More from McKinsey on Women in the Workplace

Last spring I wrote a post about a new report from McKinsey about its research on the advancement of women in the workplace, particularly large corporations. The McKinsey Quarterly (free once you register) has now followed that with a further report that suggest approaches for increasing the number of women at the higher levels of corporations, government, and academia. As usual with McKinsey, the insights apply to not-for-profits as well.

The conclusion? Well, progress has been made, but structural problems remain:

Firmly entrenched barriers continue to hinder the progress of high-potential women: many of those who start out with high ambitions, for instance, leave for greener pastures, settle for less demanding staff roles, or simply opt out of the workforce. . . And everywhere we look, despite numerous gender diversity initiatives, too few women reach the executive committee, and too few boards have more than a token number of women.

So what is to be done? McKinsey offers four strategies for committed leaders to follow:

1. Treat gender diversity like any other strategic business initiative - ie, set a goal and monitor it regularly. Expect the process to take some time, possibly years. Keep asking about it.

2. Ask for--and talk about--the data - in particular, think about the points where women exit. Why do they leave then? How many women are in the pipeline? Oh, and hold everyone in senior management accountable for those numbers.

3. Establish a culture of sponsorship - everyone, men and women, should sponsor, mentor, support two or three future leaders. And the current CEO/ED should spend time with them on visits.

4. Raise awareness of what a diverse work environment looks like - talk about your efforts; celebrate and publicize success.

And if you're in the US and still reading on November 6, don't forget to vote!

McKinsey on Women in the Workplace

McKinsey has recently published its updated research on the advancement of women in the workplace, particularly large for-profit corporations. Among the  key findings are that two types of structures that advance women successfully have emerged in practice: either a lot of women start (more than 50%) and so more are available to move up, or women are retained at the same rate as men, and so are available to move up. In social services work, the first scenario is probably more common than the second, though that may be changing in recent years.

And what happens in the higher echelons? Again, McKinsey is reporting on what its research among large for-profit corporations found: "many women opt to take staff roles, get stuck in middle management, or leave their organization without giving the company a chance to address their concerns."

Sound familiar? It does to me. And in fact the report identified some familiar barriers:

* structural obstacles (ie, few women at the top)
* lifestyle choices (women reported being both the primary caregiver and the primary breadwinner much more often than men did)
* institutional culture and individual behavior (women don't knock on doors asking for advice the way men do; men will assume that a pregnant woman will not want to move to take up a new position)

And the report offers some specific suggestions, including hands-on leadership, diversity leadership with the clot to make things happen, and robust talent management - all of which can (and often are) be done by not-for profits.

It's an interesting look at an important picture. You can get a pdf of the full report here. (McKinsey reports are free if you sign up.)

Update: This post was edited for clarity.