00:00:00
Breaking news
00:00:01
Britain’s FTSE 100 has finally hit 50:50
00:00:04
for male and female CEOs
00:00:09
But here’s the reality
00:00:12
On current trends
00:00:13
this news alert could be decades away
00:00:16
And some believe gender parity
00:00:18
at the top of the business world
00:00:19
may never happen
00:00:23
Today around 10% of Britain’s and America’s
00:00:25
biggest companies have female CEOs
00:00:29
You’re a really big role model
00:00:31
and there’s a lot of pressure
00:00:33
So what’s stopping women
00:00:35
from rising to the top job?
00:00:37
And how can more women get there?
00:00:52
As CEO of Vodafone
00:00:54
Margherita Della Valle is one of Europe’s
00:00:56
most powerful businesswomen
00:01:00
When I see other women CEOs now
00:01:03
We recognise each other
00:01:04
we are proud to be there in numbers
00:01:08
because we see this as a sign of change
00:01:13
Over the past decade
00:01:14
the number of female CEOs like Margherita
00:01:17
has more than doubled in Britain
00:01:18
and America’s biggest companies
00:01:21
But they are still comparatively rare
00:01:24
Deepening the talent pool of aspiring
00:01:26
female CEOs is one way to redress
00:01:29
this leadership imbalance
00:01:30
And that starts by changing what happens to women
00:01:33
earlier in their careers
00:01:34
Across the world, more women now
00:01:36
graduate from university than men
00:01:38
and in America, over 40% of MBA students are women
00:01:42
But as careers continue,
00:01:44
women are less likely
00:01:45
to progress up the ladder than men
00:01:48
So what’s going on?
00:01:51
We’re seeing that women are entering the workplace
00:01:53
in ever-increasing equal numbers as men
00:01:57
but their careers slow down
00:01:59
and sometimes they step off
00:02:01
during that period of time
00:02:02
when they’re having children
00:02:04
So actually, there’s a seemingly smaller pool of women
00:02:07
to select when it comes to CEO
00:02:11
Many women give up work after having kids
00:02:14
In rich countries, an estimated 80% of the gender gap
00:02:18
in employment is due to women
00:02:20
leaving the workforce after starting a family
00:02:23
This is part of what’s known as the motherhood penalty
00:02:26
The motherhood penalty also negatively affects women
00:02:29
with children who stay in the workforce
00:02:31
On average they end up being paid less
00:02:33
and promoted less than male colleagues with children
00:02:37
Take America and Canada, where for every 100 men
00:02:41
who make it from entry level to manager,
00:02:44
only 81 women are promoted,
00:02:46
leaving fewer women than men available for promotion
00:02:49
to senior manager level and beyond
00:02:52
Often very, very well-intentioned managers are thinking,
00:02:55
“Oh, I don’t want to put too much pressure on you”
00:02:57
or perhaps suggest that you move overseas
00:03:00
for this great new role,
00:03:01
because I know you have small children at home
00:03:04
And they are disadvantaged
00:03:06
when those assumptions are being made about them
00:03:09
When companies are presented with CVs for managerial jobs
00:03:12
American women with no children
00:03:14
have a 28% higher chance of callback
00:03:17
compared with women with children
00:03:23
For ways to address the motherhood penalty
00:03:26
and help more women
00:03:27
become potential CEO candidates,
00:03:30
inspiration can be found in the Nordic countries
00:03:35
The Economist’s glass-ceiling index puts
00:03:38
Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Finland on top
00:03:41
as the best countries to be a working woman
00:03:47
This is partly because they help
00:03:48
working mothers to progress in their careers
00:03:51
with supportive policies
00:03:52
like a decent amount of parental leave, affordable child care
00:03:55
and flexible work schedules,
00:03:58
which helps explain why Norway leads the world
00:04:00
with the highest share of female CEOs at 13.4%
00:04:06
Women know your limits
00:04:09
Although attitudes have moved on,
00:04:12
to get more women into top jobs,
00:04:14
it’s also vital to challenge old ideas
00:04:16
about what a good CEO looks like
00:04:20
The definition of successful leadership today
00:04:23
is still very much shaped around typical male attributes
00:04:30
and therefore promotions and hiring processes in the companies
00:04:34
are still influenced by that
00:04:36
We need to consciously focus on changing it
00:04:39
And it’s not just men who hold these outdated ideas about leadership
00:04:43
How about women?
