Rethink What You 'Know' about High-Achieving Women

Robin  Ely; Pamela  Stone; Colleen  Ammerman

Article | Harvard Business Review | December 2014

Rethink What You 'Know' about High-Achieving Women

by Robin Ely, Pamela Stone and Colleen Ammerman

Abstract

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the admission of women to Harvard Business School's MBA program, the authors, who have spent more than 20 years studying professional women, set out to learn what HBS graduates had to say about work and family and how their experiences, attitudes, and decisions might shed light on prevailing controversies. What their comprehensive survey revealed suggests that the conventional wisdom about women's careers doesn't always square with reality. The survey showed, for instance, that 1) the highly educated, ambitious women and men of HBS don't differ much in terms of what they value and hope for in their lives and careers; 2) it simply isn't true that a large proportion of HBS alumnae have "opted out" to care for children; 3) going part-time or taking a career break to care for children doesn't explain the gender gap in senior management; and 4) the vast majority of women anticipated that their careers would rank equally with those of their partners. Many of them were disappointed. It is now time, the authors write, for companies to consider how they can institutionalize a level playing field for all employees, including caregivers of both genders. The misguided assumption that high-potential women are "riskier" hires than their male peers because they are apt to discard their careers after parenthood has become yet another bias for women to contend with.

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Ely, Robin, Pamela Stone, and Colleen Ammerman. "Rethink What You 'Know' about High-Achieving Women." R1412G. Harvard Business Review 92, no. 12 (December 2014): 101–109.

Any list of top CEOs reveals a stunning lack of diversity. Among the leaders of Fortune 500 companies, for example, just 32 are women, three are African-American, and not one is an African-American woman. What’s going on? The authors studied the careers of the roughly 2,300 alumni of African descent who have graduated from Harvard Business School since its founding, focusing on the 67 African-American women who have attained top positions in corporations or professional services firms. These women thrived, they found, because of three characteristics that are key to resilience: emotional intelligence, authenticity, and agility. The women were adept at reading interpersonal dynamics and managing their own reactions; crafting their identities; and transforming obstacles into opportunities. Beyond personal strengths, the authors say, another factor was critical: nurturing relationships with mentors who recognized the women’s talent and made it their business to support them. The insights gleaned are important not just for African-Americans and women; they’re essential for any manager who recognizes that an organization’s diversity is its strength.

Working Paper | HBS Working Paper Series | 2016

Explaining the Persistence of Gender Inequality: The Work-Family Narrative as a Social Defense against the 24/7 Work Culture

Irene Padavic, Robin J. Ely and Erin M. Reid

It is widely accepted that the conflict women experience between family obligations and professional jobs’ long hours lies at the heart of their stalled advancement. Yet research suggests that this “work-family narrative” is partial at best: men, too, experience work-family conflict and nevertheless advance; moreover, mitigating the conflict through flexible work policies has done little to improve women’s advancement prospects and often hurts them. Drawing on an in-depth case study of a professional service firm, we offer two connected explanations for the work-family narrative’s persistence. We first present data suggesting that this belief has become a “hegemonic narrative”—a pervasive, status-quo-preserving story that is uncontested, even in the face of countervailing evidence. We then take a systems psychodynamic perspective to show how organizations use this narrative and attendant policies and practices as an unconscious “social defense” to help employees fend off anxieties raised by a 24/7 work culture. Due to the social defense, two beliefs remain unchallenged—the necessity of long work hours and the inescapability of women’s stalled advancement. The result is that women’s thin representation at senior levels remains in place.

Keywords: 24/7 work culture; hegemonic narrative; social defense; work-family conflict; systems psychodynamic theory; Equality and Inequality; Organizations; Gender;

Citation:

Padavic, Irene, Robin J. Ely, and Erin M. Reid. "Explaining the Persistence of Gender Inequality: The Work-Family Narrative as a Social Defense against the 24/7 Work Culture." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 17-038, October 2016. View Details

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Rethink What You 'Know' about High-Achieving Women

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