FEMALE EXECUTIVE RETENTION: ADAPTATION OR EXTINCTION

 

Jennifer White, WhiteWave Consulting, LLC, jen@whitewaveconsulting.com

Leslie Ameel, Leslie Marie Interiors, lameel5@sbcglobal.net

Betty Louise, Coach Betty, belou70255@comcast.net

 

 

Abstract

 

The participants on this panel include two I/O psychologists with 30 years combined corporate experience and one executive/life coach with over 20 years of experience helping others.  The Ph.D.-based practitioners have worked in human resource management and organization change management for at least 15 years each.  They have been involved with leadership selection, development, and succession for major U.S. companies.  All panelists have direct experience with female entrepreneurship and/or guiding other women in starting their own businesses.  This session will share research, experience, and facilitate discussions on critical decisions involving female executive management and entrepreneurship. 

 

FEMALE EXECUTIVE RETENTION

Background Research

By Jennifer White, Ph.d., Leslie Ameel, Ph.D., & Betty Louise, CPCC

With labor markets tightening and the workforce getting older, companies need to act urgently to retain highly qualified women.  Companies have done a poor job of retaining female talent and, in fact, they make it very easy for women to leave. When women take a temporary leave of absence to have children or care for elders, they find it difficult to return to work and contribute as they had previously.  According to research by the Center for Work-Life Policy, a nonprofit research firm in New York City, “corporations provide women with many career off-ramps, but provide them with few on-ramps” (Hewlett, Luce, Shiller, & Southwell, 2005).  

 

Only a few years back, the statistics did not look very promising for executive females and progress has been slow.  There are many women in their 40’s leaving corporate America in their prime earning years (experience, pay, title) because of the difficulty they experience trying to balance both work and family obligations.  Younger women are having an even harder time reconciling career and children than their older sisters.  Fifty-five percent of the younger women are childless at age 35, while only 38 percent of older women were childless at this point in time (Hewlett, 2002).  According to a Catalyst study in 2003, only 16% of directors of Fortune 500 companies were women.  Across the European Union, women filled only 3-6% of senior executive posts and retention remains a problem. This is a growing problem for CEOs and top managers who view human resources as an important asset to their business.

           

Members of marginalized groups have begun to argue that their differences from the dominant groups require the society to adopt new and different social policies and practices (Bem, 1994).  Bem argues that the problem for women — and what limits their chances for equality — is that they are different from men in a social world that disguises what are really just male standards or norms as gender-neutral principles.  Women face challenges because they are different from men in an “androcentric” or male-centered world.  This is a corporate world in which nearly all policies and practices are so completely organized around male experience that they suit men better than they do women — and hence automatically translate any and all male/female differences into female disadvantages.

 

While a likely step would be to adopt more female-oriented policies and practices, the whole process of dichotomizing people into two genders and making gender matter in virtually every domain of social life is misguided.  It unfortunately dictates mutually exclusive scripts for males and females — scripts that constrain everything from modes of dress and social roles to ways of expressing emotion and experiencing sexual desire. It also defines any person or behavior that deviates from these scripts as problematic — unnatural, immoral, biologically anomalous, or psychologically pathological (Bem, 1994).  Therefore, in adopting new standards, our culture would be wise to accept a continuum of masculinity and femininity and allow individuals some latitude in their expression.

 

To begin to adopt policies which are more inclusive to a feminine-orientation, it’s useful to understand the challenges many women encounter in the current workplace and some actions to help address them.  Many desire to have a healthy alignment between inner values and beliefs and outer behaviors, yet they struggle with a changing environment and fitting into a male environment (Ruderman & Tavares, 2003).  Actions to help with this challenge include 1) developing self-awareness of values, priorities, likes, and dislikes, 2) examining current choices and behaviors, 3) taking action, and 4) believing in yourself.  Executive women also have a fundamental need to be close to other human beings yet there are few executive women in the work environment so there are few close relationships to choose from.  Options to deal with this need involve networking, mentoring or being mentored, reconnecting with family and friends, and cultivating new relationships. 

