Ladies Who Lead: A WSJ Closer Look at Women in the Economy

The Wall Street Journal’s Women In the Economy Conference, held April 4-6, brought together almost 200 top academic, political, and business leaders—from Indra Nooyi, international CEO of PespsiCo, to Geena Davis, actress and founder of her Institute on Gender in Media, to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Together, they discussed the role women play in our economy. The focus: How do we increase the number of women ascending to top leadership positions? The result: An action plan for pushing forward the advancement of women in our society, looking at every stage of their professional lives and many industries. Why We Need More Women Leaders Having women in top leadership positions makes a quantifiable difference in a company’s performance according to a recent landmark McKinsey report: Companies with top-quartile representation of women on the board (19-44%) showed a 26% higher return on invested capital (ROIC) compared to bottom quartile companies with no female directorsrnThe “top four” most important leadership attributes for success—intellectual stimulation, inspiration, participatory decision-making and setting expectations/rewards—are more commonly found among women leaders.rnCompanies with three or more women in top leadership positions scored higher on McKinsey’s proprietary organizational health scorecard than their peers with less female leadership. A Look at Today Women make up 46.7% of the work force today. But they only make up 37% of low-level and middle managers, and just 26% of senior managers and VPs. Keep going up, and we find that only 11—or 2%—of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women. Although this doesn’t paint a “pretty” picture, more disturbing is the ambitions of women throughout the ranks. According to the same McKinsey report, only 16% of entry level women agreed that they “have always aspired to be in top management.” That’s just one out of six educated, entry-level women who wants to reach the top. And only 14% think that it’ll be worth the cost to get there. This changes as women move up—but only a little. At middle management, less than a third of women aspire to reach top management, and still less than a quarter think it’s worth the tradeoffs. So What Do We Do? The WSJ’s taskforce cited several reasons for why women aren’t breaking through the glass ceiling, many familiar to us: too few role models, not fitting in with the “old boys club,” not finding a sponsor who will open doors. But, none of this explains why so disappointingly few women want to reach the top in the first place. Why is that, when the same report finds that 92% of women between 23 and 34 say they are ambitious and want to advance professionally? Do we really believe women don’t want to reach the top? Or does the path just seem too hard, too filled with insurmountable barriers? The task force has made recommendations specifically on what we can do to get more entry-level women on the path to the top: Proactively look for and hire qualified women. Since women now earn nearly every educational degree in greater numbers than men, this should be an immediate win.rnEngage employees. Create opportunities for entry-level women and men to innovate and contribute immediately in their career. Keep them interested and invested, too, in the progress of the company.rnCreate a holistic approach to mentoring. Encourage mid-level managers to actively mentor entry-level employees, and give them the resources and training to do it well. Mentors and Sponsors A great start, but one more major item should be added: we need to figure out how to increase sponsorship of women. Sponsorship is not the same as ordinary mentorship. A study published in the Harvard Business Review found: All mentoring is not created equal […] There is a special kind of relationship—called sponsorship—in which the mentor goes beyond giving feedback and advice and uses his or her influence with senior executives to advocate for the mentee. Our interviews and surveys alike suggest that high-potential women are overmentored and undersponsored relative to their male peers—and that they are not advancing in their organizations. Furthermore, without sponsorship, women not only are less likely than men to be appointed to top roles but may also be more reluctant to go for them. If we want more women to see a path to the top, we need to fix this. As young women in the workforce, we need to be more proactive about seeking out sponsors. And we must not only hope but set an expectation that senior leaders at our company will play that role for us. It’s exciting to read about such a powerful group coming together to advance women. The WSJ, as the host of the conference, has committed to leading the charge to influence the way media covers and portrays women. The CEOs in attendance have vowed to recruit more women, and to hold their senior leadership accountable for the success of women at their companies. All great steps forward—and we hope they’re just the first of more to come. Recommended reading To see more in depth discussions from the conference, check out these articles from the WSJ: Life Imitates Art, Geena Davis on how gender inequality on TV and in movies has a powerful impact on kidsrnTales From the Front Lines, Mellody Hobson, Julie Louise Gerberding, Marissa Mayer and Debra L. Lee on how they did what they didrnThe Global View, Sandra Day O’Connor, Wei Sun Christianson and Robert Zoellick offer a report card on women’s progressrnView From the Top, PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi on the trade-offs she made—and why she hopes her daughters won’t have tornClimbing the Hill, Florida Gov. Rick Scott on how government can help women advancernParental Guidance, Sallie Krawcheck on getting to the top as a working motherrnIt’s Partly in Your Head, Sandra Witelson on how male and female brains differrn