Towards Mixed Management

Summary of Transnational Conference in Stockholm, 24-25 January 2005

“We don’t need proof that having women at the top is good for company profits. Rather, we should be demanding proof that the present set-up, with mostly men at the top, is profitable”.

This view was offered by Lise Bergh, state secretary to the Swedish minister for gender equality affairs, and one of the speakers at the conference, which had attracted 250 delegates from 15 countries.

Lise Bergh also reminded the meeting that getting more women into company executives is a question of democracy and human rights.

“In a democracy, women and men must share decision-making powers equally,” she said. “That, after all, is how things work in the rest of the community.”

During the conference, organised to summarise results and experiences from the transnational project, Women to the Top, several speakers noted the correlation between gender equality and profitability, and the rewards to be gained from bringing in more women into top management.

What can companies gain from inviting women to take a place on boards and in executive chairs? A lot, said Denise Kingsmill, author of the Kingsmill Review.

Denise Kingsmill knows from her own experience how hard it can be for a woman to reach the top – in spite of a good university degree and all the right skills. She’s the success story of a self-made woman in a male-dominated world. At the conference, Denise Kingsmill spoke about the one thing that company boards will listen to: “shareholders’ value, shareholders’ value, shareholders’ value.” In other words, you have to show that it’s good for business to help women climb to the top. Ms Kingsmill pointed out that as the fastest way to make it to the top is from a line management position. She advised women who want a career.

“Never choose a profession with an r’ in it, like Human Resources or Public Relations. Go operational. Or make a name for yourself!”

Just as Denise Kingsmill herself did. When she sought employment with a firm of lawyers, the chief executive quickly pointed out that they had never had a woman partner and that it was unlikely they would ever have one. So she set up her own firm, specialising in the labour market and issues such as maternity leave and sexual harassment. Companies of increasingly larger size turned to Denise Kingsmill and her colleagues for assistance. The firm became a success – and was bought by a huge London company.

“They would never have dreamt of offering me a partnership, or even a job, at an earlier stage in my career. But if you have something to sell that others want to pay for, that’s different,” said Denise Kingsmill.

Her advice to companies that want more women at the top is to create a working environment in which women can flourish. Business is adaptable at all times, she said, that’s the key to success. So why should it be so difficult to adapt to equality? Denise Kingsmill pointed out that it’s all a question of attitude amongst today’s managers, of their willingness to change, “although you’d think it would be obvious to the managers of the 21st century that a modern company must represent and serve modern society – in other words, women too.”

Denise Kingsmill added that individual women should not just wait for change to come about but should take control of their own careers and put forward their own values.

Dr. Michael Kimmel , from the State University of New York, Stony Brook, described his theory that those in privileged positions are unable to see that they are privileged. Therefore, he said, today’s gender-based power structure must be made visible to men.

"It’s a good idea to remind men that they, too, stand to gain from gender equality,” he said. “Research shows that in marriages where women and men share the household work and parental duties, the whole family feels better, both mentally and physically.” For women, the past 30-40 years have meant a revolution – one that they themselves have conducted. They have taken their place in the employment market. And they have continued to run things at home. Today’s women want the best of both worlds. Men have largely gone on stamping around on the same old turf, with the same old male ideals, argues Michael Kimmel.

A ‘real’ man shouldn’t do anything feminine, he should be big, strong, successful and daring.

Many men at the top work that magical 80-hour week because they believe they have to. Many of them, however, are not happy about it, and would rather spend more time with their families. But if women, too, are to hold executive posts, men will have to change their attitudes and their behaviour and share the household duties with their working wives. Michael Kimmel argues that men do not lose their masculinity when they ‘fail’ in their careers, and nor do women lose their femininity when they succeed in their careers.

“Many men seem to think that when women stand to gain something, men stand to lose. But that’s not the way it is. Women’s careers benefit men’s. Women bosses are more likely to accept that men take parental leave and spend more time with their families. And it’s quantity time that’s important here,” said Kimmel.

“It’s when you spend more time with your family – even when you’re doing boring everyday tasks – that you become a good father and husband. That’s the only way.”

“We mustn’t rest on our laurels – we have to move from words to deeds.” How four project managers experienced Women to the Top. The Project Manager for Women to the Top, Marie Trollvik, was one of those who took part in the panel discussion about the difficulties and opportunities that the projects presented in the various countries. At first, she said, there was a lot of anger and resignation among the women involved in the Swedish project.

“They wondered why a project called ‘Women to the Top’ should be necessary in the first place. You’d never come across a project called ‘Men to the Top’ – they’re already there!” But now many of the participants see that the project has resulted in a unique contribution to Swedish working life.

“ We have created unique networks between potential top managers, mentors and other high executives as well as HR-officers and line mangers. The fact that more than 100 people representing central positions in the Swedish labour market have started actions to change the gender imbalance gives us a lot of hope for the future. The website will be a platform for others who could not take part in the project”.