 

Women also exhibit a drive to have control over one’s life and therefore struggle with resolving difficult situations and having too much agency.  To deal with these challenges, women can set goals and adapt them as necessary, remain open to possibilities, and use their relationships wisely.  There is also the desire to feel whole — to unite different life roles into an integrated whole.  The struggles for women often involve the sense that there is nothing else but work or they fight with competing identities.  To resolve these struggles, women can learn to establish clear priorities, set boundaries, and incorporate time for reflection and spirituality.  Women also want to understand their own motives, behaviors, and values in the context of today’s world.  The struggles they experience involve an avoidance of important issues as well as a clear understanding of what is personal and what is situational.  To resolve this struggle, women can seek feedback, pay attention to the environment, and practice separating themselves from their role.

 

The unique needs and challenges for women present several implications for leadership development.  It is helpful for women to:

• Reflect on priorities – Know what you want

• Create opportunities for connection

• Set and adapt goals

• Engage in whole life planning

• Seek out feedback

 

According to Ruderman and Tavares (2003), organizations can shape the organizational climate to effectively include women.  This involves creating a climate of self-realization, creating opportunities for connection, reviewing evaluation and reward systems, creating opportunities for whole life planning, and providing opportunities for skillfully delivered feedback.

 

 

A Growing Trend: Female Entrepreneurship

 

As an alternative to staying with corporations, many women are starting their own businesses, especially now that technology, small business support services, and lending practices have made the transition much easier.  In fact, women entrepreneurs do a better job balancing their lives than women in corporate America. Research shows that self-employed high-achieving women are less likely to be childless than women who work in corporate jobs (22 percent versus 42 percent in the older age group) (Hewlett, 2002). They are also much less likely to be childless than women lawyers, doctors or professors. In addition, self-employed women are more likely to be married (67 percent versus 57 percent) (Hewlett, 2002).

 

Becoming a mother is likely to be the most common incentive for women starting up their own business in 2007, research reveals. Many women have had enough of juggling the demands of working for an employer while still being a good mother, so they decide to go it alone.  “Turning a hobby or pastime into a commercial enterprise is one of the most popular ways of launching a new business for mothers”, says the study by Tesco Business Credit Card.  For many women, the late-night cries of a newborn baby awaken an entrepreneurial spirit.  There is a wide array of new businesses emerging, quite literally, from the nursery, into the open market (Hayward, 2007).  But the story does not end at the launch of a new business venture since we know many are not sustainable and others are sold to realize gains and recover time for self and family.

 

Research shows that fully two-thirds (66 percent) of women who left their careers would like to go back to work (Hewlett, 2002). These women also would like to see more flexible benefits structured around women who take off work to raise children. Ninety-one percent of those not now in careers support the creation of part-time careers such as high level jobs that allow for reduced hours on an ongoing basis, but also allow for the possibility of promotion. Not only did women-at-home want this option, but also 85 percent of those currently in careers. 

 

Conclusion and Panel Discussion Topics

 

We entrust our next generation to the primary care and guidance of women and we are increasingly drawing upon their ability to also cooperate and coordinate work in a global marketplace.   We also know that the degree to which organizational climates support women is related to their interpersonal skills on the job and their overall psychological well-being.  Given our knowledge of the challenges women face and the ways they can be overcome, there is a need to incorporate these methods more effectively within organizations.  This is especially true for organizations that wish to retain female executives, since they can be important mentors and role models for other women. 

The panel will present the research findings in the area of executive female challenges and invite participants to comment about what organizations have done well and not so well is this area.

 

According to research, few high-achieving women believe they can “have it all.”  Only 16 percent feel it is likely that a woman can “have it all” in terms of family and career. Women think men have it better with 39 percent feeling that men can “have it all.”  With the ease of starting businesses, many female executives have left the corporate world for the flexibility and rewards of entrepreneurship.  The trend is likely to continue until corporations find ways of embracing the lifestyles and values of women who join the workforce and obtain executive level positions.   One option some executive women have chosen is to take an “off-ramp” so they can raise a family, start a business, and sell a business or two.  Then they take an on-ramp later to re-join the executive ranks with honed leadership skills and business acumen. 

