Published in September 2019
Beyond the glass ceiling
Almost 75% of enterprises worldwide have equal opportunity or diversity and inclusion policies in place. But our research indicates that these policies alone are not enough to fix the gender imbalance at the top levels of business. This is because the traditional glass ceiling is not the only obstacle women face as they climb the career ladder.
Anytime-anywhere culture
In both high- and low- income countries, women still perform the majority of domestic labour and care work at home, even when they are also employed in full-time paid work.
Many businesses run on a culture of constant availability, where employees are expected to work overtime, take calls out of hours, and answer emails on days off as a matter of course. This makes it very difficult for women to effectively compete with male colleagues and rise through the ranks, as they continue to juggle family responsibilities with career priorities.
The glass wall
The glass wall refers to the phenomenon of occupational segregation where female managers tend to be concentrated in business support functions, such as HR, finance and administration. In such roles, women have limited decision-making power or strategic input, and therefore limited opportunities to rise in the company.
By contrast, male managers are over-represented in research and development, profit and loss, and operations. These areas are typically viewed as more “strategic” and usually lead to decision-making roles at higher levels.
The leaky pipeline
The proportion of women tends to decline as the level of management increases, meaning that men continue to dominate chief executive positions and boards. When women are not present in the highest positions in business, they lack the influence to alter the workplace culture and so the vicious cycle of male dominance continues.
As long as women are under-represented in decision-making roles, the pipeline will continue to leak. Companies with female CEOs are more likely to have women in strategic management roles.
