When it comes to working, women don’t seem to have any problem with that. A ThinkProgress blog notes that 60 percent of women are the primary or co-breadwinner in the household and that women make up 50 percent of the college-educated. These days women statistics show that women are certainly making progress in the workplace. But is this enough?
An article in a certain magazine notes that these hard-working, educated women have jobs, but they don’t seem to want to take on the top executive level positions. Entry-level and low level jobs are filled with women employees. The article points to 53 percent. But higher up the ladder, women fall to 35 percent at the director level, 24 percent at senior vice presidents and a mere 19 percent at CEO. Among the Fortune 500 companies, there are only 12 women CEOs.
Research shows that at 59 percent, a majority of successful women leaders say they don’t even want to be at the top levels of their organizations. Even the all-mighty Google Inc. has problems promoting women engineers. Its senior vice president of people operations, Laszlo Block, notes that men generally jump at the chance for advancement while women must be coaxed. So what’s the problem? Why aren’t women jumping at the chance to be exec level leaders?
Perhaps it’s the second-shift role women take on as mothers and caregivers. It may also be a lack of mentors. It may be possible that more women are realizing that it’s nearly impossible to manage that special work/life balance and are choosing more flexible, low-level positions or creating work from home positions for themselves. What do you think? What are the reasons more women don’t want to be on top in business?
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