 

The panel will present first-hand experiences and research related to the “brain drain” including why women typically leave the workforce, how and why they start businesses, and for some, the factors involved in re-entering the workforce to serve in management positions.  The panel will also discuss the lives of successful female “serial” entrepreneurs who have launched and sold multiple businesses.

 

             

 

References

 

Bem, S. L. (1994) In a male-centered world, female differences are transformed into female disadvantages. Chronicle of Higher Education, August 17, B1-B3.

 

Hewlett, S.A., Luce, C., Shiller, P., and Southwell, S. (2005). The Hidden Brain Drain: Off-Ramps and On-Ramps in Women’s Careers.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review Report.

 

Hewlett, S. A. (2002). Groundbreaking Study Exposes a Crisis Among Successful Women. New York, NY: Center for Work-Life Policy.

 

McCormack, M. New Mums Mean New Business, 31 January 2007 Retrieved from http://www.easier.com/view/Finance/Credit_Cards/News/article-96961.html

 

Hayward, S. (2004). Women Leading. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.

 

Ruderman, M. and Tavares, J. (2003). Developing Women Leaders in the New

Millennium.  Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.

 

FEMALE EXECUTIVE RETENTION: ADAPTATION OR EXTINCTION

 

Jennifer White, WhiteWave Consulting, LLC, jen@whitewaveconsulting.com

Leslie Ameel, Leslie Marie Interiors, lameel5@sbcglobal.net

Betty Louise, Coach Betty, belou70255@comcast.net

 

 

Abstract

 

The participants on this panel include two I/O psychologists with 30 years combined corporate experience and one executive/life coach with over 20 years of experience helping others.  The Ph.D.-based practitioners have worked in human resource management and organization change management for at least 15 years each.  They have been involved with leadership selection, development, and succession for major U.S. companies.  All panelists have direct experience with female entrepreneurship and/or guiding other women in starting their own businesses.  This session will share research, experience, and facilitate discussions on critical decisions involving female executive management and entrepreneurship. 

 

FEMALE EXECUTIVE RETENTION

Background Research

By Jennifer White, Ph.d., Leslie Ameel, Ph.D., & Betty Louise, CPCC

With labor markets tightening and the workforce getting older, companies need to act urgently to retain highly qualified women.  Companies have done a poor job of retaining female talent and, in fact, they make it very easy for women to leave. When women take a temporary leave of absence to have children or care for elders, they find it difficult to return to work and contribute as they had previously.  According to research by the Center for Work-Life Policy, a nonprofit research firm in New York City, “corporations provide women with many career off-ramps, but provide them with few on-ramps” (Hewlett, Luce, Shiller, & Southwell, 2005).  

 

Only a few years back, the statistics did not look very promising for executive females and progress has been slow.  There are many women in their 40’s leaving corporate America in their prime earning years (experience, pay, title) because of the difficulty they experience trying to balance both work and family obligations.  Younger women are having an even harder time reconciling career and children than their older sisters.  Fifty-five percent of the younger women are childless at age 35, while only 38 percent of older women were childless at this point in time (Hewlett, 2002).  According to a Catalyst study in 2003, only 16% of directors of Fortune 500 companies were women.  Across the European Union, women filled only 3-6% of senior executive posts and retention remains a problem. This is a growing problem for CEOs and top managers who view human resources as an important asset to their business.

           

Members of marginalized groups have begun to argue that their differences from the dominant groups require the society to adopt new and different social policies and practices (Bem, 1994).  Bem argues that the problem for women — and what limits their chances for equality — is that they are different from men in a social world that disguises what are really just male standards or norms as gender-neutral principles.  Women face challenges because they are different from men in an “androcentric” or male-centered world.  This is a corporate world in which nearly all policies and practices are so completely organized around male experience that they suit men better than they do women — and hence automatically translate any and all male/female differences into female disadvantages.

