Who Wants to be CEO?
In 2006, the American College of Healthcare Executives (all healthcare facets, including hospitals) did a survey of men and women. It is interesting to note that of the respondents, 40% of women want to become a CEO in the next five to fifteen years. On the other side, 70% of men in the survey wanted to be CEO in that same time frame. Also, only 55% of women were “willing” to move or relocate in an effort to climb the corporate ladder, compared to 73% men.
Furthermore, the Journal of Healthcare Management has been conducting research on the reasons for the disparity between women and men in top roles. The findings suggest that, “gender differences in mentoring and leadership succession planning are key barriers that need to be addressed.” It is thought that more time and energy is need to support and mentor women for these roles and opportunities. Their career paths should be developed for leadership.
What Some Organizations are Doing
Since healthcare organizations (hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, etc.) may lack a formal plan or “infrastructure" for promotions and opportunities, some have taken things into their own hands. For example, back in the mid-1980s the “A-team” was formed by a group of female healthcare professionals. They formed their team to help each other strategize and give support on ways to receive top promotions within their healthcare company or hospital. It must have helped, because within a few years, almost half of the females within the group were had become CEOs of healthcare organizations.
Lack of mentoring or support can put women at a disadvantage. A 2003 study done by Catalyst demonstrated that 43% of women in senior positions felt that the “lack of role models is a significant barrier to advancement." Additionally, 21% of CEOs felt that this also was a part of women’s inability to achieve senior management levels. Organizations can look at ways to improve mentoring for women such as instituting mentor programs and developing networking opportunities
Recently, some organizations in different industries have been chosen as recipients of the 2010 Catalyst Award. This award was given based on the commitment to advance women at work. While these companies may not be specifically related to the healthcare/medical field, they give examples of ways that organizations can become proactive on this subject.
Telstra
This telecommunications company in Australia offers initiatives aimed at increasing the number of women in executive positions. Telstra performed a diversity survey in 2006. Those figures showed that although women accounted for 31% of the total employees, the women in leadership positions lacked. Australia has the worst numbers in Western culture when it comes to women being represented. The company started changing the way it had done things and in 2006 started to doing something about it. Those changes include a yearly equity pay audit, a company women’s network, educating male employees about gender issues, goal setting, and engaging outside partnerships to promote women. In the last few years, the company's efforts have paid off. Female managers have increased from 29% to 41%, and female senior executives have increased to 31% from a low 6% before.
Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)
RBC has been progressive in many areas, not just issues relating to women's positions at work. The company's overall goal was to get and retrain the best people, regardless of gender. Gordon M. Nixon is president and CEO of RBC. He started the RBC Diversity Leadership Council in 2001 to ensure that talent wins over quotas, but that having a measurable goal is important to determine success and outcomes. Forty percent of RBC’s executives are women today, and 54% of managers are female. Nixon feels that, “creating that win-win is a huge driver of success.”
Campbell Soup Company
Campbell Soup Company caters to women as customers (80% are female). In the last few years, Campbell’s has been able to improve the number of female executives from 14 to 21 percent, and the board of directors has gone up to 20 percent from 13 percent. The CEO of Campbell’s, Douglas R. Conant, says that female leaders helped to make, “a $200 million product overnight,” and pushed for their Select Harvest line of products.
Deloitte
In 1993 this consulting company started “The Women’s Initiative (WIN); Living the Lattice.” This initiative has been successful in increasing the number of female leadership positions. From 1995 to 2009, women in roles as partners, principals, and directors increased to 22% (from 6%) and female senior managers went from 23% to 36%. While the company has made significant improvements it continues to work at keeping the program going and moving forward to avoid complacency or stagnation.
Johnson & JohnsonAnother major company that is looking to improve the statistics is Johnson & Johnson. In a 2009 webinar, the VP of Global Diversity found that women did not have all they need to get promoted and advance. She wanted to comprehend and gain knowledge about what the areas lacking were and how to address and improve them. The company's current program teams up employees with management to assist with mentoring and guiding success at the corporate level. One important aspect noted was that the women needed to present themselves in a manner befitting the next promotion for them. If they want to be a manager, they should address themselves accordingly so they will be ready to accept and succeed at the next level. The program “Crossing the Finish Line,” helps to encourage and improve areas of competency and advancement. The program is now offered to men and women.
