E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSWe all know the deal: Women now make up a significant chunk of the overall workforce, but they are still much less likely to be found at the highest echelons of corporate life.
In a recent post on Harvard Business Review’s blog, authors Jill Flynn, Kathryn Heath and Mary Davis Holt argue that one reason women might not be making it to the corner office as often as men do is because women don't toot their own horns.
Women, the authors write, either really aren’t as confident as men when it comes to work, or they are perceived by their male peers as being less confident.
The authors mention a survey from the Institute for Leadership and Management that found men were more likely to be confident. But they also noted men may perceive things that women do as a lack of confidence.
They list four “low-confidence behaviors” that male and female managers have cited. These include being less likely to take public credit for their accomplishments, not asking for promotions, avoiding being in the spotlight and failing to speak up when you have an opinion.
Readers, do you think some women aren’t getting ahead because they aren’t seen as being as confident as men?
Related:
More Americans prefer male bosses, but gap is narrowing
Women make up less than 15 percent of those with executive corner offices because they show lower self-confidence and are more likely to share the credit, according to an analysis by three Harvard bloggers. Rana Foroohar, of Time Magazine, and Joanna Coles, of Marie Claire, discuss the findings with msnbc's Chris Jansing.
Leave a Comment:
A significant portion of women don't WANT to be in charge, because they don't aren't willing to sacrifice their life for the sake of some fancy job title and a fat paycheck. Maybe the question shouldn't be "Why aren't more women at the top?" but rather "Why are men so quick to sacrifice time with their families for the sake of career advancement?"
I totally agree. I've been offered promotions into management and have turned them down. I'm happier doing the work I'm doing. I have no desire to deal with the stresses of managing staff, including dealing with unprofessional employees and having to be the one to lay off fellow workers. I tried it for a few months and then stepped down. But then again, my husband has also refused promotions for the same reason - we both like being able to leave work behind us at the end of the day and focus on family instead.
Yes it is all mens fault!
What a moron.
I like your way of thinking. Well said.
You forgot one, and important one- Many people have no interest in being promoted into management, because they have low tolerance for B.S. and Politics. Take it from someone who has been in the workforce for almost 30 years- If you have a job you enjoy doing everyday, and are ok with your salary and work environment, DO NOT CHANGE A THING! Why sacrifice your health, family, life, stress levels, etc...? For a bit more in pay that will be stolen from you via taxes, and some fancy title or corner office. As a male, I congratulate woman for seeing through this charade. Success = living a happy, peaceful, and balanced life. It is not about having some fancy title, giant paycheck, and corner office.
I think there are two key reasons women aren't occupying the corner offices as often.
1) It is not expected of them and it takes a very, very strong ego to forge ahead against those resistant to change.
2) Women are still, by and large, the caretakers in a family. Taking time out to raise children or even care for ailing parents takes a very real toll on a career. Very few women can overcome the costs associated with that lost experience and time on the job.
Women like to cook. Ha, I knew that would catch women's attention and ire. Many women, not all, like to be given a task, crank out the work and be left alone. They don't like the hassle of meetings, management and stress that go along with it. They generally just don't like the bull sh!t that goes along with kissing ass and moving up the ladder. Take engineering. I asked a female chemical engineer once why there are so many women in that field relative to other engineer disciplines. She quickly, without hesitation and semi-jokingly, said women like to cook. That's where I got the opening line. She further explained that her field is pretty much like cooking. She gets a recipe from a chemist and cook up a product in mass quantities. Face it. There are very few alpha females.
This is a very true assessment, and definitely brought a smile to my face!
Jobseeker: First order of business on that new job? Understand your propensity to wildly stereotype and underestimate half theworkforce.
Besides, men love to kiss ass. :-)
Wow JobSeeker. I'm a guy and I find your perpetuation of stereotypical myths about women offensive. Why are you stopping there? I suspect there are other groups of people you could offend with similarly biased nonsense. Go ahead, get it all out. Could be a good reason you are seeking a job. I'm sure it's not difficult for prospective employers to see what a narrow-minded a** you are.