 

While a likely step would be to adopt more female-oriented policies and practices, the whole process of dichotomizing people into two genders and making gender matter in virtually every domain of social life is misguided.  It unfortunately dictates mutually exclusive scripts for males and females — scripts that constrain everything from modes of dress and social roles to ways of expressing emotion and experiencing sexual desire. It also defines any person or behavior that deviates from these scripts as problematic — unnatural, immoral, biologically anomalous, or psychologically pathological (Bem, 1994).  Therefore, in adopting new standards, our culture would be wise to accept a continuum of masculinity and femininity and allow individuals some latitude in their expression.

 

To begin to adopt policies which are more inclusive to a feminine-orientation, it’s useful to understand the challenges many women encounter in the current workplace and some actions to help address them.  Many desire to have a healthy alignment between inner values and beliefs and outer behaviors, yet they struggle with a changing environment and fitting into a male environment (Ruderman & Tavares, 2003).  Actions to help with this challenge include 1) developing self-awareness of values, priorities, likes, and dislikes, 2) examining current choices and behaviors, 3) taking action, and 4) believing in yourself.  Executive women also have a fundamental need to be close to other human beings yet there are few executive women in the work environment so there are few close relationships to choose from.  Options to deal with this need involve networking, mentoring or being mentored, reconnecting with family and friends, and cultivating new relationships. 

 

Women also exhibit a drive to have control over one’s life and therefore struggle with resolving difficult situations and having too much agency.  To deal with these challenges, women can set goals and adapt them as necessary, remain open to possibilities, and use their relationships wisely.  There is also the desire to feel whole — to unite different life roles into an integrated whole.  The struggles for women often involve the sense that there is nothing else but work or they fight with competing identities.  To resolve these struggles, women can learn to establish clear priorities, set boundaries, and incorporate time for reflection and spirituality.  Women also want to understand their own motives, behaviors, and values in the context of today’s world.  The struggles they experience involve an avoidance of important issues as well as a clear understanding of what is personal and what is situational.  To resolve this struggle, women can seek feedback, pay attention to the environment, and practice separating themselves from their role.

 

The unique needs and challenges for women present several implications for leadership development.  It is helpful for women to:

• Reflect on priorities – Know what you want

• Create opportunities for connection

• Set and adapt goals

• Engage in whole life planning

• Seek out feedback

 

According to Ruderman and Tavares (2003), organizations can shape the organizational climate to effectively include women.  This involves creating a climate of self-realization, creating opportunities for connection, reviewing evaluation and reward systems, creating opportunities for whole life planning, and providing opportunities for skillfully delivered feedback.

 

 

A Growing Trend: Female Entrepreneurship

 

As an alternative to staying with corporations, many women are starting their own businesses, especially now that technology, small business support services, and lending practices have made the transition much easier.  In fact, women entrepreneurs do a better job balancing their lives than women in corporate America. Research shows that self-employed high-achieving women are less likely to be childless than women who work in corporate jobs (22 percent versus 42 percent in the older age group) (Hewlett, 2002). They are also much less likely to be childless than women lawyers, doctors or professors. In addition, self-employed women are more likely to be married (67 percent versus 57 percent) (Hewlett, 2002).

 

Becoming a mother is likely to be the most common incentive for women starting up their own business in 2007, research reveals. Many women have had enough of juggling the demands of working for an employer while still being a good mother, so they decide to go it alone.  “Turning a hobby or pastime into a commercial enterprise is one of the most popular ways of launching a new business for mothers”, says the study by Tesco Business Credit Card.  For many women, the late-night cries of a newborn baby awaken an entrepreneurial spirit.  There is a wide array of new businesses emerging, quite literally, from the nursery, into the open market (Hayward, 2007).  But the story does not end at the launch of a new business venture since we know many are not sustainable and others are sold to realize gains and recover time for self and family.

