Gender equality in decision-making in Belgium.
Despite the numerous initiatives in the field of emancipation and equal rights women remain the
exception for top-positions in private enterprises, administration and government , yet surveys prove that companies run by both male and female managers are the most successful.
The ratio between men and women in our workforce is 60/40
The ratio concerning junior management is already 70/30
Looking at senior management the ratio is 80/20
And finally only 11% of our CEO s are female
The predicate "It's lonely at the top" literally counts for women.
Administration and translation bureaus have the highest proportion female managers respectively 47 and 46.5 %
only 8% of the decision-making jobs in the diamond industry are taken by women!!!!!!
Women encounter an invisible barrier, the so called "glass ceiling" once they want to step into
management. Possible reasons for this are:
-Bias against women
-A very competitive male company culture
-Male networks and monitors
-Shortage of female role-models
-Lack of managerial training
-Lack of self-confidence
-No career planning
-Restrictive flexibility because of the difficult combination work/family .
How can we empower women in decision-making position or have them recognised as an expert
in the field which is a very important stepping stone to management.
-Women need training in:
-People management
-Self assertion
-Stress management
-Communication
-Career management and planning
-Political campaigning
-Provide gender -sensitive training for men and women to promote non- discriminatory working
relations and respect for diversity in work and management style
-Gender neutral job descriptions
-More female role-models
-Women vote in favour of women
-Equal chances for male/female to be elected by using a zipper system m/f on the list of candidates
-Put a scoreboard at the entrance of companies and
administrations with number of male /female
employees
-Generate female networks and maintain them
-Transparent criteria for decision-making jobs
-Ensure that the selecting bodies have a gender bal.composition-----
Take gender balance into account with equal candidates
-Mentor relations:
-Create work environments which make the combination of family and work, children and career more feasible
-A reorganisation in gender rules is needed
Excellent Article! Thanks very much for the info, and I will be writing my own (admittedly simplified) article on this shortly. As for my professional works, I will be taking your advice and "standing on the shoulders of giants," so to speak.
http://www.resumedocket.com
Posted by: Resume Docket | May 20, 2010 at 03:10 AM