The perception of women in the workforce generates significant controversy, and although it has improved over time,
acceptance of the female executive may not be as widespread as most men attest. This finding was recently reported by
co-authored by Baylor University's Dawn S. Carlson and K. Michele Kacmar of the University of Alabama in "What
Men Think About Executive Women" in Harvard Business Review.
In 1965 a survey of 2,000 executives, half men and half women, was taken to find the male and female attitude toward executive
women. The survey was representative of the executive population in the United States and was performed again in 1985. In 2005
the same survey was given to 286 executives and analyzed once more.
According to the survey, men's attitudes about executive women have increased to the point where they are equally favorable when
compared to women's responses. Similarly, the attitude of men toward working for executive women has soared over the past
40 years to now be relatively equal to that of women.
Where differences begin to emerge in attitudes is with the belief that the business community will never fully accept female executives.
Women today have less faith than men that they will be accepted in executive roles. Females also feel more strongly that they
must be exceptional to succeed.
In general, supportive attitudes of women as executives have increased significantly since 1965. But the present research
found that men tend not to acknowledge that females still face barriers for success-even though women say they still encounter
them. Since women hold fewer than 20 percent of corporate officer positions in Fortune 500 companies, and only eight of those companies
have female CEOs, the authors conclude that, "on the likelihood of full acceptance and the necessity of exceptional performance... men's perceptions
are overly rosy."
In her book, Mother
Leads Best: 50 Women Who are Changing the Way Organizations Define Leadership (Dearborn Trade, March 2005, ISBN 0793195187),
Moe Grzelakowski exposes several myths about mothers, leadership, and career advancement.
Myth #1: Motherhood will make it more difficult to get to the top.
Reality: Organizations are recognizing that the qualities of maternal
leadership-perspective, balance, nurturing, and so on-are exactly the skills needed to manage a diverse workforce in turbulent times.
Myth #2: Mothers are opting out at alarming rates.
Reality: Interviews suggest that fast-track women executives with kids are less likely to opt out than women who have lower-level jobs.
It stands to reason that most women with highly successful careers have more to lose by opting out than other women, that the financial
rewards and satisfaction they derive from their jobs are greater than if they had been less successful. Therefore, while a woman in a
dead-end job who has a child might find it easy to stop working, a woman in an exciting, fulfilling executive role will find such a
prospect less enticing.
Myth #3: To become a CEO, you must carefully plan your career and life around your goal.
Reality: While you need to get the right mix of academic and job
experiences to be even considered for a CEO position, you cannot plan every aspect of your life to the point that you significantly increase
the odds of becoming a CEO.
Myth #4: Women who have to leave work because of family
problems become bitter and resentful.
Reality: When high-achieving mothers stop working, they usually do so because they have decided they prefer to be
at home rather than at work.
Myth #5: If I do take a break, I cannot get back on the fast track.
Reality: You must battle to stay on the fast track no matter what your situation might be.
Many moms wish they could have more quality time with their families. One-in-four working moms (25 percent)
say they are dissatisfied with their work/life balance, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey of 1,124 women, employed full-time,
with children under the age of 18 living at home. Forty-four percent say they would take a pay cut if it meant they could spend more time
with their kids and nearly one- in-ten (9 percent) say they would give up 10 percent or more of their salary. Of working moms who are not
the sole financial provider, nearly half (49 percent) say they would leave their job if their spouse or significant other made enough
money for the family to live comfortably.
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