 

Research shows that fully two-thirds (66 percent) of women who left their careers would like to go back to work (Hewlett, 2002). These women also would like to see more flexible benefits structured around women who take off work to raise children. Ninety-one percent of those not now in careers support the creation of part-time careers such as high level jobs that allow for reduced hours on an ongoing basis, but also allow for the possibility of promotion. Not only did women-at-home want this option, but also 85 percent of those currently in careers. 

 

Conclusion and Panel Discussion Topics

 

We entrust our next generation to the primary care and guidance of women and we are increasingly drawing upon their ability to also cooperate and coordinate work in a global marketplace.   We also know that the degree to which organizational climates support women is related to their interpersonal skills on the job and their overall psychological well-being.  Given our knowledge of the challenges women face and the ways they can be overcome, there is a need to incorporate these methods more effectively within organizations.  This is especially true for organizations that wish to retain female executives, since they can be important mentors and role models for other women. 

The panel will present the research findings in the area of executive female challenges and invite participants to comment about what organizations have done well and not so well is this area.

 

According to research, few high-achieving women believe they can “have it all.”  Only 16 percent feel it is likely that a woman can “have it all” in terms of family and career. Women think men have it better with 39 percent feeling that men can “have it all.”  With the ease of starting businesses, many female executives have left the corporate world for the flexibility and rewards of entrepreneurship.  The trend is likely to continue until corporations find ways of embracing the lifestyles and values of women who join the workforce and obtain executive level positions.   One option some executive women have chosen is to take an “off-ramp” so they can raise a family, start a business, and sell a business or two.  Then they take an on-ramp later to re-join the executive ranks with honed leadership skills and business acumen. 

 

The panel will present first-hand experiences and research related to the “brain drain” including why women typically leave the workforce, how and why they start businesses, and for some, the factors involved in re-entering the workforce to serve in management positions.  The panel will also discuss the lives of successful female “serial” entrepreneurs who have launched and sold multiple businesses.

 

             

 

References

 

Bem, S. L. (1994) In a male-centered world, female differences are transformed into female disadvantages. Chronicle of Higher Education, August 17, B1-B3.

 

Hewlett, S.A., Luce, C., Shiller, P., and Southwell, S. (2005). The Hidden Brain Drain: Off-Ramps and On-Ramps in Women’s Careers.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review Report.

 

Hewlett, S. A. (2002). Groundbreaking Study Exposes a Crisis Among Successful Women. New York, NY: Center for Work-Life Policy.

 

McCormack, M. New Mums Mean New Business, 31 January 2007 Retrieved from http://www.easier.com/view/Finance/Credit_Cards/News/article-96961.html

 

Hayward, S. (2004). Women Leading. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.

 

Ruderman, M. and Tavares, J. (2003). Developing Women Leaders in the New

Millennium.  Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.

 

FEMALE EXECUTIVE RETENTION: ADAPTATION OR EXTINCTION

 

Jennifer White, WhiteWave Consulting, LLC, jen@whitewaveconsulting.com

Leslie Ameel, Leslie Marie Interiors, lameel5@sbcglobal.net

Betty Louise, Coach Betty, belou70255@comcast.net

 

 

Abstract

 

The participants on this panel include two I/O psychologists with 30 years combined corporate experience and one executive/life coach with over 20 years of experience helping others.  The Ph.D.-based practitioners have worked in human resource management and organization change management for at least 15 years each.  They have been involved with leadership selection, development, and succession for major U.S. companies.  All panelists have direct experience with female entrepreneurship and/or guiding other women in starting their own businesses.  This session will share research, experience, and facilitate discussions on critical decisions involving female executive management and entrepreneurship. 

 

FEMALE EXECUTIVE RETENTION

Background Research

By Jennifer White, Ph.d., Leslie Ameel, Ph.D., & Betty Louise, CPCC

With labor markets tightening and the workforce getting older, companies need to act urgently to retain highly qualified women.  Companies have done a poor job of retaining female talent and, in fact, they make it very easy for women to leave. When women take a temporary leave of absence to have children or care for elders, they find it difficult to return to work and contribute as they had previously.  According to research by the Center for Work-Life Policy, a nonprofit research firm in New York City, “corporations provide women with many career off-ramps, but provide them with few on-ramps” (Hewlett, Luce, Shiller, & Southwell, 2005).  

