I spent the whole of Tuesday discussing the missing women. Tuesday afternoon with a UK bank discussing their strategy to comply with the Women in Finance charter followed by an invitation to CMI headquarters in the evening for the launch of CMI Women.
What is CMI Women?
CMI Women is a new initiative that aims to achieve gender parity across the UK’s management population by 2024, and to help employers unlock more value in the UK’s workforce to address our productivity gap.
Who are the ‘missing’ women? New CMI analysis reveals the UK economy will need 2 million[1] new managers by 2024. However, if we are to achieve, gender balance (which is good for business), 1.5 million will need to be women. The truth is that women outnumber men in the junior roles (including the UK bank that I am talking to) and they are missing at middle management levels. Men currently outnumber women in management roles 2:1.
The problem is the ‘missing middle’. Not enough women make it through middle management and to the top. CMI’s 2016 National Management Salary Survey shows that while 73% of entry-level roles are occupied by women, this reduces to just 43% of women in middle management roles. That’s where your talent pipeline narrows.
And yet … recent research shows that gender-diverse management teams deliver an 18% return on investment premium[2]. The evidence is there to inform us that diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform competitors[3]. Diversity could add $12 trillion annually to the global economy and £150 billion a year to the UK economy in 2025[4].
Where are the ‘missing’ women?
If your organisation has an issue with a lack of women in your talent pipeline, it’s unlikely you are lacking talent. Often it’s simply a confidence issue. Or bias.
We are missing women because too many opt out before they reach their full potential. They don’t apply for promotion. They don’t put themselves forwards for the meaty projects. The promotions come at the ‘wrong’ time in their career. Women screen themselves out, if ‘long hours’ is perceived as the requirement in the most senior roles. Or if flexible working options are not the norm.
Women don’t put themselves forward for promotion. They express their skills and ambitions differently and therefore your talent-spotting systems don’t, well, spot them.
And yet often they are frustrated with themselves. They are confident but perhaps lack confidence. They take promotion into roles that don’t lead to the top level roles. They work hard, but is it work that is valued by the organisation?
Are you one of the ‘missing’ women? Did you stop working for career progress and promotion when you got to middle management? Did you hit a glass ceiling? Did you come up against an unconscious bias? Or are you in that double whammy position of being the default organiser of childcare and taking on responsibility for older parents?
Unconscious bias?
Think you don’t have an unconscious bias problem in your organisation? Watch this. Then answer again.
Need more information?
Visit CMI’s Blueprint for Balance to share guidance on gender parity. Even better, find out who is your Head of Diversity and ask that person to visit the portal.
1 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/543301/WF_Headline_Presentation_v3.pdf
2 Credit Suisse, The GS Gender 3000 (2014 and 2016)
3 McKinsey, Diversity Matters (2015)
4 McKinsey Global Institute and McKinsey & Company United Kingdom, The Power of Parity, 2015
Are you one of the ‘missing’ women?
Are you one of the missing women? If so, please share your story in the comments below.
The more stories we hear and share, the greater understanding we have. And if you want somebody to come and talk to your organisation about how to find the ‘missing’ women, let’s talk.
