Women in Management - The real challenge in Diversity

Our workforce is getting increasingly diverse these days.  We have a lot of women population, people of different ethnicity and background.  Companies are trying to hire more female employees to have a more diverse workforce. While it may be easy to hire entry level, even mid-level women employees, the challenge lies in hiring or promoting existing women workforce to higher level management positions.

The company I work for has a deeply vested interest in growing their female employees. The existing women in high level positions have a committee to discuss how to get more female employees in higher ranks. One of them is my mentor. She told me a story that really inspired me and showed me how we as women have a lot of false misconceptions.

My mentor was eyeing for a VP role within the company, but told her boss the CEO that she wanted the role but was afraid of the travel it entails.  The CEO told her that he really wanted her to have the position, but asked her to figure out a way to deal with the travel by coming up with a solution. And she did, she hired regional VPs to take care of the travel in that area by increasing ownership and restricted her travel to not more than 2 days a week.

How many of us have bosses who tell us that there is a different way to do things? Having had a lot of really bad bosses in the past, I believe success of an employee depends for a large part on having an empowering leader or mentor who shows the right way, who isn't stuck with traditional ways of doing things. 

I have noticed women give up even before trying. I doubt if someone would have even voiced her interest in the position.  One of my friends was telling me recently it is impossible to succeed in career without sacrificing personal life. He quoted Indra Nooyi who herself had said it is impossible to succeed in both. When we have a mindset like that, it is almost impossible to think of creative ways to have both. We will need to make some compromises but we don't need to constantly feel that we are giving up something big.

And its not just women who have children give up. Definitely a woman who has to pick her children from day care doesn't want to stay longer in the evenings and thinks she shouldnt pick up more responsibilities.  Even unmarried women give up due to a variety of reasons. Studies show that women aren't interested in growing in management.  But I don't agree with the research looking at my female friends. I have noticed women who are more ambitious give up just because their talent isn't noticed or appreciated and they are not given more opportunities.

Women are wired a lot differently than men I have noticed.  In order to have more women in management, I think women need to be nurtured by good role models, appreciated for good work done and provided with more opportunities to grow. It isn't good to be easy, but the one good solution is to produce great leaders who will inspire , empower and motivate the women of tomorrow to rise upto higher ranks.