 

Only a few years back, the statistics did not look very promising for executive females and progress has been slow.  There are many women in their 40’s leaving corporate America in their prime earning years (experience, pay, title) because of the difficulty they experience trying to balance both work and family obligations.  Younger women are having an even harder time reconciling career and children than their older sisters.  Fifty-five percent of the younger women are childless at age 35, while only 38 percent of older women were childless at this point in time (Hewlett, 2002).  According to a Catalyst study in 2003, only 16% of directors of Fortune 500 companies were women.  Across the European Union, women filled only 3-6% of senior executive posts and retention remains a problem. This is a growing problem for CEOs and top managers who view human resources as an important asset to their business.

           

Members of marginalized groups have begun to argue that their differences from the dominant groups require the society to adopt new and different social policies and practices (Bem, 1994).  Bem argues that the problem for women — and what limits their chances for equality — is that they are different from men in a social world that disguises what are really just male standards or norms as gender-neutral principles.  Women face challenges because they are different from men in an “androcentric” or male-centered world.  This is a corporate world in which nearly all policies and practices are so completely organized around male experience that they suit men better than they do women — and hence automatically translate any and all male/female differences into female disadvantages.

 

While a likely step would be to adopt more female-oriented policies and practices, the whole process of dichotomizing people into two genders and making gender matter in virtually every domain of social life is misguided.  It unfortunately dictates mutually exclusive scripts for males and females — scripts that constrain everything from modes of dress and social roles to ways of expressing emotion and experiencing sexual desire. It also defines any person or behavior that deviates from these scripts as problematic — unnatural, immoral, biologically anomalous, or psychologically pathological (Bem, 1994).  Therefore, in adopting new standards, our culture would be wise to accept a continuum of masculinity and femininity and allow individuals some latitude in their expression.

 

To begin to adopt policies which are more inclusive to a feminine-orientation, it’s useful to understand the challenges many women encounter in the current workplace and some actions to help address them.  Many desire to have a healthy alignment between inner values and beliefs and outer behaviors, yet they struggle with a changing environment and fitting into a male environment (Ruderman & Tavares, 2003).  Actions to help with this challenge include 1) developing self-awareness of values, priorities, likes, and dislikes, 2) examining current choices and behaviors, 3) taking action, and 4) believing in yourself.  Executive women also have a fundamental need to be close to other human beings yet there are few executive women in the work environment so there are few close relationships to choose from.  Options to deal with this need involve networking, mentoring or being mentored, reconnecting with family and friends, and cultivating new relationships. 

 

Women also exhibit a drive to have control over one’s life and therefore struggle with resolving difficult situations and having too much agency.  To deal with these challenges, women can set goals and adapt them as necessary, remain open to possibilities, and use their relationships wisely.  There is also the desire to feel whole — to unite different life roles into an integrated whole.  The struggles for women often involve the sense that there is nothing else but work or they fight with competing identities.  To resolve these struggles, women can learn to establish clear priorities, set boundaries, and incorporate time for reflection and spirituality.  Women also want to understand their own motives, behaviors, and values in the context of today’s world.  The struggles they experience involve an avoidance of important issues as well as a clear understanding of what is personal and what is situational.  To resolve this struggle, women can seek feedback, pay attention to the environment, and practice separating themselves from their role.

 

The unique needs and challenges for women present several implications for leadership development.  It is helpful for women to:

• Reflect on priorities – Know what you want

• Create opportunities for connection

• Set and adapt goals

• Engage in whole life planning

• Seek out feedback

 

According to Ruderman and Tavares (2003), organizations can shape the organizational climate to effectively include women.  This involves creating a climate of self-realization, creating opportunities for connection, reviewing evaluation and reward systems, creating opportunities for whole life planning, and providing opportunities for skillfully delivered feedback.