Other Strategies
The study "Advancing Women Leaders: The Connection Between Women Board Directors and Women Corporate Officers" from 2008 by Catalyst, came to the conclusion that “the number of women on a company’s board of directors is directly connected to the future number of women in its senior management ranks.”
Also, they found a link that those with more female board members also had more female corporate officers when compared to no female board members. These female board members influenced the number of women in advancing positions, including the experience needed for a woman to become CEO. It is interesting to note that an earlier report from Catalyst also found that, on average, of the Fortune 500 companies, those with the highest number of female board members and corporate officers also had better financial outcomes.
All employers and employees could benefit from formulating a career development system. This type of career development program should include designing a career ladder or stepping stone outline, performance reviews, enrichment exercises (such as work rotation, temporary assignments, and special projects), internal promotions, encourage participation in professional affiliations, and other training collaborations.
Another potential factor in improving the balance of women leaders within healthcare is improving the overall work options. Women have shown organizational commitment to companies that offer flexible working arrangements such as flextime, telecommuting options, or modified workloads. While this may not be feasible for every female healthcare leader, it can provide them the opportunity to balance their work and home life, since the majority of women still feel that most of the “home” duties still fall on their shoulders. Some things worth considering are compressed work weeks, shift work, telecommuting, job sharing, or flexible schedules to assist in the ability to offer employment options. All working parents (men and women) would benefit from the ability to balance work and family. A survey from the American Association of University Women concluded that 74% of men and 83% of women would rather have a job with less pay if it provided other benefits such as family care assistance, flex time, and family leave.
Putting the Information Together
Unfortunately, there is still a gap in the number of women in top executive roles in the healthcare industry. While the numbers have improved dramatically in recent years, and a true “glass ceiling” may not really exist as in the past, there is still some work to be done.
Today, women have many more opportunities to become leaders in the entire healthcare industry, but a difference still exists. A side effect of this wage disparity is that because women earn less overall, they will also receive smaller retirement/pension and Social Security checks because less was earned. In 2003, the “average Social Security retirement benefit was 23% smaller for women than men.”
The good news is that the American College of Healthcare Executive’s report in 2006 found that 81% of female and 42% of male healthcare executives support ways to increase the number of women in these top healthcare roles.
While women earn more college degrees overall than men, the lack of equality with leadership positions and pay is still there. To review and average the statistics provided here is a summarized breakdown of all areas within the medical field:
- The number of female healthcare CEOs averages 23% of all healthcare CEOs (not just hospital CEOs)
- Female healthcare CEO salaries are at about 80% of their male counterparts' salaries (within the entire healthcare industry)
The reasons why these numbers are still concerning is that:
- Roughly 80% of all healthcare workers are women, yet the top positions within the medical field are still male-dominated in numbers and/or in pay
- Nearly half of the entire labor force in the United States, (not just healthcare) is women, but they are still under represented for senior positions
By being aware of the ways that traditional leadership skills are considered, a company can help to impact and minimize their systems (talent management systems for example) that can negatively impact stereotyping and gender bias. By acknowledging this and facing it, companies can help to minimize this from happening. The Catalyst report gives ideas and ways to assist organizations in reaching gender diversity. These include:
- Education for those in management and leadership positions. Teach those personnel how conscious or subconscious stereotyping can impact promotions, job duties/assignments, and even performance evaluations.
- Help to teach and educate all employees to recognize gender-neutral leadership characteristics.
- Review the current talent management systems to see if stereotyping or biases exists in the current procedures and processes.
On this topic, the president and CEO of Catalyst said, “Businesses restrict their own growth potential when women are unintentionally excluded from key training and advancement opportunities. Whether the economy is up or down, who gets promoted--and who gets left behind--has substantial consequences for business success.”
She further notes that the top levels of management have a huge impact on the outcomes of business. A statement from Rosemary Haefner, CareerBuilder.com’s VP of Human Resources, made the comment that, “While companies have taken great strides to address equality in the workplace, there is still a lot of work ahead.”
Sources
Gender Stereotypes Impact Talent Management, Study Suggests
Johnson & Johnson Advances Women
Mentoring Series Part III: Women in Business and Mentoring
Mulcahy: Focus on Results to Advance Women
Multiple Efforts Help Companies Advance Women
Professional Women: Vital Statistics
The Evolving Role of Women in the Healthcare Industry
Women in Healthcare Administration: Attaining Leadership Roles
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