Sacred Success Newsletter
December 9, 2009

Quote:
It takes a long time to grow young - Pablo Picasso

Personal Note:

Well, I'm officially on the other side of 50. Today's my birthday
and I'm edging closer and closer to that next age bracket
demographic advertisers love to plug us into. You know: the 55 - 64
category.  I've gotten used to hanging out here in the land of 45 -
54 with my varias mujeres. Oh well, I still have a few years left
before my forced exile into the land of the 55+. Wonder if the view
will be any different from there? If anything, I imagine it will be
even better, since every step I've taken on this amazing journey
has been magical. So, here's to me or as my pals in Colorado like
to say: "Horns up!" and here's to you, my friends. The journey is
the destination.

My best!

Evelyn 
Evelyn Kalinosky, CRC
Founder & CEO

Article:

The Myth of the C-Suite:  Yes Virginia, There is a Glass Ceiling
Part 1 of a 2-part series, today's article will look at the myth of
the glass ceiling and what actually prevents women from making it
into the C-suite. Part 2, which focuses on what can be done to
overcome some of these obstacles, will run in the Dec 23 edition.

Despite years of progress by women in the workforce - they now
occupy more than 40% of all managerial positions in the U. S. -
within the C-suite they are by far more scarce. When you look at
Fortune 500 companies, the most highly paid executives with titles
such as chairman, chief executive officer, president and COO, only
6% are women. More importantly, only 2% of the CEOs are women, and
only 15% of the seats on the boards of directors are held by women.

Back in 1986 the Wall Street Journal coined the phrase "glass
ceiling." In an article by Carol Hymowitz and Timothy Schellhardt
wrote: "Even those few women who rose steadily through the ranks
eventually crashed into an invisible barrier. The executive suite
seemed within their grasp, but they just couldn't break through the
glass ceiling." 

Admittedly, "glass ceiling" is a catchy phrase, but is it really
the reason why women don't make it into the C-suite? Or is it more
likely due to the sum of many obstacles that appear along the
trajectory of a woman's career that is the real reason?

While there was a time when the barriers were absolute, times have
changed and the glass ceiling metaphor rings less true. We have
female CEOs, university presidents, governors, etc. In addition,
the metaphor implies that women and men have equal access to entry
and mid-level positions, when in point of fact they don't. The
glass ceiling doesn't incorporate the complexity and variety of
challenges women can face in their leadership journey.

The truth is that women aren't turned away just as they reach the
pinnacle of their career. They disappear in numerous ways leading
up to that stage. The path to the C-suite is not a simple or direct
path, but one that requires persistence, awareness of progress and
careful analysis of the obstacles that lie ahead. For women who
aspire to top leadership positions the routes exist, but like a
labyrinth they are full of twists and turns - some that are
expected and others that come out of left field.

By identifying and understanding the different barriers that make
up this labyrinth (and how some women find their way around them),
we can develop concrete ways to break down those barriers. 

Remnants of Prejudice

It's well established that men as a whole still have the benefit of
faster promotions and higher wages. Here in the U. S. women
employed full time earned 81 cents for every dollar earned by men.
Is this a result of discrimination? One of the most comprehensive
studies conducted by the U. S. Government Accountability Office
found that even after adjusting wages for all of the ways men and
women differ (i.e. gender and other characteristics), women's wages
remained lower than men's.

Similar studies have been used to answer the question of whether
discrimination affects promotions. These studies also support that
discrimination is a key factor in determining who gets promoted.
Promotions come more slowly for women than for men with equal
qualifications. Interestingly, little evidence exists that the odds
are stacked higher against women as they ascend the ladder - that
women's promotions become increasingly less likely than men's at
higher levels within organizations. Instead, a general bias against
women seems to exist with equal force at all levels. The dearth of
female corporate officers is the result of discrimination that has
operated at all ranks, and is not proof of a specific obstacle to
advancement as women approach the top.

Resistance to Women's Leadership

What's behind this discrimination? Basically, it's a set of widely
held conscious and unconscious associations about women, men and
leaders. Women are associated with traits that embody compassion
and a sense of community such as being affectionate, kind and
sympathetic. Men, on the other hand, are associated with qualities
that convey control and assertion, such as being aggressive,
ambitious, self confident and forceful. These latter traits are
seen by most people as effective leadership.

As a result, women leaders find themselves in a Catch 22 situation.
If they exhibit traits typically associated with males, they will
likely be resented and considered "too aggressive" for the
position. Studies that have tracked reactions to men and women
displaying different types of dominant behavior have consistently
shown that this behavior is more damaging to women than it is to
men. Assertive behavior can reduce a woman's chances of getting a
job or advancing in her career. Interestingly, studies bear out
that men can communicate in either a warm or a dominant manner
without experiencing a penalty either way. 