BTW: Beyond your little corner of the world, be advised, there are indeed many strong, capable women in senior-executive roles who lead teams, grow revenue, improve performance, manage budgets, control quality, check email and make knuckle-dragging Neanderthals like you beg for mercy - all at the same time, all without breaking a sweat.
Open-minded from MD,
Good to see a confident woman who doesn't have a chip on her shoulder. You just get it done whatever it takes. Seems like all these other people couldn't find a bit of humor in my post. They are the losers who will cry sexism, racism and whatever other isms they can use to justify their failure to succeed or to show what a tolerant man they are. You go girl.
Nah, nice try, but too late JobSeeker. You showed your true colors on that first post. Can't unring that bell. Thanks for playing though.
Hysterical how JobSeeker is using terms and phrases like "loser" and "failure to succeed" seeing as how he's the one who can't seem to hold a job. Some nasty insecurities coming to the surface there, pal. No worries, I'm sure your luck will turn. Provided that is, you don't have to interview with any women...
Seamus90
I believe you are a loser. You can prove me wrong. Since you are mocking my employment status, I would like to extend our little debate. What do you do for a living? I will quiz you to see if you are telling the truth. If you are up to it, I’ll tell you what I do and you can quiz me. Come on. Let’s go for it, smart ass.
JobSeeker:
So the guy who wrote that absurd original post is calling me a smart a**. That’s a good one. Thanks for that.
Question: What in the world would make you think for even a fraction of a second that anyone gives a rats a** what a sexist jacka** who intentionally identifies himself as “JobSeeker” believes or doesn’t believe? Why is it that pompous, think-they-know-it-all frauds who get hold of a laptop and an internet connection suddenly think their useless opinions have any shred of relevance beyond their own sad delusions of self-importance?
Look, since you are having trouble following the ball here, allow me to clarify: What jobless boy believes or doesn’t believe doesn’t matter – to ANYONE. Truth? The truth is I do quite well. I am gainfully employed and have a successful career in the field of communication. Thanks for asking. Want to hear another truth? The truth is that you, on the other hand, are not doing well. In fact, it would appear that you are in a precarious state. So common sense tells us that the last thing you ought to be doing is f@#king around on the internet, wasting time and accomplishing nothing. Cannot imagine that job search strategy is working out very well for you and your family.
But hey, you make me laugh. So instead of focusing on the activities that could help you make your next mortgage payment, if you’d really prefer to keep amusing me and perhaps the one or two other people who might or might not still be following this.... by all means, knock yourself out. No skin off my nose. And best of all, I’m sure your wife and kids would be so proud.
I guess I am one of few women that does speak up because I do work just as hard as the men in my office, and I deserve the same rewards. I have a family dynamic that allows me to be able to make exceptions and everyone is happy, and I do acknowledge that is very rare. Women can find a balance to be able to take charge in the office (if that is truly what they want to do), and still be able to help to manage the home life. It is kind of sad though that because of gender stereotypes, there are still many situations where the men in the house won't step up to help so that his wife's career has a chance of flurishing.
I remember rearranging the furniture a few times for my wife. They are bit too indecisive I think.
I bought my wife those plastic sliders so I dont have to help her anymore. All I have to do is make her mad so she has plenty of tackling fuel and stand back. She has the king bed and all the other furniture moved around the bedroom in about two hours and I didnt have to move it six times until we had the right view out the window in the morning for her liking. Best 20 bucks I ever spent.
You go to a woman to get the job done and move on to the next task. A boss who does not recognize your accomplishments is not a good boss at all. The boss should be helping you succeed.
