Women's Progress in Corporate America - Painfully Slow
By William Morin
Kforce.com

Nearly 80 years after earning the right to vote, women still struggle to succeed at the top of the corporate ladder. As women's capabilities and expectations increase, so too, does their frustration. The resounding message from high-performance women is that "the opportunities just aren't being offered and we're deeply angered."

These are not imaginary problems -- many facts underscore just what little progress has been made.

* A decade ago, only two Fortune 500 companies had women CEOs; today, there are five. That is progress! However, at this rate, it will be somewhere around 2110 before half of all Fortune 500 companies in America will have female CEOs.

* A 1998 study conducted by Catalyst, a not-for-profit research organization that focuses on women's issues in the workplace, found that women who were among the five highest paid officers at their companies earned only 68 percent of the compensation made by men doing the same jobs.

* Women fill only 11 percent of the officer positions in the nation's largest corporations.

* A final, and more startling, statistic from Catalyst reports that 94 percent of all senior level executives are male, as are 84 percent of all professional employees in general.

Statistics go on and on about women being blocked at the very top. The "glass ceilings" are now being supported by iron walls. If a woman is promoted into the higher ranks of a corporation, she is usually very much alone and is hardly ever allowed to play on the boys' team. Frequently isolated, she is given routine and mundane responsibilities for token representation at the top.

Frustrations are so high -- the highest percentage in history -- that after struggling through middle management ranks, women are dropping out of Corporate America and starting their own businesses. A recent study indicated that many women are starting entrepreneurial businesses (in the 60th percentile). The primary reason is their frustration with corporate life.

Two years of research produced the following 12 general guidelines that must be followed if women are to progress to the top. They must:

1. Learn to adapt faster. They should keep adapting more rapidly than men if they want to make it to the top. Men at the top will not change recognition for women, but a woman must first adapt to play the game with men, win, get the power, and then change the rules.

2. Seek more "line" responsibilities. Rather than stay in staff roles, women should strive for more forceful responsibilities outside the norm. In other words, they need more P&L (Profit and Loss) experiences, rather than being pigeonholed in roles such as human resources, public relations and legal.

3. Learn to manage their boss differently. More often than not, women think they can build a personal relationship with their boss, while men realize that bosses are moving targets and always dangerous to one's career if not managed properly.

4. Build a power base from which a woman's career strategy can take her to the top. All too often, women avoid the politics and power struggles necessary to take them to the top.

5. Develop their communication skills to be better listeners. From our research, women tend to be detailed and, in many cases, too verbal when working with men in the upper part of the organization.

6. Make a greater effort to self-market and brand themselves. Women often underplay their skills and strengths; therefore, they don't market themselves upwardly.

7. Learn to manage significant activities. Rather than perform insignificant activities, women should become accustomed to key activities as another strategy for understanding the road to the top. Often, women spend far too much time doing the insignificant, instead of concentrating on larger, more significant tasks.

8. Find the right balance. Many women feel their careers are all-important. They give too much and lose the strength necessary for balance and happiness in their lives. In essence, they marry their jobs in order to get ahead -- even more so than men.

9. Become multi-specialized. This term is new. It represents the idea of not becoming so specialized that you are boxed in and not seen as a general manager. General management is the best type of overall skill to possess today.

10. Learn how to manage gender differences. Sexual tension will always be a concern in the office and everywhere else in life. Women who manage that factor well will make it to the top. Managing man-woman relationship issues is a major challenge for women in today's workplace.

11. Learn to deal with "authority" and the "need for acceptance." Generally, women are considered weak and do not deal with authority effectively.

12. Managing your life in order to get a life. Women need to take steps to manage their lives and keep their careers in perspective.

To make it to the top of any organization, women will have to follow these guidelines with a great sense of strategic thinking. Addressing these areas with confidence and determination will help women to achieve success in Corporate America.

William Morin is a feature author for kforce.com. He is a recognized world leader in the human resources consulting industry. Morin is founder of WJM Associates, a management consulting firm specializing in executive development.