Todays Women at Work have Unique Opportunities - A New Call To Action For Womenand Employers by:Kathy Caprino
Heres a news flash: Women are poised to surpass men on the nations payrolls for the first time in American history
. According to a recent report by the New York Times, four out of five jobs lost in the current U.S. recession belong to mena consequence of the surge in layoffs within distressed, male-dominated industries, such as manufacturing and construction. This emerging workplace trend may ultimately be a momentous boon to womenshifting their power and influence, both at home and on the job. It also represents a new call to action for womenand employers.Another news report offered a different take: Jobs of 22 Million Women Threatened by Global Financial Crisis, says the International Labor Organization, as conveyed by the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) in the March 16 issue of its Human Resources Report. In a report issued in advance of International Womens Day on March 8, the United Nations agency said the global unemployment rate for women could reach 7.4 percent in 2009, compared with 7 percent for men. This trend also serves as a wake-up call for women as employers face difficult decisions about workforce reductionscausing women to work even harder to make the cut.
The hidden element
Over and above these contradictory headlines, theres a third factor affecting professional women in the workplaceone that is hidden or seldom addressed. Before the economic downturn and unemployment hit the marketplace, many women were already facing a personal crisis: while they had been busy during their careers securing more power, they became sicker and sadder. This trend has been subtly taking place across a wide range of age, income, and marital status spectrums. Now, at a time when jobs are suddenly a necessity, working women are generally unhappier and struggling to cope with the increased demands they once sought in the quest for having it all.
Whichever headline becomes the final truth in todays workplace dynamic, women facing these changing times have both unprecedented opportunities and obstacles. For many, they find themselves in a holding pattern as the employment landscape unfolds. Meanwhile, employers are beginning to see women in different light.
Unprecedented opportunitiesand obstacles
Women may now gain access to professional power and influence that were previously out of reach. As a result, women everywhere can shape their lives and careers with a greater sense of empowerment and serve as vital role models for future generations of women and girls. Additionally, many women are likely to emerge as sole or primary breadwinners for their families and, in turn, begin to revise and update old and rigid gender roles at homebalancing domestic roles and responsibilities more fairly and flexibly. For men, these shifts offer new chances to stretch and grow as well. But dont be fooled. These emerging and unprecedented opportunitiesfor women, men, and organizationswill be matched by extraordinary obstacles.
The present plightand fightof professional women
Before the current economic downturn, women were already beset with a number of crisespersonal and professionaland were seeking radical change in how they work and live. According to my researcha yearlong national study in partnership with the Esteemed Woman Foundationseven out of 10 women, particularly those in their middle years, say they are at a major turning point in their professional lives. After devoting years to building successful careers, they feel that their professional lives and identities no longer work. Consequently, most are facing at least one of 12 hidden work/life crises, including chronic health problems, financial bondage, and failure to balance family and work.
12 hidden crises women face
My research helped confirm that a true professional crisis is far more than a tough time. It is a no-turning-back situationa point in time that demands reckoning and reevaluation. So how do women know when theyve reached that point? When they frequently find themselves saying, I cant do thisthe desperate cry, or negative mantra, of work-life crisisand consistently have deep-down feelings of disempowerment, they are likely experiencing one or more of 12 hidden crises. Among the crises:
Suffering from chronic health problems
Failing healtha chronic illness or ailmentthat wont respond to treatment
The mantra: I cant resolve my health problems.
Losing their voice
Contending with a crippling inability to speak upunable to be an advocate for themselves or others, for fear of criticism, rejection, or punishment
The mantra: I cant speak up without being punished.
Facing abuse or mistreatment
Being treated badly, even intolerably, at workand choosing to stay
The mantra: I cant stop this cycle of mistreatment.
Feeling trapped by financial fears
Remaining in a negative situation solely because of money
The mantra: I cant get out of this financial trap.
Wasting real talents
Realizing their work no longer fits and desperately wanting to use their natural talents and abilities
The mantra: I cant use my real talents.
Struggling to balance life and work
Tryingand failingto balance it all, and feeling like theyre letting down who and what matters most
The mantra: I cant balance my life and work.
Doing work that feels wrong
Longing to reconnect with the real meand do work they love
The mantra: I cant feel good about my work.
The call and the actionwhat employers can do
For women, a professional crisis is saying that change must occurnow. That doesnt mean it will be easymost likely, it wontbut, one step at a time, every woman can create her own breakthrough. Moreover, considering the shifting or new workplace and an increasingly difficult and demanding business environment, organizations must be there to helpunderstanding and supporting womens unique challenges and contributions.
The predominant male competitive career model has been, up until now, slow to recognize and respect womens differences. The work landscape has changed dramatically, and despite the headlines that women are losing headway as a necessity for a companys survival, this long-standing model has four key elements that no longer work and must be modified; these elements are:
1) a bias for linear or continuous employment histories;
2) an over-emphasis on full-time and face-time;
3) the expectation or belief that ambitious professionals will be most committed in their 30s (when many women are having babies); and
4) a guiding principle that money and power are primary motivators.
