Are we there yet?

Scoot over to The Economist and take a few minutes to read "The Conundrum of the Glass Ceiling". It is a thoughtful, provocative ,and depressing article.

Some of its nuggets:

The glass-ceiling phenomenon is proving peculiarly persistent. The top of the corporate ladder remains stubbornly male, and the few women who reach it are paid significantly less than the men that they join there.

Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm that monitors departing chief executives in America, found that 0.7% of them were women in 1998, and 0.7% of them were women in 2004. In between, the figure fluctuated. But the firm says that one thing is clear: the number is "very low and not getting higher".

Research by Catalyst, an American organisation that aims to expand "opportunities for women and business", found a strong correlation between the number of women in top executive positions and financial performance among Fortune 500 companies between 1996 and 2000.

While some apologists like to insinuate that women are not making it in Corporate America  because they follow the "mommy track" and want more work-life balance-- it's an argument that just doesn't work.

Just look at graduate schools: Women account for 50% of the students in Medical and Law Schools (both demanding careers, n'est pas?)Compare that to MBA programs  where women account for about 30% of enrollment. At its upcoming October conference the PIHRA ( Professionals in Human Resources Association) will be hosting a session entitled "Changing the Face of U.S. Corporations: Getting Women to "Opt-in" and Never "Opt-out"

In its preview of the session, the write up says,

In a recent study, the Forté Foundation, a consortium of leading corporations, top business schools and nonprofits, dedicated to combating the decline of women MBAs, found that women perceive business careers to be expensive, inflexible and philosophically unrewarding. As a result, fewer women are choosing careers in business and more women are leaving the workplace prematurely.   

Women  have been trying to opt-in. They've been trying for 20 years. Women are not stupid and the facts say, that corporate America is not really interested in women leaders.  Think it's just a bunch of feminist ranting?

Well, how can anyone explain these findings of a survey by the Graduate Management Admissions Council as reported in The Wall Street Journal's College Journal:

The survey found the starting salary for male M.B.A. graduates averaged $72,331, about 10% more than the $65,659 for women. Bonuses and other compensation amounted to $17,558 on average for men and $14,200 for women. Not surprisingly, then, only 16% of the women were extremely satisfied with how the M.B.A. increased their earning power, compared with 22% of the men.

Of all the analysis of WHY women can't break through, my favorite in The Economist article comes from the French:

Ms Maier's Gallic analysis of the issue is that French men spend more time at work than women, which “can be explained by their insatiable predatory instincts as well as by their casual approach to banal household chores.” This leaves women with so much to do at home that they are more than twice as likely as men to work part-time, “which makes it all the more impossible to break the glass ceiling.”

To quote Linda Ellerbee, "And so it goes."