US Women Swell Ranks As Middle Managers
IRENE ROSENFELD last month became CEO of Kraft Foods, the nation's top food company, and in April Patricia Woertz became chief executive officer of Archer-Daniels-Midland, the giant grain processor. They are examples of how women in business are asserting power in all sorts of ways. Women in the U.S. are launching small businesses at more than twice the rate of men each year. In preparing for the work force, female students outnumber and outperform male students in colleges and in many professional schools.
Still, the numerous individual achievements belie the fact that at big, established companies, women in recent years have made little progress breaking into senior ranks.
The vast majority of women, who hold more than half of all management and professional jobs and have been in the pipeline for decades now, still are concentrated in entry-level and middle ranks. Last year, they held 16.4% of Fortune 500 corporate officer jobs -- the titles of at least vice president and positions that require board approval -- an increase of just 0.7% from 2002, according to the latest study of executive women by Catalyst, the New York research group. The survey also found women comprised just 6.4% of the top five earners among corporate officers, a 1.2% rise in the same period. These are lower growth rates than Catalyst reported in prior surveys, done every three years over the past decade.
Women of color -- African-Americans, Hispanics and Asians -- made far less progress. They held just 1.7% of corporate-officer positions in 2005, and were 1% of Fortune 500 top earners.
'Until the numbers at the top reflect the numbers in middle and bottom, companies don't have gender diversity, or a meritocracy,' says Catalyst President Ilene Lang.
PART OF THE PROBLEM for women managers is that the total number of corporate officer positions has declined 21% since 2002, Catalyst found, as companies cut management positions, heating up the competition for available posts.
Catalyst's data and other research are triggering a vehement debate about how to improve diversity in upper ranks. On the one hand, the women-need-special-help crowd says companies must offer mentoring and give assignments that let women prove themselves. They also must give women a chance to slow down during their prime childbearing years. Without both efforts, companies tend to suffer a major talent drain of disgruntled women in their midcareers.
Nearly 40% of highly educated women with business or professional experience take some time off from their careers -- to care for families or because they dislike their jobs or feel sidelined, says Sylvia Ann Hewlett, head of the Center for Work-Life Policy in New York. 'We've been trying to fix women so they fit into the lockstep male career model, instead of changing the model,' she adds.
On the other hand, some feel the role that needs the most remodeling is the one at home, where 'the glass ceiling is thickest,' counters former attorney and philosopher Linda Hirshman. In her book, 'Get To Work,' which has been filling blogs with love and hate mail, she urges women to insist their spouses do at least half the housework and childrearing -- and even go on a reproductive strike -- so they can vigorously pursue careers.
SO WHAT IS IT going to take for all women to get an equal shot at executive offices? It starts with convincing bosses that to compete in the global marketplace, they need a diverse leadership team and a rich mix of employees with varied perspectives and experiences. A select group of CEOs understand this. They tell their managers down the ranks to develop talent that reflects the diverse mix of their customers and to tap into their staff's differences to capture new business and boost the bottom line.
They also are telling them not to pigeonhole women in dead-end staff jobs, which don't give them the crucial profit-and-loss responsibility they need to vie for senior positions. And they are linking diversity goals to compensation.
Last week, Chad Holliday, CEO of DuPont and chairman of Catalyst's board of directors, promoted Ellen Kullman to executive vice president in charge of two businesses (DuPont Safety and Protection, and Coatings and Color Technologies) as well as two corporate functions.
Executives at DuPont now are rated in annual performance reviews on retaining a diverse staff. 'We are aiming to be the company that ranks at the very top of the list of where women want to be for their advancement,' Mr. Halliday says. 'It's all about winning versus our competition wherever they are . . . and it's just the right thing to do.'
Not every woman in business, of course, aspires to the corner officer. Those who do must stay only at companies that support their goals and offer real opportunities. ADM's Ms. Woertz did that at Chevron, where 13 years ago her boss asked her to take charge of Chevron Canada, leaving California headquarters for offices in Vancouver in a matter of days. It was her first big operations job. She has noticed something about her climb: She has never held a job that was previously held by a woman.
