[NOISE] Hello everyone. My name is Diana Bilimoria and I'm the KeyBank professor and chair of organization behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. For this session, we'll be focusing on the representation of women at the top. Our agenda is to discuss what is the representation of women in senior leadership positions across the world? And we'll focus particularly on top management teams and boards of directors. We'll discuss what is the glass ceiling phenomenon. And why does it matter for us to have more women at the top in our organizations. As well as what are some countries, across the world, doing to address and correct the glass ceiling effect. In the next few slides, you'll see the share of board seats that are held by women across different countries in the world. This slide focuses on the share of board seats that are held by women across Europe and as we can see there's a big range across the many different countries here. The highest percentage of board seats held by women in any country is currently by Norway. That was the initiator of legislation to make sure that women were represented on corporate boards that were listed on their country's stock exchange. In Asia-Pacific countries as well women share of board seats has a wide range from almost 20% to 3%. In North America, particularly in Canada and the US this has been a fairly stable number, ranging around 17 to 20% in the US and Canada. The status of women in US business is a very interesting diagram. This diagram has been put out by Catalyst, which is a research-based firm out of New York that studies and advocates for women in leadership positions at the highest levels in US business as well as across the world. Their analysis shows that while there are almost parity at the middle levels of management, 51% of mid-level managers and professionals are women, subsequent levels higher show declining percentages of women in leadership. Such that at the highest levels of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, 5% are women. Among all of the different companies at the highest levels, a miniscule proportion is held by women. These numbers have been fairly stable over the last ten years. There has been some growth. But in the last 10 years we've seen a plateauing of these numbers. So much so that Catalyst's CEO at the time said, corporate America has got to get unstuck. And if this represented a patient's pulse, she'd be dead. This is a slide of women in US finance and insurance businesses, again focusing on the proportions of women at all levels in these large corporations. While there's a majority of women at the lower levels, at the highest levels the numbers decline precipitously. And women in US law firms shows us the same pattern. Again women associates, 45%, managing partners 5%. Here's what Catalyst, who did the study, had to say. Given the rate of change, Catalyst estimates that it will take more than a woman lawyer's who was born in 2010 entire lifetime to achieve equality. Lets look at women in US healthcare. Again a majority of women in the labor force are women in healthcare. The percentage of CEOs nonexistent. Women in academic leadership. This is a particularly important aspect because the majority of all college students today in the US are women. And this is a pattern that is replicated in many other countries cross the world, where more college students are women than men. Yet at the higher levels, women are poorly represented in leadership and senior leadership positions. I want to share with you the proportion of women in senior management across 45 countries. This was a recent study that was done by Grant Thornton. And they found that the proportion of women in senior management for many countries, particularly in the emerging world, is much higher than those in the developed world. This is a very interesting pattern of findings because it indicates that there is great opportunity for established economies like the US and the UK, and in many areas of Europe for the growth of women in senior management and leadership. Here's what they're saying. This is a quote from the National Managing Partner of Diversity and Inclusion at Grant Thornton that did this study that I just mentioned in the previous slide. It's no longer feasible for U.S businesses to adopt a sit-and-wait policy when it comes to promoting women to senior management roles, particularly when so many other nations, developed and emerging, are more rapidly realizing the benefits of diverse senior leadership. It's not just the developed world that has opportunity for growth in women and senior leadership. There are other countries as well where there is great opportunity and great changes happening in these countries as well. And more is welcomed. I give you two examples, India and Australia. Again there are examples where there is great opportunity for growth of women in business, especially at the senior leadership, so that the countries can better utilize the talents of their full workforce. It's not just in business, it's also in government. Women's representation in national legislatures or parliaments, out of 188 direct election countries, showed that North America, Canada, and the US trail other countries greatly in the representation of women in national legislatures or parliaments. Take a look at the top ten countries. Take a look also at the countries with democratically elected women heads of state. There are many opportunities here for other countries to democratically elect women to senior leadership positions in government. Why so few? Why so slow? What are the barriers to women's advancement? And there are many that were laid out, some that pertain to the organization, some that pertain to interpersonal barriers, and some that are personal challenges. The rest of the course will focus on all of these different barriers, but on the level of the organization it has to do with the culture of the company. It has to do with who gets selected for senior leadership positions, and what are the preferences that are made in these decisions. What can be done to enable the majority male peers to bring up the status and representation of women? On an interpersonal level, what kinds of biases, stereotypes and preconceptions are operating, sometimes on an implicit and unconscious basis? How could we include more people in informal networks so that the barriers can be lessened? And provide mentors so that it equips women to be more effective in leadership. At the personal level, there are also challenges. There are certain kinds