It all amounts to a clash of assumptions. We're all familiar with
the stereotype of successful women executives who are often
characterized as more pushy, selfish, abrasive and deceitful. Think
Meryl Streep's character in The Devil Wears Prada. In the absence
of any real evidence to the contrary, it's common for people to
assume that such a highly effective woman must not be very
likeable.

Leadership Style

Women often struggle to develop an effective and appropriate
leadership style, one that balances the "communal" qualities people
would rather see in women with the "mover and shaker" qualities
people think leaders need to be successful. Women are not "men in
skirts," and there is the possibility that women who behave like
men will be penalized. It's not easy for a woman to strike that
authentic balance as a leader. As women navigate their way through
this Catch 22 situation, they are looking for ways to project
authority without relying on autocratic behaviors that people find
off-putting in women.

Family Life Demands

Women continue to be the ones who interrupt their careers, work
part-time or take more days off to raise children. As a result,
they have fewer years of job experience and fewer hours of
employment per year, which slows their progress and reduces their
income. While men are increasingly sharing housework and child
rearing, the bulk of domestic work still lands on women's plates.
In the U. S. married women devote an average of 19 hours a week to
housework while married men contributed 11 hours. 

When you look at child care hours, the numbers are even worse.
Although it's common knowledge that mothers provide more child care
than fathers, what's not known is that mothers are actually doing
more than they did in earlier generations, regardless of the fact
that fathers are doing more than in the past. The work/family
conflict hasn't eased for women. The gain has been offset by
increasing pressures for rigorous parenting and the increasing time
demands of most high-level careers. Decision makers often assume
that mothers have family responsibilities that make it
inappropriate to promote them to demanding positions.

Networking

One of the biggest problems associated with balancing work and
family that so many women must perform is that it leaves little
time for socializing with colleagues and building professional
networks. The "social capital" that accumulates is essential. Fast
track managers spend more time and effort socializing and
interacting with clients, and social capital may be even more
necessary to advancement than how well an individual does their
job. 

Even if they have time to engage in informal networking, women find
it difficult to benefit if they are a small minority. In such
settings, the influential networks are made up entirely or almost
entirely of men. Breaking into these male networks can be
difficult, especially when men center their networks on masculine
activities. 

We'll look at potential solutions to these obstacles in our next
edition of Sacred Success...

Teleclasses, Programs, Events:

Join me on Tuesday, January 12, 2010
at 12:00 Noon ET (11:ooam CT, 10:00am MT, 9:00am PT)
for a free 1-hour teleclass for the successful woman executive:

Your Turning Point: The First Step Toward Your Extraordinary Life
Waiting for You


Is your professional life starting to feel like a tight pair of
shoes?
Is it just not fitting you and the life you want to lead?
Are you wondering how you can be so professionally successful and
feel so personally bankrupt?

There is a solution.

Learn how to create a life of passion and purpose, a life as unique
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Register for Your Turning Point today.
http://turningpointpreview.eventbrite.com.



Evelyn Recommends

FREE! Choose from 1 of 3 recordings from my 3-part radio interview
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http://www.evelynkalinosky.com/media/retirement-coaching-audio-interviews/

I reserve a limited number of 30-minute complimentary consulting
sessions each week on Mondays between 12N - 9P ET. These are
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About Evelyn 

I'm a late bloomer. I've never taken the linear path, but it's a
path that's worked just right for me. I'm an entrepreneur now at
midlife, and as Founder & CEO of Evelyn Kalinosky LLC, my coaching
practice specializes in helping C-suite and senior-level women
executives 40 and older achieve a more sacred kind of success. For
these women, the desire to play a bigger game requires a strong
profit motive, but making money is no longer the goal. The goal is
a search for significance, a journey to uncover the wealth of the
self, a right of passage to their highest purpose, and to a life
that is as unique as their fingerprint. I am emphatically driven by
a visionary culture of excellence and heart, and believe in helping
women cultivate extraordinary lives of passion and purpose from
midlife and beyond. I truly enjoy working with women to create ways
in which they can have a positive impact on others and the world
around them. 

In addition to being a coach, Evelyn is a speaker, poet and author,
and is currently writing a book on women and their journey in and
through midlife.   Feel free to contact Evelyn at
evelyn@evelynkalinosky.com or visit her website at
www.evelynkalinosky.com.

Join Evelyn on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/prophet1958
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