Women in the Workplace research notes that more than half of women at the VP level hold staff roles.Men, on the other hand, are more likely to hold line roles at every level of the organization. In the USA, about two thirds of women in Fortune 500 companies start in line positions (positions with profit and loss responsibility) but with time these numbers are reversed with two-thirds of C-Suite women in staff positions. Once the pipeline is visible then the next question needs to be asked: what percentage of women is occupying line and staff roles? As a first step, Benioff asked his senior team to identify their top female executives who would then receive additional leadership training. Marc Benioff, Co-Founder of Salesforce, recently created the Women’s Surge and set a target: achieve 100% equality for men and women in pay and promotion and make sure that at least one third of all participants at any Salesforce meeting are women. The tougher question is: how and where are women moving through the talent pipeline, from entry level to high potential, and what targets if any are being set by the organization? The easy first question is: how many women hold senior executive positions in the organization? Here are three questions to ask your senior executives:ġ) Where and in What Roles Are Women in Our Talent Pipeline? Let’s assume you are in a meeting and want to dig deeper on how your organization is progressing on gender equality. Why would any CEO want to cut out 50% of their options? The business case is simple: every company is waging a war for the best talent to meet the ever-accelerating rate of change. Instead, they must put into place a mix of inclusive talent and advancement strategies, which demonstrate results. Employers must do more than “talk the talk,” on gender equality. According to recent PwC survey of 40,000 Millennial respondents across 18 countries, entitled Next Generation Diversity: Developing Tomorrow’s Female Leaders, 82% of female Millennials identified an employers’ policy on diversity, inclusion, and gender equality as an important factor when deciding whether or not to work for an organization.
![in the company of women 2015 in the company of women 2015](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71BobA6tK8L.jpg)
This is particularly troubling as in just under 10 years Millennials will make up 75% of the global workforce and Millennial women are seeking out employers with a strong record on equality and diversity. More than 90% of men and women feel that taking the family leave they are entitled to will harm their careers. Meanwhile, companies which have flexible programs for men and women find they are underused. While 74% of companies reported that their CEOs are committed to gender diversity, less than half of employees believed that to be true. The barriers to progress are well documented in the Women in the Workplace report.
Challenges In Reaching Gender Equality In C-Suite