Now is the time to revise and reform this model. How? By expanding it with new thinking and initiatives that meet the needs and wants of women.
I believe, and my research confirms, that now is the time for such a reform. To survive and thrive in a shifting workplace and complex business world, organizations must rise up and be constant, committed, and contemporary champions for women. I offer eight strategies for getting started:
1. Embrace women as women.
An abundance of workplace research shows how and why women differ from men and contribute in unique and indispensable ways. Undeniably, women have distinct values and priorities, needs and wants, styles and approaches. A recent medical study shows that men and women even have unique physiological reactions to crisis and stress, and companies are best served when there is a balanced representation of both genders in leadership roles. In fact, it has been said that if Lehman Brothers were Lehman Brothers and Sisters, our current economic crisis might not exist!
2. Foster support.
Develop an internal support system for women. Create a woman-to-woman mentoring program, sponsor women-only networks, and initiate an ongoing forum for women to connect, converse, and collaborate. Essentially, encourage women to come togetherformally and informally, face-to-face and onlineto address challenges and opportunities, seek advice, and celebrate individual and collective successes.
3. Train for growth and expansion.
Commit to training and development. Help women build new hard and soft skills through formal training programs and, wherever possible, one-on-one executive or leadership coaching. Provide regular access to internal and external seminars, and promote womens involvement in stretch assignments. Put women on new projects and teamsincluding special task forcesand broaden their distinguishing gifts, talents, and abilities.
4. Focus on flexibility.
Womens need for flexibility is bona fide and fundamental. In consideration of weighty realities such as childcare and eldercare, implement new programs, policies, and procedures that foster optimal flexibilitytelecommuting, flextime, job sharing, part-time offerings, and more. Additionally, institute incentives and rewards that go beyond the traditional framework of money and power. Ask women what they really want, and work to incorporate those incentives into the companys recognition and reward programs.
5. Expand the options.
Grow the options for how women can contribute over the arc of their careers. Recognize the fluid nature of womens priorities, and consider differing career paths and trajectoriesup, down, and across. Experiment with a variety of optionsall providing for unique opportunities for on-ramping and off-ramping as womens lives and priorities shift at home and on the job.
6. Encourage work-life balance.
Women are increasingly beleaguered as they try, and fail, at balancing work
and life. What's more, research shows that working women, even as sole breadwinners, are still shouldering most domestic responsibilities at home. Companies, in response, must be champions for work-life balance and wellness for womenoffering internal resources or outside referrals to programs focused on striving for balance, pursuing a healthy lifestyle, and managing stress.
7. Empower women leaders to walk the talk.
Years ago, as a corporate VP in a large national marketing firm, I was put down by the head of HR for my choice to take a full week off to move my family, including my husband and our two small children, to another city. I moved to another town with my kids last month and only took a half day, the HR leader said. Criticizing my personal choice, as wife and mother, was a less than form of leadershiplacking a critical sense of empowerment, balance, and support to women. Worse, the source was at the helm of HRand a woman.
Today, just as President Barack Obama is a powerful and visual role model for change, the workplace needs women leaders to serve as visual role modelsworking and living from the core values of women everywhere. Organizations must embrace this need from the top, actively spotlighting female leaders who walk the talk and encouraging male leaders to outwardly support them.
8. Measure efficacy.
Programs that support womenattracting, engaging, and retaining strong and skilled female talentare essential to organizational success. Its one thing, however, to develop and implement those programs; its another thing to evaluate them against key business measures or metrics. Commit to regularly assessingquantitatively and qualitativelyhow ongoing initiatives to support women impact business measures such as recruitment, retention, engagement, productivity, wellness, and more.
Bottom line
Today, with a dramatically shifting workforce and do-or-die business environment, no employer can afford to ignore or overlook the unique needs and contributions of female talent. From the HR department to the executive suite, organizations must answer the call to action and support women in unprecedented new ways.
About the author
Kathy Caprino, MA, is a work-life expert and author of Breakdown, Breakthrough: The Professional Woman's Guide to Claiming a Life of Passion, Power, and Purpose (Berrett-Koehler, Nov. 08). A national champion for professional women in crisis, Caprino is a trained psychotherapist, specialized career and life coach, and sought-after writer and speaker on women's issues. She is founder and president of Ellia Communications, Inc. and a former corporate VP, who today openly shares her own story of breakdown and breakthrough.
Drawing on her extensive research, coaching and therapeutic training, and business experience, Kathy assists her clients through one-on-one and group coaching and seminars, to successfully overcome challenge and blocks, closing their power gaps so that they may live and work as they long want to.
Email: kathy@elliacommunications.com
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