Europe's Extra-Thick Glass Ceiling
Women are still bumping into a glass ceiling in European firms and their talent will go to waste unless companies do more to address stereotypes that are seen as barriers to advancement, a survey showed Tuesday.
The survey of 700 senior executives in 20 European countries was conducted by Catalyst, a U.S. organization that campaigns to advance women in business, and the Conference Board business research group, and released at a conference in Berlin.
"Compared to the United States, there are substantial numbers of women in politics in Europe, but women have not made much progress in business," Laura Liswood, an adviser to U.S. bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc, told the meeting.
"This isn't a glass ceiling. This is just a thick layer of men," she said to laughter from a mostly female audience at the "Women in Leadership: A European Business Imperative" summit.
Sponsored by several multinational companies, including oil giant BP and auto-maker General Motors Corp., the survey said European firms must do more to promote and retain female talent or risk falling further behind U.S. competitors.
Catalyst President Sheila Wellington said U.S. companies had gone through a process of modernization in the 1980s that led to more opportunities for women. She said European firms seemed to be undergoing that process now as they sought to deal with the continent's aging work force and lagging productivity.
"This is an issue that can't wait, as the birth-rate declines and as the population ages," she told the conference. "Smart European companies recognize the business case for inclusion."
Wellington said top management had to make a commitment to promoting women to make a difference, a message reinforced by General Motors Chairman Jack Smith, who said staff diversity targets were set for every regional division of his firm.
"Intellectual capital is the most crucial defining competitive advantage. The global business community has taken too long to realize the power of releasing the intellectual capital of women in leadership," he told the conference.
Monika Ruehl, a general manager at German airline Lufthansa, said she only saw more women advancing once it became an economic imperative.
"Only when companies are under extreme economic pressure, might we be able to break the glass ceiling," she said.
Of the 500 women business executives surveyed, 66 percent said stereotypes and preconceptions were a leading barrier to advancement. Other barriers they cited included lack of female role models, lack of line experience and family responsibilities.
Waddington said a surprising finding of the survey was that 63 percent of the women executives who took part had children and 75 percent were married or living with a long-term partner.
"One hears that it is impossible to have a high-level career and have children. Our data disputes that," she said.
But the survey also showed that most respondents, both male and female, believed that taking advantage of parental leave, sabbaticals or other flexible work arrangements on offer in companies was detrimental for career prospects.
Ruehl, 46, who started her career at Lufthansa 11 years ago as an air hostess and has no children, agreed.
"At Lufthansa, only 50 percent of women managers have children. The childcare situation is so bad in Germany. You can't have it all, you always have to choose," she said.
By Emma Thomasson