponsor networks (JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup Inc., & Goldman Sachs Group) • Offer programs to assist professionals returning to the workforce after voluntarily taking a career break. The purpose of these programs is to provide the returning professionals training on latest technology, updates on industry’s trends, and hands on projects to re-hone professional skills (Goldman Sachs) • Establish training programs to address unconscious gender bias (McKinsey & Co) • Create education programs to educate leaders about their unconscious biases and how they impact performance review write-ups. For instance, women leaders performance reviews tend to contain more supportive language (e.g., helpful, collaborative, team player); whereas, men’s evaluations contain more assertive language (e.g., innovative, drive, tackle). (Microsoft) Rewards & punishment • Tie managers’ pay packages to how well they recruit and promote women (Gannett- Ms. Martore) • Managers’ bonus consideration includes gender diversity metrics (Johnson & Johnson) • Tie a portion of leaders’ bonuses to hitting diversity metrics (Intel) Recruiting & selection system • Mandate that diverse candidates are interviewed for jobs (Facebook, Inc.) • Ensure all interviewed candidates are qualified for the job to prevent simple list checking for diversity (GM) • Change interview procedures so women and minorities are not put at a disadvantage (Slack Technologies) • Create outreach programs to identify talent in college (Slack Technologies) • Use gender based recruiting targets (McKinsey & Co) • Screen job announcements for word choices that show gender bias (Textio) Performance evaluation & promotion systems • Ensure women have line roles (profit-and-loss responsibilities) throughout their career • Examine the criteria used to select leaders for promotion to ensure they are not putting any group at a disadvantage (McKinsey & Co) • Change performance metrics that might discourage employees from taking flexibility benefits (Dr. Elsbach, UC Davis)

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Create a program that provides returning mothers a performance success rating for six months that allows them time to transition back into the work place (PwC Strategy)

Supporting Tools to Shape Culture Policies & procedures • Exempt new mothers and anyone else off work for at least 16 weeks from being measured for their performance review that year to encourage women to take maternity leave (PwC LLP) • Offer programs that provide both women and men more flexibility to balance work and family demands • Establish policies to neutralize the impact of maternity (or paternity) leave on career advancement (McKinsey & Co) • Re-think how you work to provide your employees more flexibility such as travel policies, allowing part-time work, and working remotely (McKinsey & Co) Stories of heroes • Show case individuals who won promotions while working in a variety of flexible arrangements, such as telecommuting and part-time work. (Moody’s Corp.) Note: Tools to shape culture adapted from Schein (2010). Organizational culture & leadership, 4th ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Suggested Discussion Questions 1. Why do you think women tend to get funneled into senior staff jobs versus men being given senior profit-and-loss (line) positions? 2. In your opinion, what is the best way to refute our culture’s bias regarding women business leaders? 3. As you progress through the business world, what are you going to do to promote gender diversity?

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