the wage gap. Even if women get promotions and raises at the same rate as men, if in their first job they were placed at a lower position and salary than their male colleagues, the same promotion and compensation increase rates will not close the gap. Ilene H. Lang points to a recent Catalyst study of female and male MBA graduates. “Women are pegged at a lower level and lower salary from the very first job out of their MBA program if they start at entry-level. If they are hired at a mid-career level, women and men fare pretty much the same, and they track the same afterward. But somehow, at that entry level, men are seen as much more promising and much more valuable, just because they’re men. More women take a hit, just because they’re women.” So that’s hidden bias
in action, and where the gender wage gap begins to grow. Says Lang: “The metaphor I use is, imagine that there’s a big race and your daughter or your granddaughter or your sister—whoever it is—is really good at track and field and she’s training, and she trains with the best of them. She goes to the start line, and you look up and she’s not on the start line. She’s 100 feet back. Would you accept this? So that’s the challenge: women are starting out behind the start line. And they don’t catch up.”
BUT AREN’T WOMEN GOOD FOR BUSINESS?
These gender disparities exist despite studies that suggest having more women in the top spots boosts the bottom line. That’s why the European telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom mandates that one-third of its top jobs be filled by women. The company’s CEO said in a statement, “Taking on more women in management positions is not about the enforcement of misconstrued egalitarianism; having more women at the top will simply help us operate better.”
A study by the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business found that female CEOs and female company directors tend to pay less in corporate takeovers, creating less debt and saving their shareholders money. Research shows that when more women are on the board of directors, companies are less likely to pay those outrageous compensations we’ve heard so much about on the news. That’s why Norway put a law on the books requiring that at least forty percent of the boards of directors of public companies be female.
Much of the research about gender and performance, however, is still under debate. Academics who challenge the current findings ask, “If companies that hire more women do better, how do we really know what role women play in that success? Are companies that seek out divergent perspectives simply more innovative and therefore make more money?”
Curiously, two men I interviewed—both of them tremendously successful captains of industry—argued that there’s no substantial difference between male and female executives at the very top. Both Jack Welch and Donald Trump argue that the best corporate leaders are gender-neutral.
“When you get a good woman leader, she is every bit as good as a man ... good leaders are gender-neutral. ”
—JACK WELCH
In his twenty years as CEO of General Electric, the parent company of NBC, Jack Welch was credited with turning that company into one of America’s largest and most valuable. His management skills are legendary, and earned him a reputation as one of America’s toughest bosses. If his managers weren’t producing, they no longer had a job.
I present Welch with the theory I’d heard from other interviewees, that executives love hiring women because women work harder and aren’t always asking for things like bigger offices and more money, and they don’t spend a lot of
time drawing attention to themselves and self-promoting. Does he agree?
Welch takes the contrarian point of view: “I think the distinction in many ways is a phony distinction. A players, really great managers and leaders, are almost gender-neutral. When you get a good woman leader, she is every
in action, and where the gender wage gap begins to grow. Says Lang: “The metaphor I use is, imagine that there’s a big race and your daughter or your granddaughter or your sister—whoever it is—is really good at track and field and she’s training, and she trains with the best of them. She goes to the start line, and you look up and she’s not on the start line. She’s 100 feet back. Would you accept this? So that’s the challenge: women are starting out behind the start line. And they don’t catch up.”
BUT AREN’T WOMEN GOOD FOR BUSINESS?
These gender disparities exist despite studies that suggest having more women in the top spots boosts the bottom line. That’s why the European telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom mandates that one-third of its top jobs be filled by women. The company’s CEO said in a statement, “Taking on more women in management positions is not about the enforcement of misconstrued egalitarianism; having more women at the top will simply help us operate better.”
A study by the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business found that female CEOs and female company directors tend to pay less in corporate takeovers, creating less debt and saving their shareholders money. Research shows that when more women are on the board of directors, companies are less likely to pay those outrageous compensations we’ve heard so much about on the news. That’s why Norway put a law on the books requiring that at least forty percent of the boards of directors of public companies be female.
Much of the research about gender and performance, however, is still under debate. Academics who challenge the current findings ask, “If companies that hire more women do better, how do we really know what role women play in that success? Are companies that seek out divergent perspectives simply more innovative and therefore make more money?”
Curiously, two men I interviewed—both of them tremendously successful captains of industry—argued that there’s no substantial difference between male and female executives at the very top. Both Jack Welch and Donald Trump argue that the best corporate leaders are gender-neutral.
“When you get a good woman leader, she is every bit as good as a man ... good leaders are gender-neutral. ”
—JACK WELCH
In his twenty years as CEO of General Electric, the parent company of NBC, Jack Welch was credited with turning that company into one of America’s largest and most valuable. His management skills are legendary, and earned him a reputation as one of America’s toughest bosses. If his managers weren’t producing, they no longer had a job.
I present Welch with the theory I’d heard from other interviewees, that executives love hiring women because women work harder and aren’t always asking for things like bigger offices and more money, and they don’t spend a lot of
time drawing attention to themselves and self-promoting. Does he agree?
Welch takes the contrarian point of view: “I think the distinction in many ways is a phony distinction. A players, really great managers and leaders, are almost gender-neutral. When you get a good woman leader, she is every
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