Four “low-confidence behaviors” that male and female managers have cited: being less likely to take public credit for their accomplishments, not asking for promotions, avoiding being in the spotlight and failing to speak up when you have an opinion.-- In my experience, more male supervisors are absolutely threatened by a woman's willingness to speak up, and tend to shove those who do so into the background. In one position I held, I had a boss who specifically instructed me NOT to speak up. I had to text any questions/comments I had during meetings to him so HE could ask them. How insecure can you get?!?
Wow, what a jerk, I don't think I could have put up with someone like that. I hate people who take credit for others and I WILL speak up against it if I see it.
Yeah, I had the experience of working for a credit-thief boss. Not good! Any good idea I had or did suddenly became all Boss'. I made sure that the people that counted knew what was going on too!
There's also that women are trained from early on not to brag on themselves -- bad manners and 'unladylike.' It's really not low confidence, it's the way we were raised. Overcoming that isn't always easy.
I would totally promote hot in miami right to the top just by her pic! i don't care if she can do the job or not. I'm assuming those are the types of reactions you are expecting and looking for with a pic like that and that tag right? Don't whine about not being taken seriously when you brag about your looks.
I have had similar incidents. Being dragged to meetings that were otherwise all male and being shushed or having one of the men steal my ideas to go suck up to an executive. I was once un-invited because the men wanted to smoke cigars and curse a blue streak (even though we are supposedly a smoke free company). Anyway, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. I choose to stick with the nitty gritty detail work I excel at (and no man seems capable of handling) and let the men play politics. I have high family needs anyway. I get paid the same as the men with equal credentials, so let them kill themselves with work. I do well enough and am proud of how far I've come. I think a LOT of women that are qualified to break through that glass ceiling decide it's not worth the scars and stress. I might be willing to die for my kids, but not for a corporation.
Many men I work with won't hesitate to toot their own horn, and many times taking full credit for work that was actually done by a group or another person and exaggerating their part. But many of the women I work with, including myself, tend to be more "honest" and take credit for our own work while citing that others helped and sticking to the truth. I actually had a male manager tell me in my performance review that I needed to stop that and be way more aggressive in touting my accomplishments and that the business world was a jungle. If I wasn't willing to be a "predator", I wasn't going to make it.
I have worked part-time only for the last 7 years since my son was born. It is pretty hard to advance anywhere working only part-time. But it is my choice and I am happy with it. I have been pregnant with and have borne 3 children in this time. Once again, my choice and I knew it would interfere with working, but that is just fine by me. Most jobs do absolutely nothing to make this world a better place and do little to fulfill a person. My children give me great joy, and my part-time job gives me time with other adults, which helps keep me sane! :) There is no doubt that I would have had to give up on the idea of having a family if I wanted to really get out there and tear it up in the working world. No thanks....
Good for you. I doubt you will ever look back and wish you'd worked more hours while your kids were young.
That pretty much sums it up. It takes time to raise children, and it is usually the mother who does it. There are very few men who take the lead role in parenting. If we were to see more equalization in workforce promotions, then we would also see more equalization in male parenting. You won't see women rise to the top with unequal domestic workloads, because it ties them up.
Women not speaking up, not taking credit or not asking for promotions... I don't really see that anywhere.
I got harassed by my boss...when I complained to a higher up, I was fired. I hope my attorney is a woman...
My experience has been more that when confident, women are often perceived by their male bosses as bossy, not confident. From what I can tell, this isn't as true for some of the younger bosses. Also, being thin and then later fat, my confidence when I was thin was perceived differently, as more confidence than bossy or bitchyness. Now that I am fat, the perception is that I am more bossy.
Additionally, I believe that I wasn't hired for certain jobs because of my confidence. Not sure why, but confidence just rubs people the wrong way sometimes, especially when it doesn't come in a super attractive package. Given my ego though, I haven't let failure hold me back. However, with an ego the size of mine, you have to have the intellect to back it up, lest you are just mental.