00:04:44
Women are different
00:04:45
I think we’re asking for trouble
00:04:47
Just what is it we are afraid of?
00:04:49
Two-thirds of female CEOs
00:04:50
say they didn’t realise
00:04:51
the top job was an option
00:04:53
until a mentor encouraged them
00:04:56
It’s really interesting that we have recognised now
00:04:59
that we need to go and find the women
00:05:00
Women don’t necessarily self-promote,
00:05:03
particularly to leadership roles
00:05:05
Women often need to be encouraged, and that’s the role of mentors
00:05:08
to identify that female talent
00:05:10
so that they can tap them on the shoulder
00:05:12
and say, “You should apply for that role”
00:05:15
Diversity, equity and inclusion schemes are touted
00:05:18
as one way to change biases and behaviour
00:05:20
But DEI initiatives, as they are known,
00:05:24
are often ineffective
00:05:29
Professor Iris Bohnet is a behavioural economist and expert on bias
00:05:35
Diversity trainings, which are a favourite tool
00:05:37
of many organisations, in particular in the United States,
00:05:41
have not been proven to be very effective
00:05:43
It is incredibly hard to de-bias minds
00:05:49
To manage the problem of biases and increase the number of female CEOs
00:05:54
Iris advocates focusing on recruitment processes
00:05:58
in particular on what she calls
00:05:59
the behavioural design of these processes
00:06:04
I’d encourage everyone who interviews candidates
00:06:06
for CEO roles to employ a structured approach
00:06:10
You ask every candidate
00:06:12
the same set of questions in the same order,
00:06:15
giving the same weight
00:06:17
to the answers to these questions,
00:06:19
so you can in a somewhat more accurate fashion
00:06:22
compare these different candidates
00:06:25
Companies also need to get better
00:06:27
at holding onto female CEOs
00:06:30
In 2023 female bosses
00:06:32
headed for the exit at a record rate
00:06:35
Women at the executive level
00:06:37
are leaving jobs more than ever before
00:06:41
Almost a quarter of female CEOs
00:06:43
leave their jobs within two years
00:06:46
That’s compared with 10% for men
00:06:49
Female CEOs are more likely to be sacked, too
00:06:53
with 34% pushed out
00:06:55
compared with 25% of male counterparts
00:06:58
Researchers have spotted one explanation for this
00:07:01
Female CEOs are more likely to be brought in
00:07:04
when a company is already heading for a crash
00:07:07
A phenomenon known as the “glass cliff”
00:07:11
The glass cliff does create a very,
00:07:13
very difficult environment for female CEOs
00:07:16
because the risks of taking the wrong step
00:07:18
are incredibly high
00:07:19
and from a role-modelling perspective,
00:07:21
that can be really challenging
00:07:23
for those who are aspiring to CEO roles
00:07:25
because they are seeing women take up roles
00:07:27
where the likelihood of success is much less
00:07:29
than it would be in a usual circumstance
00:07:33
None of this is likely to inspire more women to aim for the top job
00:07:37
And yet the case for recruiting more female CEOs is clear
00:07:41
It would be better for business
00:07:43
Companies that exploit the full talent pool on offer
00:07:46
are more likely to succeed
00:07:50
I think everyone now understands
00:07:52
the business case for diversity
00:07:54
You have access to better talent,
00:07:56
you have better decision-making
00:07:58
More women are coming through
00:08:00
and numbers are starting to move
00:08:03
But it’s taking too long
00:08:05
which is why we really need to focus on
00:08:08
how to speed up this change
00:08:12
Hi, I’m Sacha Nauta
00:08:13
social affairs editor at The Economist
00:08:16
If you’d like to read more of our coverage
00:08:17
on women in business,
00:08:19
then click on the link opposite
00:08:21
And if you’d like to watch more of our
00:08:22
Now & Next series, click on the other link
00:08:25
Thanks for watching
00:08:26
and don’t forget to subscribe
