leadership

bonus checklist: 4 ways sponsors can help women seek power.

by ida o. abbott
sponsoring women: what men need to know

women tend to have a limited appreciation of how their networks can help them get ahead professionally. developing strong business networks is critical for career advancement. because a leader operates through others, her value and effectiveness are largely tied to the power of her network.

more on sponsoring women for leadership: bias persists against women with children | standards for women still differ | 5 ways women get shoved aside | why men don’t see women as leaders | thanks for the advice, but i’d really prefer a promotion | 18 ways to boost your protégée | women leaders provide 6 market advantages | why cpa firms need more women | beyond mentoring to sponsorship | protect your protégée from flextime saboteurs | how to keep sex from derailing a sponsorship | ‘soft skills’ advice needed, too | use others to promote your protégée | 8 ways sponsors can highlight opportunities | 17 ways sponsors can help protégées | 3 ways to open a sponsorship conversation | what sponsors need from protégées | 3 ways to derail sponsorships

yet women are reluctant to cultivate potential sponsors through their networks, while men willingly use patronage and networks to open doors and provide opportunities that cannot be accessed through normal channels. men attribute their promotions to personal connections as a matter of pride, not embarrassment, because it means that influential people see them as leaders and reward them accordingly. as a result, men benefit from the political processes that go on all around them while women lose out.

read more →

women with families still face perception that kids always come first, at cost of work.

by ida o. abbott
sponsoring women: what men need to know

one pattern of gender bias is exhibiting “maternal wall” bias, which leads people to believe that women with children are unable to meet the demands of leadership.

people assume that women with children are less committed to their work.

more on sponsoring women for leadership: standards for women still differ | 5 ways women get shoved aside | why men don’t see women as leaders | thanks for the advice, but i’d really prefer a promotion | 18 ways to boost your protégée | women leaders provide 6 market advantages | why cpa firms need more women | beyond mentoring to sponsorship | 

this bias arises from the stereotypes that create conflicting expectations for mothers and career women: good mothers should always be available to their children, while good business people should always be available to their clients.

read more →

men are judged on potential; for women, it’s strictly performance.

by ida o. abbott
sponsoring women: what men need to know

common patterns of gender bias include holding women to higher standards than men and expressing contradictory expectations (“double binds”) for women.

different standards: people expect more of women than of men and they hold women to higher standards. this sets the bar higher for women who aspire to leadership and makes it more difficult for them to prove their value to the organization, even though research shows that women outperform men in 17 of 67 critical leadership skills, while men outperform women in only four.

more on sponsoring women for leadership: 5 ways women get shoved aside | thanks for the advice, but i’d really prefer a promotion | women leaders provide 6 market advantages | beyond mentoring to sponsorship | protect your protégée from flextime saboteurs | ‘soft skills’ advice needed, too | use others to promote your protégée | 17 ways sponsors can help protégées | what sponsors need from protégées | 3 ways to derail sponsorships | 4 reasons women hold themselves back | 4 ways sponsors can help women seek power | bias about women with families lingers

people also judge women and men differently: women on their performance and men on their potential.

read more →

it’s 2015 and gender bias is still a problem. but you can fix it at your firm.

by ida o. abbott
sponsoring women: what men need to know

gender bias reflects entrenched beliefs and assumptions about women based on stereotypes about appropriate roles and behaviors for women.

unconscious thoughts about the kinds of work women are and are not suited for, especially if they are mothers, remove highly qualified women from consideration for leadership opportunities and positions.

more on sponsoring women for leadership: why men don’t see women as leaders | thanks for the advice, but i’d really prefer a promotion | 18 ways to boost your protégée | women leaders provide 6 market advantages | why cpa firms need more women | beyond mentoring to sponsorship | protect your protégée from flextime saboteurs | how to keep sex from derailing a sponsorship | ‘soft skills’ advice needed, too | use others to promote your protégée | 8 ways sponsors can highlight opportunities | 17 ways sponsors can help protégées | 3 ways to open a sponsorship conversation

in the past, working women suffered overt discrimination and explicit bias. they were told outright they were not “fit” for certain jobs, were too emotional and unreliable to be given responsible roles, and were taking the place of men who needed to support families. sometimes the bias was ostensibly intended to “protect” women and occasionally it was hostile. but it was out in the open and women understood the barriers they faced.
read more →