Breaking through the glass ceiling

Women in Management

What is the Glass Ceiling?

• ‘The invisible artificial barriers that block women from senior executive jobs’

• It is a reflection of gender roles and relations which give rise to and perpetuate inequalities between women and men in all walks of life

• ‘Sticky floor’- keeping women stuck at the bottom of the economic pyramid

The The GGlass lass CCeilingeiling

Support staff

(Majority women)

Pyramidal Organizational StructurePyramidal Organizational Structure

Glass Ceiling

WomenWomenMenMen

ILO GenevaILO Geneva

Why does the ‘Glass Ceiling’ exist?

• The way the work it self is organized

• Balancing work and family

• Occupational segregation- men’s jobs, women’s jobs

• Gender pay gap- 10 to 30 percentage points

• Gender division in time spent on work and family

• Women work longer hours than men

• Women perform most unpaid work

• Women’s lack of line management experience

GGlass lass WWallsallsILO GenevaILO Geneva

WomenWomen

graduatesgraduates

MenMen

graduatesgraduates

Glass Ceiling

Glass walls

Support staff

(majority women)

Pyramidal Organizational StructurePyramidal Organizational Structure

Women Managers/Employment

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ManagersEmployed3-D Column 33-D Column 43-D Column 5

Some Statistics

• Women hold 1 to 3 per cent of top executive jobs in the largest corporations world wide

• Only 12 countries have a women head of state

• Only 14 % of the world’s Parliamentarians are women

• Only 1 per cent of trade union leaders are women

WWomen in omen in MManagement anagement ILO GenevaILO Geneva

Top jobs Top jobs 1-5 percent of executive 1-5 percent of executive jobs occupied by women.jobs occupied by women.

Senior management Senior management 10-20 percent. 10-20 percent.

Managerial jobs Managerial jobs 6-30 percent. 6-30 percent.

Administrative and managerial Administrative and managerial 10-43 percent. 10-43 percent.

Professional and technical Professional and technical 20-60 percent. 20-60 percent.

% WOMEN PROFESSIONAL STAFF UN SYSTEM DEC.2000

• UNFPA 50.4 WHO 33.2• UNICEF 44 WIPO 30 • WFP 42.9 ITU 25• UNESCO 42.8 FAO 23.5 • UNDP 39 WMO 21.7• UNHCR 38.9 UNIDO 20.1 • UN 36.2 IAEA 17.3• ILO 33.3 TOTAL 33.7TOTAL 33.7

Glass ceiling in the UN System % Women Dec. 2000

P5 D1 D2 UG

UNFPA 38 29 40 67

UNICEF 39 30 29 50

WFP 26 35 43 33

UNESCO 26 21 29 20

UNDP 22 31 14 50

Glass ceiling in the UN System % Women Dec. 2000

P5 D1 D2 UG

UNHCR 22 31 14 50

UN 33 32 22 16

ILO 23 15 19 21

WHO 25 27 11 20

WIPO 14 15 8 0

Glass ceiling in the UN System % Women Dec. 2000

P5 D1 D2 UG

ITU 13 9 0 0

FAO 12 11 12 19

WMO 14 0 10 0

UNIDO 15 6 0 0

IAEA 8 15 10 0

TOTAL 24 22 19 17

Why Dismantle the ‘Glass Ceiling’• Women are a key resource in

the race to create new products and resources

• Women’s skills level is rising• More and more women are

starting businesses • It’s not only the right thing to

do, it’s also good for business

Gender equality contributes to economic growth and family

welfare

• Organizations and firms will depend more and more on having a balanced mix of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ attributes at all levels.

Strategies to break through the ‘Glass Ceiling’

• Diversify occupations for women and men• Foster greater sharing of family

responsibilities• Objective and unbiased recruitment and

promotion procedures • Gender-sensitive human resource policies• Cultivate and nurture women’s

entrepreneurial talents

Gender-Sensitive Human Resource Policies

• mentoring and networking

• giving young women challenging,varied and visible assignments

• work-family or work-life programmes

• sexual harassment policy

• flexible working time and work place

• training

Human Resource Management to Advance Women

• equal employment opportunity policy

• achieving targets: positive action

• diversity management - visible and non-visible differences that include factors such as sex, age, background, race, disability, personality and work style

• Total E-Quality- gender equality a pre-condition for the delivery of quality products and services

5 key result areas1. Policy statement

2. GMS in structure

3. Capacity building

4. GMS in work of ILO

5. Gender-sensitive HRD

ILO ACTION PLAN on Gender Equality and Mainstreaming

ILO Gender Audit Recommendations

• Clear set of targets to improve staff sex balance at all levels

• Continue to promote female leadership in the Office and actively target women for senior posts

• Create a working environment for a more balanced professional and private life

• Non tolerance of sexual and other forms of harassment and all forms of sexist behaviour

ILO objective on gender equality

ILO constituents take positive action to increase gender equality in the world of work

Indicator: ILO constituents make measurable progress in the representation of women at decision-making level to attain balanced participation of men and women

ILO objective on gender equality

Target: An accurate count of the number and status of women and men participating in ILO meetings, seminars, training under regular and extra-budgetary funding

ILO objective on gender equality

Strategy: Develop a methodology to collect and track participation

rates in order to etablish a baseline for measuring progress Analyse trends in particpation rates and report on them

regularly to the Governing Body and the ILC Document and report on successful measures taken by

constituents and the ILO to increase the participation of women at different levels

Develop and make available to ILO constituents, statistical indicators and statistics disaggregated by sex