Over Half of Women Leaders Believe Company Promotions Are Biased by Gender, Survey Shows

Women reaching pay and promotion parity with men? Not in our lifetimes, our daughters' lifetimes or even our granddaughters' lifetimes.

Thanks, COVID-19!

In a report titled “In Her Own Words: Breaking the Glass Ceiling is Good for Business,” the Manufacturers Alliance Foundation examines data collected from surveys and more than two dozen first-person interviews with women manufacturing leaders. The final report compiles and analyzes the gender disparity in manufacturing and offers tips for companies on how to successfully gain and use female talent in the industry.

Perception

The report explains that in recent years, the pandemic has widely affected the sector. Manufacturing was in the spotlight, finding ways to expedite the production of essential and sometimes lifesaving products. An aspect that has not been as widely recognized is the effect of the pandemic on women in the workplace.

“Especially after COVID, women took a really huge step backwards in the workplace. Prior to COVID, the World Economic Forum was saying women were going to reach parity with men globally in about 60 years. After COVID hit, it was more than 130 years. And that statistic hit me like a ton of bricks,” says Jacquie Boyer, senior vice president and chief commercial officer at Sensata. “So it wasn’t going to happen in my lifetime. It wasn’t going to happen in my daughter’s lifetime, and it wasn’t going to happen in my granddaughter’s lifetime.”

When asked, “Do you believe the manufacturing industry has made significant progress in providing equal opportunities and pay to women in the past five years?”

82% of men responded yes
38% of women responded yes
37% of women answered unsure
25% answered no

A telling statistic from the report, “74% of manufacturers don’t believe their company has a fair number of women in leadership roles compared to men.”

Obstacles

The report outlines the following nine disadvantages that women leaders face.

Lack of flexibility
Unpaid parental and family leave
Competency bias
Being “the only”
Being heard
Discrimination
Sexual harassment and intimidation
Bad recruiting
Unstructured interviewing

Also, informal networks that often help people advance their careers tend to be dominated by men, “giving women limited access to valuable opportunities to connect professionally outside of the workplace.”

“There still are many manufacturing companies where the customers and markets are good-old-boy networks,” says one female executive. “If it’s relationship-based selling, some customers might be less comfortable with a woman in the role. For example, if you’re not willing to do entertainment the way the customers expect it to be done or don’t have experience with that, it might hold you back.”

When they are included in these types of events, much of the underappreciated planning responsibility seems to also fall on women. “I might see discrimination through exclusion or that old thing ‘Hey, who’s going to take notes?’ or ‘Why don’t you plan the happy hour?’ and they all kind of look at the woman,” says one interviewee.

Advancement Challenges

“The vast majority of women we surveyed aspire to higher roles and feel qualified to take the next step in their careers, but 33% say they do not have colleagues advocating for them, and 59% said they lack mentoring and resources for career growth” compared to only 19% of men, report authors said.

Also, 52% of women disagreed with the statement “My company promotions are not biased by gender/sex,” while just 22% of men disagreed.

When asked to rate their level of agreement on the statement “My appearance does not influence how others judge my leadership skills,” 37% of men disagreed, and 67% of women disagreed.

The numbers show a clear divide in the way men and women recognize bias and advocacy in the workplace.

Recommendations

The report shares nine strategies companies can implement today to enhance their ability to attract and retain female talent:

Benchmark your organization on flexibility and paid FMLA
Be intentional about recruiting and interviewing
Improve and expand job rotation programs
Update your mentoring program and assign sponsors
Audit and build female bench strength
Be transparent about career ladders, job descriptions and salary bands
Make intimidation, harassment and discrimination zero tolerance zones
Consider incentives and data transparency
Get leadership on board

In addition, the report gives women advice for success:

Make lateral moves but make them strategic
Ask questions and learn all aspects of the business
Grow your network through mentors, advocates and sponsors
Speak up about what you need and find an employer who will provide it
Get support at home
Find your authentic voice

Intentionality, from manufacturing companies and from the women who work there, is what it all comes down to: “Getting more women into manufacturing leadership roles is not inevitable, nor will it happen on its own.”

What Comes Next?

“Probably the largest area of disagreement among the interviews we conducted surrounded the question of female identity,” writes the report. “At the risk of massive oversimplification, it boiled down to: ‘Don’t be too masculine!’ ‘Don’t be too feminine!’ ‘Just be human!’ If there was any doubt that women are still walking the tightrope, our interviews confirmed it.”

Even so, the leaders expressed confidence in the future of women leaders in manufacturing, with several interviewees noting the empowerment they already see in today’s young women.

The report cites several factors that will encourage women in the next generation, including “growing up with powerful technologies in their hands and all around them, being raised by two-career couples and having different expectations of their partners, employers and society as a whole.”

“Our whole world economy is centered around technology. If we look at the advances that have been made, they wouldn’t have been possible without advanced engineering and advanced manufacturing,” says Selu Gupta from Tektronix. “For women not to be a part of this technological development would be a miss for manufacturing and a miss for society.”

Bridgestone’s Emily Poladian concludes with powerful and sage advice for professional women: “When you get a seat at the table, whether it’s a temporary assignment or a permanent role, always remember you’ve earned it just like every man at that table. So, own it just like all of those men do, because you won’t see them being shy about it.”