S P E C I A L F E ATURE & Storage, based in Cyprus, is a self-confessed workaholic, and recognises that the prejudices in her environment made her choose her career over a family. According to her, however, this puts an unfair stigma on womens life decisions. Women should not be punished for the choices they are making, she says. So, if you decide that you want a career and to be an amazing mother, you shouldnt be judged for that. Maybe if women were given more flexibility to combine work with motherhood, they would want to be in leadership positions. This is backed up by studies showing that having children does not make women less ambitious.2 Workplace culture is also often cited as key to women taking up leadership positions. Companies have to actively foment an inclusive and equal culture. Two elements are critical to this effort: senior management support and high employee engagement. Womens professional experiences are shaped by their interactions with their colleagues and managers; deep cultural changes can only happen if senior management is seen as truly committed to it, and if all employees are empowered to be part of the solution. However, Demirel is quick to point out that nowadays, every company has a DE&I [diversity, equality and inclusion] policy, but does that really apply? To me, it is like a tick the boxes exercise for many organisations. I feel that women should stand up for their own rights. Everyone is different, so it is hard to make a single standard statement; but it is very important to run a fair business for our employees first. I strongly believe that transparency will be more important in the future. So being transparent in everything we do would build more trust with our employees. According to Marcel Jrg, CEO of Gosselin, based in Switzerland, the answer might lie in redefining how leadership roles look. We define leadership by hard work, long days, the workaholic aspect; I dont think to make leadership attractive for women, it remains a real challenge. So why does it seem that women dont want or cant reach senior leadership roles? According to a McKinsey study, this phenomenon that is holding back women is called the broken rung: women continue to face obstacles early on in the leadership race. For every 100 men promoted to junior manager, only 86 women are promoted. This means that, at every step up the corporate ladder, there are fewer women to promote to higher management positions leading to male-dominated executive boards and C-suites. This is often compounded by cultural contexts. Ebru Demirel, CEO of Asya International Movers, based in Turkey, believes that the biggest obstacles for women in our country are cultural prejudices. Even though things are changing, in our industry in general, being a man is seen as being more advantageous when dealing with other men. But even in Western countries, I see mostly men in senior management positions. So this is a global issue. Linda Rovekamp, Global Manager Household Moves at De Haan in the Netherlands, agrees: In every country, there are different rules, different laws, different possibilities, but even in the progressive Netherlands, when my children are sick, they call me not my husband. [Balancing motherhood and work] is possible, but it is the biggest challenge ever. You have to be super structured, have back-up plans in place, etc. I think there are a lot of women who want leadership roles, but the question we need to ask ourselves is: why are they not taking them? What do we need to do to make sure they can take those roles? Motherhood seems to be a defining factor, drastically affecting a womans access to higher-paid jobs and, therefore, her earning potential whereas fatherhood has close to no impact on a mans earnings. Motherhood in the workplace also seems to still carry a very strong negative image in many cultures. Natasha Tavoukjian, CEO of Orbit Moving DEREK DUFFY, PRESIDENT AT ARMSTRONG INTERNATIONAL AND VICE PRESIDENT OF FIDI IMPACTS OF CHILDREN IN A DIFFERENCE-IN-DIFFERENCES EVENT STUDY DESIGN A: Women who have children vs women who dont B: Men who have children vs men who dont Earnings impact First child birth 2 0 -2 Long-run child penalty = 0.231 Female without kids earnings -4 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 First child birth 2 4 5 Event time (years) 6 7 8 9 10 Earnings relative to event time -1 4 Earnings relative to event time -1 Earnings impact Female with kids earnings 0 -2 -4 Long-run child penalty = 0.011 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 Event time (years) 6 7 8 9 10 Male without kids earnings Male with kids earnings Source: Henrik Kleven, Camille Landais, and Jakob Egholt Sgaard (2018) - Children and gender inequality: evidence from Denmark. NBER Working paper no. 24219 The data visualization is adapted by ourworldindata.org. There you find research and more visualizations on this topic. 28 FF307 September-November 22 pp26-31 Gender parity.indd 28 WW W. F I D I FOC U S . OR G 06/09/2022 12:40