Carol Hymowitz
女性为何止步于中层？
艾琳?罗森菲尔德(Irene Rosenfeld)上个月成了美国最大食品公司卡夫食品(Kraft Foods)的首席执行长，而帕特里夏?韦尔茨(Patricia Woertz)今年4月则成了美国谷物加工巨头Archer-Daniels-Midland公司的首席执行长。她们也是商界女性在各类领域手握实权的最好例证。美国女性创办小企业的比率是美国男性的两倍多。在大学和许多职业学校，女生不仅人数超过男生，学习成绩也比男生强。
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? US Women Swell Ranks As Middle Managers不过，大量的成功个案却掩盖了如下事实：在大型知名企业，女性在向高级职位升迁方面近年来却没有取得什么进展。
对大多数女性而言，虽然她们占据了公司一半以上的管理和专业岗位，并且占据这些职位的女性大都在公司服务了几十年，但她们大多仍集中在公司的初级和中级领导岗位上。纽约的研究机构Catalyst对女性高层管理人士最新进行的研究显示，去年，在财富500强企业的副总裁以上职务中，有16.4%被女性占据，比2002年只增加了0.7%。这项调查还发现，在各公司收入最高的5个人中，仅有6.4%是妇女，仅比2002年增加了1.2%。Catalyst的这项研究过去10年中每隔3年进行一次，上述增长幅度比以往几次调查得出的增幅都要低。
有色人种妇女──非洲裔、拉美裔和亚裔美国妇女──在这方面的进展则更要小得多。她们2005年只占据著1.7%的 副总裁以上职位，在财富500强公司收入最高的5个人中，她们所占的比例只有1%。
Catalyst的总裁Ilene Lang说，只有担任高层管理职务的女性人数能够与担任中、低级管理职务的女性人数相匹配时，企业才能说实现了性别多样化。
Catalyst发现，造成女性高层管理人数稀少的部分原因是，自2002年以来企业副总裁以上高层职位的总数减少了21%，企业纷纷削减管理层职位，从而激化了对剩余高层职位的竞争。
Catalyst的数据和其他研究的出炉，引发了有关如何在企业高层管理职务中提高多样性的激烈争论。一方面，那些认为妇女需要特别关照的人士指出，企业必须在培训和工作安排方面创造机会使女性能够证明她们的能力。企业还必须减轻育龄期女性员工的工作压力。如果企业不作出这些努力，那些有才干的女性往往会因心怀不满离企业而去。
纽约工作-生活政策中心(Center for Work-Life Policy)的负责人西维亚?安?惠勒特(Sylvia Ann Hewlett)说，近40%接受过高等教育、并有著商业或职业经验的女性，在自己的职业生涯中都会脱离工作岗位一段时间，她们或是需要照顾家庭，或是因为不喜欢自己的工作，或是感觉到自己不受重用。她说：“我们一直试图将妇女纳入男性的职业生涯模式中，而不是改变这种模式。”
另一方面，有人认为最需要重新塑造的是家庭中的角色，哲学家琳达?赫什曼(Linda Hirshman)说，家庭中的玻璃天花板是最厚的。在自己的书《开始工作》(Get To Work)中，她敦促妇女们坚持让自己的配偶至少要做一半家务和育儿工作，以便自己能够全身心地追求事业，为此甚至可以用放弃生儿育女相要挟。网上博客中目前充斥著对此书的好评和恶评。
那么怎么做才能使女性获得升至副总裁以上高层管理职位的公平机会呢？首先要使老板们相信，要想在全球市场竞争，企业需要有一个多样化的领导团队，需要具有不同视角和工作经历的多种员工。目前只有为数不多的首席执行长们明白这一点。他们告诫自己的下属，选拔企业领导人时要考虑到企业客户的多样化特征，要利用企业员工的不同背景和专长来开发新业务、提高企业的利润。
他们还告诫下属，不要尽安排妇女从事那些没有职业发展前途的工作，因为这不会使她们在工作中获得日后竞争高级管理职位时所需要的盈亏责任感。这些首席执行长们还在将实现员工多样化目标与下属的薪酬挂钩。
上周，杜邦公司(DuPont)首席执行长兼Catalyst董事长贺利得(Chad Holliday)将埃伦?库尔曼(Ellen Kullman)提升为负责杜邦两项业务的执行副总裁。
杜邦公司进行年终业绩考核时，要对其管理人士在维持员工队伍多样性方面的表现进行打分。贺利得说：“我们希望自己在那些女性最有望获得提升的企业中名列前茅。要赢得无处不在的竞争......就应该做这件事。”
当然，并非所有的职业女性都希望出人头地。而那些有此雄心的女性则只有在支持她们的这一想法、并能为其提供真正机会的公司任职才行。ADM公司的韦尔茨在雪佛龙公司(Chevron)就遇到了这样的机会。13年前她的老板要她去接管雪佛龙加拿大公司的业务，当时留给她办交接的时间只有几天。这是她首次承担重要管理工作。她注意到了自己升迁之路的与众不同之处：她担任过的领导职务都是女性此前从未涉足过的。
Carol Hymowitz
