Do men just look more promotion ready than women? - Women's Agenda

Do men just look more promotion ready than women?

If you run a Google image search on the word ‘promotion’ you’ll see a lot of images like the above coming up. It’s a reflection of some of our, oftentimes unconscious, perceptions about promotion – including who wants them, who needs them, and who gets them.

Such images also reflect reality. Men, in the corporate world at least, are more likely than women to get promoted. We can see the evidence in the still too few number of women across senior leadership positions.

Indeed, according to a new survey of almost 4500 people released by Bain and Chief Executive Women this week, 60% of men across business, government and not-for-profit organisations reported being promoted at least twice in the past five years, compared with just 41% of women.

That’s a problem, not just for the women who aren’t personally getting promoted, but also given the fact optimistic plans to see a 50/50 gender split across leadership positions in the future depends on women now being promoted at significantly higher rates than men.

“We’re a long way from having women being promoted at the same rate as men,” report co-author Meredith Hellicar from Chief Executive Women told Women’s Agenda this morning. “There’s got to be a big expansion on the rate of female promotions in order to make a dent on anybody’s aim to get to 50/50 [in leadership].”

Is this the merit system at work? Can the under promotion of women be attributed to career breaks, or to confidence levels, or to a lack of ambition?

Hellicar said that the more senior the position, the more likely it is that men will get promoted. The problem is not that women lack the ambition or the confidence to get ahead – although Hellicar said that women lack confidence regarding the likelihood that they will ever be given the opportunity to get to the top or organisations.

Women also lack confidence in the so-called system or merit.

The Advancing Women in Australia: Eliminating bias in Feedback and Promotions report found that 45% of female respondents believe their organisation is meritocratic, compared with 61% of men.

As for the feedback women get at work, the report found women are twice as likely than men to be told they need to appear “more confident” to be promotion ready. Women were also a third more likely to be told they need “more experience”, but were in turn less likely to receive clear feedback on what they need to do to get promoted.

Bain partner and co-author of the research Melanie Sanders believes such perceptions reflect a bias that women are considered to be more ‘risky’ appointments than men. She noted that appointing more women in some organisations often means putting a woman in a particular roles for the first time.

Perhaps it’s also that women have to work harder to look more promotion ready than her male counterparts — to match that stereotypical image of what a leader should look like.

So what can be done? Bain and CEW outlined the following recommendations:

  1. Train managers to offer specific, measurable and actionable feedback to all employees – ensure this is done in a time fashion and that both men and women benefit.
  2. Give women and men access to effective sponsors who can advocate on their behalf and support their careers
  3. Give women and men access to career-development opportunities and specific roles where they can get the necessary skills and experiences that is seen as necessary for promotion.
  4. Take action to prevent bias in appointment and promotions decisions and processes.

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