Center for Gender in Organizations
Newest CGO Insight #27: Paths to Leadership: Women's Experiences with and Aspirations for Board Service
Women currently comprise 51% of the U.S. managerial workforce but only 14.8% of the directors on boards of large, publicly traded U.S. corporations. Explanations abound for the absence of women on corporate boards, but studies by CGO and others have shown that it is not because women are eschewing positions of power. To learn about the experiences and aspirations of professional women in exercising leadership on formal boards and informal bodies such as committees and advisory groups, the Simmons School of Management with the help of Hewlett-Packard, a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally, conducted a survey of professional women. Survey findings show that women are ready, eager, and capable of serving as effective board members. Authors Paul Myers, Mindy Nitkin, Hugh Colaco, Patricia Deyton, and Indra Guertler discuss these findings and recommend three steps for executives seeking gender diversity among qualified board candidates, as well as share suggestions for women currently serving on boards and for those aspiring to serve. Click here to read CGO Insights No. 27.
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CGO Insight #26- Revisiting the Whitewash Dilemma
In the fifteen years since the whitewash dilemma was named, the workforce has become increasingly diverse and women have made significant advancements. Yet research shows that women of color still lag behind white women in organizational access, upward mobility, and other key indicators of leadership success. Because the problem of whitewashing is systemic, it is imperative for white women to proactively ensure equitable advancement for all women. In this briefing note, authors Lynda Moore, Bonita Betters-Reed, and Laurie Hunt guide white women in thinking about their own identity and how it influences their leadership behavior, particularly as it relates to creating opportunities for advancement of all women. After reviewing the current status of women in the U.S. and summarizing the predominant leadership concepts, they provide recommendations for improved research and leadership practices that will serve as interventions to create more inclusive and diverse organizations. Click here to read CGO Insights No. 26.
Newest CGO Insights finds 90% of working women use flexible options instead of "opting out"
With all the hype in the popular press about women "opting out" of leadership and abandoning their careers, the SOM collaborated with HP in a survey of 400 professional women and found that most women in our sample are not "opting out." Instead our respondents are using flexible work options to remain in the work place while managing complex lives. The study, conducted at the 2006 SOM Leadership Conference, found that more than 90% of women had used flexible work arrangements (FWAs) at some point in the careers; 88% of women had used them to remain employed full time. And unlike earlier reports that warned that women who ask for FWAs will experience decreased earning power, the women surveyed who used FWAs did not sacrifice financial success, when compared to those who did not use them.
Study authors, Mary Shapiro, Cynthia Ingols, Ed..D, and Stacy Blake-Beard, Ph.D, found the high FWA usage supported their hypotheses that women aren't "opting out," but are managing their careers differently. By doing so, women are rejecting an outdated career model that was created for and by the white male managers who were building corporations after World War II. That historical career model, demanding that work be primary in an individual’s life, was founded on the stay-at-home mother and stable organizations and markets. As that foundation has eroded, a new model has emerged where individuals act as “career self-agents,” and negotiate their own terms of employment. Women, as they negotiate FWAs (to essentially determine when, where and how much they will work), are leading that shift in the career paradigm. Click here to read CGO Insights No. 25.
CGO Insights No. 24 examines a new, more encompassing model of identity
Most diversity change efforts in organizations, such as employee resource groups, are based on dominant models of identity that treat differences as essential, innate, fixed, independent, and additive variables. For a woman of color, these models force her to choose between dimensions of her identity such as her gender and her race/ethnicity: "I'm a woman" or "I'm Puerto Rican" rather than "I'm a Puerto Rican woman." To escape the bind created by these simplistic models of identity, author Evangelina Holvino, CGO Senior Research Faculty, advocates a simultaneity model of identity in CGO Insights No. 24, "'Tired of Choosing': Working with the Simultaneity of Race, Gender, and Class in Organizations." Using a case study from her practice, Holvino demonstrates how this model was used to support organizational change in consulting to an employee network, and she identifies some of the benefits for individuals and for organizations that the model's application promises. Click here to read CGO Insights No. 24.
Announcing the publication of CGO Insights No. 23 on women, leadership, and negotiation
In CGO Insights No. 23, "It Pays to Ask: Negotiating Conditions for Leadership Success," authors Deborah Kolb and Jill Kickul look at women's negotiation in the context of leadership roles. The authors and the Simmons School of Management partnered with Hewlett-Packard to survey 470 professional women at the April 2005 Simmons School of Management Leadership Conference. Contrary to popular belief—that women fail to seize leadership opportunities or position themselves to succeed as leaders—the women in this study were savvy about what they needed to succeed and then asked for these things. The learnings from women in senior leadership roles and women with more leadership experience suggest that any time a woman considers a leadership role at any level, negotiations should be part of her thinking. The authors also offer several recommendations for people who are transitioning into new leadership roles. Click here to read CGO Insights No. 23.
New CGO research uncovers glass ceiling for women in development
A Fall 2005 study conducted by the Center for Gender in Organizations at the Simmons School of Management with Women in Development (WID) of Greater Boston has found that women who work in professional not-for-profit fundraising across the Northeast earn significantly less than their male counterparts - and the gap has widened significantly over the years. The study also shows that women have yet to attain top fundraising jobs in numbers equal to men. Led by researchers Dr. Susan Sampson and Dr. Lynda Moore of Simmons School of Management, the study is the first comprehensive regional comparison of salary levels and career advancement for men and women in the fundraising profession.
Click here to read the full press release.
Click here to view key findings.
Who Are We?
The Center for Gender in Organizations (CGO) at the Simmons School of Management is committed to improving organizational effectiveness by strengthening gender equity in the workplace. An internationally recognized resource for both scholars and professionals working in organizations in the U.S. and abroad, CGO recognizes that gender operates with several other dimensions of identity - including race, class, ethnicity, and sexual identity - in shaping organizational systems, practices, and individual workers' experiences. Rather than viewing gender as a problem that individual women face at work, we analyze how gender is embedded in an organization's work practices and culture. We believe this broader focus on work organizations provides a powerful lever for change.
Haga click aquí para aprender más sobre el trabajo de CGO.
Focusing on the intersection of research and practice, CGO works in four principal ways:
- Conducting research to better understand how organizations are gendered and the impact of gender and identity on organizational performance.
- Engaging in consultations to help organizations translate CGO concepts into practical actions.
- Disseminating information on topics related to gender equity and organizational change through speaking, publications, and our website.
- Convening events to highlight new research and to encourage active discourse on gender and diversity in organizations.
To learn more about CGO, please explore our website using the links to the left.