of leadership skills that women sometimes need to develop. The few that we'll focus on in this course are self-confidence, political savvy, and negotiation skills. There are also other home life responsibilities and choices that are made by women, just like they're made by men. That may be explanations for the advancement of women to senior leadership. A particular barrier that I'd like to focus on is the glass ceiling, which the US Federal Glass Ceiling Commission defined as the seen yet unreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements. The glass ceiling applies to women as a group. Because they are women they are kept from advancing higher. This is a very important construct to understand as an explanation for the slow advancement and the few women at the top of organizations across the world. Why is it important to have more women at the top? Frankly our organizations need women leaders. Studies have shown in a remarkably consistent fashion that companies with more women in top leadership positions financially outperform those with fewer. And this is both in accounting performance indicators as well as on stock market performance indicators. Companies with more women on their boards of directors are more likely to have more women corporate officers five years later. This study and this set of findings tells us that by having more women on the board, we're more likely to have more diversity in the senior management structures. And companies with more women in senior leadership positions practice more corporate philanthropy and have higher-quality corporate social responsibility initiatives, all factors that are very important for our communities. And so, without any doubt, having more women in senior leadership positions is beneficial to corporations. Here's where Christine Lagarde, who was at the time France's finance minister and she said this in an International Herald Tribune editorial page at the height of the 2008 global financial crisis. If Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters, today's economic crisis clearly would look quite different. This a bit of a funny quote, but it has an important message about the value of having women in senior leadership discussion. Having them around the table improves the quality of the discussion and removes the likelihood of a homogenous point of view. Lets see what CEO Jim Turley of E&Y had to say. And this was a editorial that he wrote in the Wall Street Journal, also right around the time of the height of the financial crisis. He said, it's not that women make better decisions, have a greater sense of risk, or can sniff out fraud better than men. But they tend to approach decisions differently than men, with different frames of reference. Not having enough women in positions of power and decision-making capacities has deprived major firms and the global economy of the diversity in thinking and resulting positive outcomes, which were desperately needed then, and now. True success will occur when organizations understand that the best strategy is one reached after including a broad variety of views and perspectives from men and women, young and old, those who have wildly different interests, academic backgrounds, or speak different languages. And this folks is the value of women. Women also carry great economic clout. They control about 20 billion in annual spending in the US, which represents a growth market more than twice as big as China or India combined. They control 73% of U.S. consumer spending including automobiles, electronics, and household goods. In the U.S., 4 out of 10 working wives earned more than their husbands in 2014. And if the trends continue, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that the next generation of family will be supported by more women than men. And in 2012, there were 8.3 million women owned businesses in the U.S., generating an enormous revenue of $1.3 trillion. This economic clout is somehow not well represented at the top of our corporations and our organizations, whether in government, in business, even in nonprofits. What are some of the different strategies that countries are using to overcome the glass ceiling? Some countries are using gender quotas. You can see the examples of these countries. Others are moving towards what is called a minimum objective. The EU is a good example of that. Other countries are using a corporate disclosure requirement or target suggestions. You can see the different examples of the countries that are using these. And yet other countries are using voluntary measures to enable women to rise to the top of their organizations and overcome the glass ceiling. Women in emerging markets provide a very interesting example of no quotas but great change. The highest proportions of women with senior roles are what is called the BRICS nations, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Women comprise in total 30% of senior management positions in the BRIC which is higher than the global average. Russia has the highest proportion of women in senior management globally. The Baltic States have more than 30%. And between 2012 and 2013, China doubled the number of senior management roles held by women from 25 to 51%. Again this is data from the study by Grant Thornton. So this data indicates that there are a number of different ways by which countries, governments, and companies can advance women to the top of their organizations and change the representation of women at the top. I'd like to conclude the session we've had so far with the following points. Women have made great strides but there is much opportunity for continued advancement. The glass ceiling is a powerful barrier to women's advancement to senior leadership. Countries are using a variety of methods to address and correct the glass ceiling effect. By acknowledging that the glass ceiling is a collective challenge to overcome, women can support and mentor each other and organizations can better support women to reach their full potential and make positive contributions to their organizations and society. I'd like to now invite you to complete the homework assignment by researching the answers to the following questions using web sources or potentially by speaking with leaders in your organization. What is the representation of women at the top of your organization, your industry and your country? In which industries are women well represented in your country and in which industries are they not well represented? Summarize your answers in 300 words or so. Thank you very much. [SOUND]
