What's the Deal with Female Senior Leaders?

It has always struck me as self-indulgent when posing a topic on women’s equality.  If you are a woman and aren’t where you want to be – DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!  So what has spurred me to finally put fingers to the keyboard?

Last week, my admin flagged the May 2010 issue of ‘Boards - the rag targeted at Creative Leaders'.  In the lead article, they assembled a panel of industry leaders to attempt to understand why an industry developing conversations targeting populations skewed 80% female (the household buyers) are represented by a fraction of female creative directors.  (note:  I don’t think there was any great conclusion on why, just that it was.)  This week, I just added to my calendar the Sr. Women in Technology Forum.  The keynote speaker, Lynn Harris, references the 2007 Catalyst Census of Women Board of Directors of Canada’s Financial Post  500 where on average less than 15% of board seats and corporate officer positions are women in her book Unwritten Rules (unwrittenrulesthebook.com).  She further states that this number is declining!

Again and again, I am presented with views that tell me the unbalance of female leadership is not just lack of ambition or effort – there is something more behind it and maybe I should start doing something to contribute to change.

So what makes me feel that I have not been limited by my gender and that my success is 100% within my control?  One could argue that I have self-fulfilled the “the glass ceiling” prophecy as, although I hold the title of Vice President, Operations, it isn’t at a large corporation with a huge span of control like some of my male peers, it is with a agile, service oriented Marketing agency that plays into my strengths as a business leader and as a woman, caregiver, entrepreneur.  Maybe that’s what women with great leadership skills are doing, bucking the hierarchy and just finding the niches that work for them.

On the other hand, maybe it is because I cut my teeth in the big bad consulting world where I quickly learned to survive, compromising any resemblance of a personal life, cursing and telling off-colour jokes to fit in to an organization where I was the part of the 20% Club (20% of our division were women, but then really only 12% of our division were female consultants – the rest of were admin and support staff.).  Interestingly enough, I felt the most competition from the women to be successful – I guess to be the best woman consultant and not the best consultant!

Part of my discomfort in calling attention to women is just that – if we don’t want to be treated differently then why do we say we have a special issue?  Gender, race, sexual orientation, the list goes on... how do we find equality, behave equally and not just be a special interest group?

How do I contribute to change – I’m definitely not pulling out a placard for women’s rights and marching down the street!  As a hiring manager, should I just hire more women?  Even my operations team is skewed male with systems developers and technical analysts.  It hasn’t been just that there are fewer female candidates for the roles I recruit for but when it comes down to it, I have always just hired the strongest candidate, fortunately at least some of them have been women.

And, as I participate in Digital Cement filling an opening on our senior team where currently, I am the only female, we talk about candidates and consider how to have a more balanced team – ‘gender-wise’.  Then again, although the impact to both our business and the women that need the role models and mentors could be success critical – I still won’t compromise finding the most qualified candidate for the role regardless of gender.  It worries me when the question sits in the back of my mind - is there really an amazing female candidate for the role out there?

So, maybe I start at the beginning.  Maybe I commit more.  Expand my mentoring and coaching to specifically target developing and coaching female leaders.  Convince my few female peers to do the same.  Start even earlier and volunteer for girls programs to help youth start to dream for the potential.

When I look into the introspective gaze of my ten month old daughter in the picture on my computer desktop, I wonder, will she grow up with aspirations of greatness and share her passions with people who will follow her?  I guess only time will tell – my job is to help her to become confident and filled with self worth and expose her to the possibilities of the world.  Then, when it comes to it... what steps she takes will be hers and I will know that I have done my real job well.