What women want
I’m in the throes of research for a new keynote I’m delivering to women leaders around Australia in the coming months. As you might imagine, academics and commentators around the world have tackled the issue of female representation in the workplace and specifically in leadership ranks. Which would be good news for us, if it was resulting in more women at the top.
But according to EOWA Director, Anna McPhee, and the EOWA Gender Income Distribution study, the increase in women leaders across our top companies is “glacial”. It makes you wonder: with all this focus by companies on diversity strategies and affirmative action, why aren’t there more women executives and board members?
An interesting theory I’ve uncovered in my research goes some way to explaining the great divide between men and women in the workplace. The research-based theory was developed by Dr Catherine Hakim – a Senior Research Fellow in the London School of Economics – to explain and predict women’s choices between the competing demands of work and family and it introduces some interesting – if controversial – thinking.
Termed ‘preference theory*’, Hakim’s approach examined the evidence of working patterns adopted by women today and, most significantly, looked behind the snapshot of employment figures to find out why these working patterns remain so different from those practiced by men. From an exhaustive analysis of the available research evidence on women’s work histories and life goals from the 1970s onwards, Hakim concluded that, contrary to feminist assumptions, women do not operate as a homogenous group, held back by sex discrimination from pursuing their ambitions.
Rather, Hakim reports that analysis of women’s preferences shows that women fall into three categories:
• ‘work-centred’ women, giving highest priority to their careers (15 to 20% of the population);
• ‘family-centred’ women, whose lives are devoted to home and family (also 15 to 20% of the population);
• ‘adaptive’ women, whose lives encompass both work and family (60 to 70% of the population).
This largest group, the ‘adaptive’ women tend to express their life-choice by working reduced hours at certain stages of their lives, and/or combining part-time work with child care, or taking career breaks in their children’s early years.
Hakim’s research indicates that the gender mix in the workplace may well be perfectly normal and explainable after all and, indeed, what women want. If this resonates with you – or not – please reply! Do you think female representation in the workplace in fact reflects our preferences, or are we influenced more by external factors?
Jen Dalitz, sheEO
* C Hakim, Work-Lifestyle Choices in the 21st Century – Preference Theory, Oxford University Press, 2000.
February 13th, 2008 at 12:26:10
Not wanting to knock the feminists at all (my heroes) but, now that they have a choice, I agree that women frequently, at certain stages of their lives, prioritise their personal life (care of children, aged parents, husband’s career) over their own career and I don’t think that it’s a betrayal of the sisterhood to do so. Much to the angst of many business organisations, who would love to include some women in their senior ranks, the fact remains that we just aren’t as interested in that game as men are - our self-esteem isn’t inextricably linked to the status of our job. The feminist movement has always essentially been about women’s right to choose and equal opportunities to pursue whatever it is we want to pursue. What it isn’t about is stipulating that we will make the same choices as men or that we define success as men do.
February 13th, 2008 at 17:13:17
Stacey, I love your comment about defining success in our own way. Perhaps that is where women can get lost in the maze. We need to focus on our own successes, every day, and not just the stereotype of success which has historically been power, money and status. Power to you!