Making the Corporate World Work for Women

6 actions to meditate on to advance women equality

This has been a great few years for women’s progress, both economically and socially speaking. While the effects of #MeToo gripped the world in 2018, women’s participation in the workforce continued to increase : it was recently reported that it rose from 44 to 47 percent from 2000 to 2017. On boards, too, equality appears to be within our grasp : in France, women represent 40% of corporate boards, a number which has steadily increased over the past decade.

There is however much yet to be done : 47% representation is still well below women’s 51% share of the population. Furthermore, women still occupy more jobs in low-wage occupations and low-productivity sectors, and though the French progress has been great, women there still only represent 17% of executive committees.

These issues were touched upon throughout the Women’s Forum Global Meeting 2018 in Paris, with plenty of innovative ideas making the rounds. Below are some of these ideas, as well as concrete ways to further the role of women in the corporate world, as explained by the experts and CEOs present.

Have the Courage of your Convictions

Firstly, and unsurprisingly, managers and leaders (be they men or women) need to move with intent, both in the public and private sectors. Actions speak louder than words, however well-printed they may be on one’s annual report. A clear intent will often mean having the courage to apply one’s vision, regardless of the culture or laws in place. Of course, we are not recommending that the law be broken, but that it can be supplemented, or improved: during his talk, Antoine Sire, Head of Company Engagement at BNP Paribas explained how his company extended the maternity leave of women in all countries of operation, even when this was not legally required. This is intent. This is having the courage of one’s conviction.

This not only works as signalling for other companies to potentially do the same, but can also work as a differentiation in the war for talent, which, as we know, has been intensifying of late. Indeed, as Kathleen Tregoning of Sanofi highlighted:

“diversity is not for charity, it impacts the pocket. It’s an essential competitive advantage today”.

Take it Personally

There is an easy way to make sure that leaders have the courage to move in a direction that we know is right. And that’s not necessarily through the pocket, the wallet, the checkbook… however you want to call it. It’s through personal interest.

Make the issues personal to remove the potentially cold, abstract business imperative.

Though this approach has been decried by some (rightly so, as the Golden Rule should be applied whenever possible), it’s nevertheless important to encourage men to think of their daughter and wives, and how they ought to be treated, not only in the workplace, but anywhere they may choose to go, too.

To paraphrase Kevin Sneader, Global Managing Partner of McKinsey & Company, we should argue that articles such as this one should feel like an anachronism to our daughters in the years to come. Though calculating, we believe this approach is likely to be more effective than advocating for all-too-often faceless masses.

As, Jessica Robinson, CEO & Founder of Moxie Future mentioned, using one’s voice is also absolutely key to moving forward as it appears more genuine, something which is sorely needed in the corporate world.

Transparency Matters

Nevertheless, taking things personally should not mean doing good things surreptitiously. Improving women’s place in the corporate world has to be done out in the open in order to judge that no unethical actions are taken, and to act as a form of signalling to competitors and the market as a whole. This applies to both public companies (obviously) and private companies, and both inside and outside these companies.

Empowerment can become real through transparency on future opportunities, training availability, regular leadership renewal, gender statistics, and including gender equality within a company’s model. These communications are key to reduce any potential resistance to an empowerment’s movement

Transparency is of course linked to intent : it’s easier to be transparent when you’re coherent.

Make Yourself Accountable

With transparency (should) come accountability. As Maurice Lévy, Chairman of the Publicis Groupe chirped :

“You have to set goals. You have to insist, and you have to persist”.

Intent, taking things personally and being transparent means very little if those are just words. As such, goals must be objective, with hard, measurable results. There are then no way to escape the reality on the field, and no reason not to communicate the hard, cold fact appropriately. Unless it was all for show. Only then can leaders be held accountable for what was pledged.

Failing is not, in itself, an inherent failure : it’s an opportunity to measure, correct and optimize. This is a way to show that an institution is sincere with its words, even in the face of adversity. It also allows for the sharing of best practices among transparent actors.

Financial / Corporate literacy

Because of the rapid changes in the economy, one of the key ways to level the playing field between men and women is to provide equal access to training in the corporate world. As rightfully highlighted by Kevin Sneader, this does not mean systematically “re-skilling”, but systematically “right-skilling” for current and future roles, helping women gain the most valuable new skills and ensuring that they are fairly represented in those roles.

One of these right skills that is so critically lacking for women, and so across the board, is financial and corporate literacy.

The corporate world continues to have a special place for women: HR. Communication. Maybe marketing. None of these are departments which regularly make it all the way to the top of the pyramid (most women at the top came from the financial route or through being a financial director). As such, we need to teach women the skill to get them to the core of the business where the money is, where the the decisions are made, where the future is : finance.

This will require concerted actions by governments, educational institutions, companies and other public and private institutions, but as Heather McGregor, Executive Dean of Edinburgh Business School mentioned, this would not only help in the corporate world : if a woman better knows what her life costs, she can take much better decisions about her career, know the costs of an education, and so on.

Closing the leadership Gap

While education would surely help the leadership gap at the top of the pyramid, few would be fooled into thinking this is the only solution. As mentioned by Bertrand Badré, Founder & CEO of Blue Like an Orange Capital, some fields (such as finance) are biased from the very bottom of the pyramid to the top, at every level.

To solve this issue, managers need to apply the advice above systematically, and impose potentially unpopular (in the short term) action plans.

We often hear conversations about adding more women to boardrooms. But that never meant that we should stop at one, as companies so often have.

Kevin Sneader is right when he says that we should have

“No more “onlies” in the room”.

When there’s only one woman in the room, she’s prone to being quieter and second guessing herself, as has been highlighted by plenty of study (one just needs to Google “conformity experiment” for proof).

This is how we move forward. Not Top-Down, not Bottom-up, but both.

About the author: Adrien BOOK is a consultant at Wavestone.

In a world where knowing how to drive transformation is the key to success, Wavestone’s mission is to guide large companies and organizations in shedding new light on their most critical transformation projects, with the ambition of creating a positive impact for all stakeholders. That’s what we call “The Positive Way”.

This article is drawn from sessions at the Women’s Forum Global Meeting 2018.