Boyden Diversity Study: Furthering Female Leadership

Executive Summary 
The age of the female Sisyphus’

Organisational culture is still in the dark ages

Inhospitable work environments and difficult social mores outside work persist.
>> We look to business leaders to drive cultural change
>> The power to change lies inside each organisation and the commitment of its leaders

The top three obstacles to a leadership career are embedded in organisational DNA:

• Male-dominated environments
• Old-school management
• Overt female discrimination

The social environment makes combining work and family difficult across Europe. Respondents reported the following as ‘career obstacles’:

• 57% family and children
• 28% family
• 29% children

The ability to pursue an executive role part-time is not seen as possible for many respondents:

• 82% in Nordic Region
• 58% in United Kingdom
• 43% in Southern Europe
• 36% in German-speaking countries

A supportive boss and work environment are key success factors

The right boss is ‘make or break,’ but don’t make it personal, make it organisational:
>> Add equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) to key performance indicators
>> Appoint an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion leader or embed EDI into a functional role

Female leaders who are succeeding point to a supportive boss and work environment:

• It’s hard to ‘make your own luck’ – the advice is to ‘choose the right boss’
• Enlightened bosses actively encourage women to pursue further business studies and push for promotion
• Having more visible female executives encourages other women

A woman’s partner is also key to her success:

• 36% report their life partner as a career obstacle
• 23% have persuaded their life partner to move abroad to pursue their career
• Some male partners act as mentors to help with politics in a male-dominated environment

What benefits the individual, benefits the organisation

Access to top management roles needs to be widened:
>> Formal networks and mentoring programmes can deepen the talent pool
>> Make diversity an on-going conversation as part the organisation’s culture

Lack of access to top management roles is exacerbated by male-dominated corporate environments and therefore more difficult for women across Europe, reported by:

• 86% in Southern Europe
• 75% in Nordic Region
• 63% in German-speaking countries
• 38.5% in United Kingdom

Consensus: networking and mentoring go further than the individual, to organisational success:

• Networking makes women better known word-of-mouth recommendations
• Female networks are helpful as is opening up male networks to women
• Mentors advise women on navigating hierarchies and organisational politics
• Mentors advise men on accessing, evaluating and leveraging female talent