eve-olution newsletter January 2006
You don't know what you don't know
Mars and Venus at Work – Gender Intelligence GQTM
Why, in Britain, do we have such appallingly low senior female representation? What has been done in other countries (such as the US) to address the balance? What don't you or your organisation know about stereotyping/gender differences and similarities? Is EO legislation and a simple corporate diversity strategy enough to stop the female talent drain and negative bottom line impact in your organisation?
Without a serious commitment to raising awareness and developing your people to shift from 'equal means the same' to 'equal means different' we think not. Our research continues to show that women leave because they are unwilling to work by emulating the male ethic.
Take advantage of these one off opportunities to see what we can do for you or your organisation and if you still need convincing read a few of the many hundreds of quotes that we collected from our Women Leaders Speak Out research last year.
'Corporate learning/development strategies should recognise that women can often have different learning styles from men, and also that women when they are in a minority in a training group can have a much less effective learning experience. Trainers often fail to look at the gender balance of their groups or run women only sessions.'
'Just because we don't understand peoples skills doesn't mean they are not valid. Women may have a more integrated and intuitive approach to decision making and leadership which can look less convincing to a traditional male – even though it gets results, and then some!'
'Women often begin their careers using typical female strengths. Then there appears to be a shift by senior women to demonstrate and place more value on typically male straits. This then can be at odds with the fundamental make-up of the female gender.'
'I still feel the need to justify why I prefer to work in a collaborative, involving way, results themselves do not seem justification enough.'
'Investment banking is still overwhelmingly male dominated, above all in senior client facing positions.'
'Women don't always have to have the right answer and are OK about self disclosing this.'
'Many women who succeed, adopt the old boy or aggressive approach. Women are under-rewarded for their skills, which I believe yield positive and longer term benefits.'
'The softer skills that women often possess are viewed as unproductive by Senior Managers and Chief Executives who are often men!'
'Women with good relationship skills are often referred to as 'nice'. There is a perception among men that strong and effective leaders cannot be 'nice'.'
'We need to understand this, men and women are two very different animals and the sooner this is accepted, a greater understanding can be sought. Conflict in the workplace between genders is that we simply do not accept there is a difference!'
'We need female role models (and to be role models ourselves) who are prepared to work on their own terms, not just fit in with the male developed systems.'
'Whilst recognising a danger in generalisation. I do feel that men are more comfortable with the traditional and familiar – which is other man. I think corporate life is intrinsically sexist. It's not always intended to be so, it's just the way men are when they are together and that can exclude women, however subtly. I think building gender differentiation into training would be an excellent idea.'
'In sectors where you predominantly have male leaders they do not know how to communicate with women when they join the leadership team. I do not expect to be treated any differently but I definitely communicate with a different style and I take onto account my audience when communicating'.
'The two genders are obviously very different and they will never think in the same fashion or context.'
'If men and women were trained on how to relate to each other and how to understand common male and female working practises and furthermore, shown how to adopt the benefits of male and female work methods, companies and employees would benefit.'
'Men and women often bring their own prejudices about the opposite sex into working relationships and this needs to be tackled in the same way as other forms of discrimination.'
'I was told by the Chairman of a FTSE 100 company that if I didn't like the atmosphere I could leave!'
For more details on our February events please email by return with the event that you are interested in, in the subject line. If you believe that this training or information would be valuable for your organisation please forward this email to decision makers who can work with us to create culture change.
eve-olution's Vision: To be the consultancy of choice, globally, working together with pro-active organisations to create massive social change where our workforces reflect the societies in which we live.