 

 

A Growing Trend: Female Entrepreneurship

 

As an alternative to staying with corporations, many women are starting their own businesses, especially now that technology, small business support services, and lending practices have made the transition much easier.  In fact, women entrepreneurs do a better job balancing their lives than women in corporate America. Research shows that self-employed high-achieving women are less likely to be childless than women who work in corporate jobs (22 percent versus 42 percent in the older age group) (Hewlett, 2002). They are also much less likely to be childless than women lawyers, doctors or professors. In addition, self-employed women are more likely to be married (67 percent versus 57 percent) (Hewlett, 2002).

 

Becoming a mother is likely to be the most common incentive for women starting up their own business in 2007, research reveals. Many women have had enough of juggling the demands of working for an employer while still being a good mother, so they decide to go it alone.  “Turning a hobby or pastime into a commercial enterprise is one of the most popular ways of launching a new business for mothers”, says the study by Tesco Business Credit Card.  For many women, the late-night cries of a newborn baby awaken an entrepreneurial spirit.  There is a wide array of new businesses emerging, quite literally, from the nursery, into the open market (Hayward, 2007).  But the story does not end at the launch of a new business venture since we know many are not sustainable and others are sold to realize gains and recover time for self and family.

 

Research shows that fully two-thirds (66 percent) of women who left their careers would like to go back to work (Hewlett, 2002). These women also would like to see more flexible benefits structured around women who take off work to raise children. Ninety-one percent of those not now in careers support the creation of part-time careers such as high level jobs that allow for reduced hours on an ongoing basis, but also allow for the possibility of promotion. Not only did women-at-home want this option, but also 85 percent of those currently in careers. 

 

Conclusion and Panel Discussion Topics

 

We entrust our next generation to the primary care and guidance of women and we are increasingly drawing upon their ability to also cooperate and coordinate work in a global marketplace.   We also know that the degree to which organizational climates support women is related to their interpersonal skills on the job and their overall psychological well-being.  Given our knowledge of the challenges women face and the ways they can be overcome, there is a need to incorporate these methods more effectively within organizations.  This is especially true for organizations that wish to retain female executives, since they can be important mentors and role models for other women. 

The panel will present the research findings in the area of executive female challenges and invite participants to comment about what organizations have done well and not so well is this area.

 

According to research, few high-achieving women believe they can “have it all.”  Only 16 percent feel it is likely that a woman can “have it all” in terms of family and career. Women think men have it better with 39 percent feeling that men can “have it all.”  With the ease of starting businesses, many female executives have left the corporate world for the flexibility and rewards of entrepreneurship.  The trend is likely to continue until corporations find ways of embracing the lifestyles and values of women who join the workforce and obtain executive level positions.   One option some executive women have chosen is to take an “off-ramp” so they can raise a family, start a business, and sell a business or two.  Then they take an on-ramp later to re-join the executive ranks with honed leadership skills and business acumen. 

 

The panel will present first-hand experiences and research related to the “brain drain” including why women typically leave the workforce, how and why they start businesses, and for some, the factors involved in re-entering the workforce to serve in management positions.  The panel will also discuss the lives of successful female “serial” entrepreneurs who have launched and sold multiple businesses.

 

             

 

References

 

Bem, S. L. (1994) In a male-centered world, female differences are transformed into female disadvantages. Chronicle of Higher Education, August 17, B1-B3.

 

Hewlett, S.A., Luce, C., Shiller, P., and Southwell, S. (2005). The Hidden Brain Drain: Off-Ramps and On-Ramps in Women’s Careers.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review Report.

 

Hewlett, S. A. (2002). Groundbreaking Study Exposes a Crisis Among Successful Women. New York, NY: Center for Work-Life Policy.

 

McCormack, M. New Mums Mean New Business, 31 January 2007 Retrieved from http://www.easier.com/view/Finance/Credit_Cards/News/article-96961.html

 

Hayward, S. (2004). Women Leading. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.

 

Ruderman, M. and Tavares, J. (2003). Developing Women Leaders in the New

Millennium.  Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.

 

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