In Estonia, the project ran into other problems. Project Manager Riina Kytt described the difficulty of gaining acceptance for a structural perspective – the idea that women are discriminated as a group.

“Since the communist era, Estonia has focused only on the individual perspective. The general view is that as long as you’re good enough and have the right qualifications, you’ll find it just as easy as men to get to the top,” she said.

“The project has been important for Estonia. We haven’t had any discussions about this topic before. It’s also been interesting to see our country through the eyes of others and to get new ideas. The networks that have emerged as a result of the project are another plus. We’ll be following up with a round table conference, where employers will share their experiences. Later, we hope to find new topics to work with in this field.”

Helle Gern, head of the Tallinn Sales Department at Eesti Ühispank, talked about the Estonian mentor programme and how it had influenced her career. She found the mentorship program very useful and had had many fruitful discussions about business and leadership with her mentor from IBM.

Fotini Bellou, the Greek Project Manager, told the audience: “In Greece we have legislation about gender diversity, but the reality is different". Maybe that will change more rapidly now, with all the good examples from this project. I think that through cooperation we can overcome most obstacles.

“We find that there is such a great potential. Our participants are young women who have succeeded well in fulfilling their options and goals with the assistance of their mentors. But more work has to be done. I hope more projects will be launched and that more companies and organisations will focus on these issues and keep up the dialogue.”

Venetia Kousia, director at Manpower in Athens, talked about the four countries’ different stages of development in the field of mixed management. “It’s good for us to know that even though we have more structural problems in Greece, we share similar problems and experiences with the other three countries.”

Venetia Kousia believes that if the target is to be achieved, cultural change will be needed and people will have to focus more on the solutions than the problems. “But I’m confident. Human beings are powerful. When we really want something, eventually we get it.”

“In Denmark we have found a successful means of cooperation, working through some of the union organisations and their networks,” said Karen Sjørup, General Director of the Danish Research Centre on Gender Equality

She also pointed to the importance of mixed networks as they show that we work together – not against each other. But it’s also obvious that this issue is hard for many men to place on the agenda. They tend to believe that they’ll lose something if women get more opportunities.

“That’s why it’s so important that there are gender-conscious men who can serve as role models for others, who can show that everyone stands to gain when management is more mixed.”

Annika Wijkström, Executive Vice President of Swedbank, and godmother of the project, described the key elements of Swedbank’s action plan for gender equality.

- Gender equality is a fundamental value – that everyone shall have equal opportunities, she said. - In addition, the project taught us that it is profitable. Every interested party in a company – personnel, customers, shareholders and society – benefits from the company utilising its entire competence base in the best possible way.

- Promoting more women to top management positions is a normal, long-term management task. Review the current situation, establish both short-term and long-term goals, set up a specific action plan and follow up regularly in the executive management committee. Swedbank has made some progress as regards gender equality issues; Women to the Top, however, has provided us with additional inspiration, a new network and renewed energy to continue our work, Annika Wijkström concluded.

The task of summarising the conference fell to Claes Borgström, Sweden’s Equal Opportunities Ombudsman.

“Company executives and boards now have the tools they need to get women to the top. It’s time to begin using them,” he said. He also announced that the Ombudsman would be following up the W2T project in two years’ time.

The opening day of the conference was devoted to network building between participants from the four countries.

Applying the principle of experience-based learning, the project participants – some 80 in all – built networks across both national borders and national experiences.

“See today as the first step towards change”, said Manuel Knight, who managed the network building process during some four hours of exercises and discussions. He pointed out that it’s important not to focus on the problems but to look for solutions.

In mixed groups from the four countries, the participants focused on a target of more women at the top by 2008. They found that finding the path was not as easy as finding the obstacles. But although there was no consensus on how the target was to be achieved, they agreed on the importance of making changes in order to attain the common goal.

“If you want a change and create something new, you have to change the culture”, said Manuel Knight. And culture, in his definition, consists of rituals, symbols, heroes and values. Symbols are the easiest to change, followed by heroes and rituals. Values are the foundation of our culture and therefor most difficult to alter. But in order to change you also need to know what you should change and how to change it. Most of all you need to want to change it.

During one of the many exercises, each participant found ‘a special friend’ in the group. These pairs of special friends comprise the first links in a special network aiming at a common goal: more women to the top. They are to keep in contact after the conference, exchanging experiences from their home countries.

The participants agreed on the importance of taking action and getting both men and women interested in working towards mixed management. Many of the participants noted the importance of taking responsibility at different levels, both political and legislative, and also emphasised the need for board directors and top management to create a working environment that attracts skilled men and women alike. In addition, men as a group need to take part and to share the responsibility for home and family.

In short, there is a need for everyone seeking change to take responsibility for the changes they wish to accomplish.