Few Women in Management, but Companies Fail to Identify Future Leaders
The General Accounting Office released a long overdue report on Tuesday with the ponderous title Women in Management—Female Managers’ Representation, Characteristics and Pay. And now The New York Times is reporting the news with the headline Still Few Women in Management, Report Says .
True, as of 2007 (before the Great Recession started) the latest year for which data on managers was available, women accounted for about 40 percent of managers in the United States work force. In 2000, women held 39 percent of management positions.
Still the data also pointed to some bright spots. Women were more than proportionately represented in management positions in construction and public administration, and there was no statistically significant difference between women’s representation in management and non-management positions for the transportation and utilities sectors.
All in all the results were unsurprising. Managers of either sex are more likely to be childless–sixty-three percent of female managers and fifty-five percent of male managers had no kids. Is this a reason family friendly policies still have a hard time gaining traction? And woman who are managers are more likely to be single than their male counterparts.
While life is about choices, female managers earned 81 cents for every dollar a male manager earned up 2 cents from 2000. Checking the inflation calculator, that dollar in 2000, was worth $1.19 in 2007, so women are still losing ground not gaining it.
If companies are still not promoting women to management, it may be because for some it’s not even on the radar. According to recent poll by Right Management (a division of Manpower) nearly one-third of North American companies have failed to identify future leaders within their organization. A further 30% reported identifying potential leaders for only some key roles. So many organizations, it turns out, have made practically no provision for future leadership,” said Deborah Schroeder-Saulnier, Right Management Senior Vice President for Global Solutions.
Tags: equal pay, management, succession planning, work-life balance