I try never to look at the work world in man/woman terms, just in who is capable of what terms. I think that goes a long ways both from changing people's perceptions of you and of how you handle people who look at the world in different terms than you. If their opinions on certain matters are irrelevant, then you never get worked up about those things. If you never get worked up about stuff that has nothing to do with work, then the focus will always be on work.
I am often perceived as arrogant or pushy simply because I'm sure of myself.
I just shrug and sometimes laugh. You have to deal with morons in this world. But I think most women thrive best in entrepreneurial endeavors where they don't have to waste time and energy dealing with such nonsense.
Well-said. Confidence does rub some people the wrong way. One must be careful to portray confidence, rather than arrogance. And of course, being able to back it up is important.
You have a good point about not getting worked up over things. I really do see women tend to be more emotional and offended about things. Of course, there are men like this too, and they don't progress very far either. No one likes walking on egg shells! Level-headed women are more respected than emotional time-bombs, at any level of promotion.
Who says all men want to become the boss either? I was the boss for a while and got sick and tired of hearing the crap (i.e. 'She's looking at me!'). Why would anyone, man or woman, want to subject themselves to that? Most workplaces need babysitters, not bosses.
Amen to that! I was also in management. I got tired of babysitting the lower level employees and even more tired of dealing with politicing and backstabbing of my peers and those above me. It was like being the head of a daycare while being caught in a war zone. While having to proverbially wipe the arse of my employees, I had to avoid getting sniped by people looking to climb the ladder any way possible.
It's just not worth it. I'd rather stick with my non-management job and spend more time with my wonderful girlfriend than go into management again and suffer from stress anxiety. Unless I'm the owner and can put the kibash on that sort of stuff, it's not worth it at all.
Typical delusional behavior found everywhere.
Just start your own business and be done with it. You would probably provide better service.
it's very difficult to get ahead when you are a mom. Someone has to care for the children, make sure they are fed, clothed and have a clean house to live in. Most men do not feel this to be necessary, because most of them were raised to be waited on. They feel they are just to sit at the computer for several hours each evening doing "research" while their woman (who works full time AND earns more money) does all the dirty work. I have to scoff at "vacation" days from work because well, there ain't no such thing.
I agree. The "entitlement" attitude of men is baffling. I have heard so many men complain about having to pay measly child support, while the women - who also work - pick up the kids from daycare/school, feed them, wash their clothes and dishes, maintain a home, make sure they have all the things they need for school, clothes that fit, arrange their doctor, dentist and playdate appointments, and spend their entire evenings, nights and week-ends being there and available for the children. A guy clocks out after 8 hours and does whatever he wants. He may or may not visit his kids, but he can do whatever he wants with them during that time. They're lucky if his child support even covers the cost of daycare so Mom CAN work.
I wouldn't be surprised if the extra 16 hours a day helped them work toward a promotion!
I am the only female in my shop. I am also the highest marked person in my rank in my shop, and it's not because I'm a female. My marks package is supplemented with specific examples of my achievements, efforts, and how they positively impact my organization. Statistics may show that there are fewer females making it to the top, but on a day to day basis I think one could find an equal number of men and women out there with no confidence or drive to succeed. Also, "succeeding" means different things to different people. I know once I make a certain rank I won't want to go much higher. But I'm going to work like a dog to get to where I want to be.
Let's stop trying to make women into men. It's very lame.
Ever notice that the feminists who are trying to turn women into men are also succeeding at turning an (increasingly) large share of men into women? Disgusting.
The article is about gender-based promotions, not sex changes.
Rebirth of Rosie the Riveter?
Simple Tips for Women Dealing with Men in Business:
Simple Tips for Men when dealing with women in business
To Manage Martians: DO
To Manage Martians: DON”T
To Manage Venusians: DO
To Manage Venusians: DON’T
I'm glad I'm retired!
How about estrogen and menstruation? I don't know , but i'm so sure that we can not find them from any guy in 30 days of one month,