In this article we shall not attempt to argue women's rights, the increasing level of knowledge among women, or the need for their potential contributions. Neither shall we compare women's mobility with that of men or comment on the investment risk women represent to most employers. Others have worked this ground thoroughly. Suffice it to say that with changing life styles, the decreasing birth rate, and the rise of male job mobility, the risk is equalizing. Instead, we make the assumption that organizations will abide by the law and increase the number of women hired into professional and management ranks. Given that assumption, we shall examine actions that management and women can take in turn to facilitate the latter's career advancement. Under management's responsibilities, we'll consider special positions, first jobs, short-term leadership assignments, the inclusion of women in management meetings, the importance of feedback on performance, and the need for career models.
As for ways women can help themselves, we'll discuss women working for other women, men working with women, men reporting to a woman manager, and ways a woman can overcome some of the special difficulties she faces in a managerial role.
The Facilitating Management Role
There are economic motives for putting effort into training the disadvantaged to do useful work: to reduce their dependence on welfare and increase their buying power. Although the numbers are not quite so compelling for advancing minority employees in the professional and management ranks, the argument is still partially valid.
In the case of women, however, the economic motive for improving their status is in direct opposition to another powerful one. Women have traditionally filled certain kinds of jobs with great skill-as secretaries, office managers and administrative assistants. In these positions, they have been considered the right arm of many male executives. Such jobs still need to be filled. If the best female working talent in the nation is diverted upward into professional and management positions, a void will be left that will not be easy to fill. In addition, whereas women's salaries in these supporting positions have not come close to matching those of the male executives served, in most cases the salaries have been adequate to support the woman at a minima] level or supplement the family income. So the buying-power argument is only partly convincing, and there remain counterforces that limit wholehearted devotion to facilitating female career advancement. Certainly there have been and will continue to be exceptional women who make their way up to executive levels, but for the usual case, the Civil Rights Act as it applies to women needs the support of business through affirmative action plans to give its mandate thrust and make better opportunities a reality. Granting their existence, however, here are some specific suggestions for helping the typical educated woman who desires it to achieve professional and management stature.
Avoid Creating Special Positions
A device frequently used for upgrading capable women is to create special new jobs for them. On the surface, nothing appears wrong with this practice. The woman defines and develops the job using her unique combination of strengths, often making a sizable contribution.
The less obvious problem is that no comparison can be made of her productivity and skill with those of male counterparts, and thus, while her responsibilities may be heavy, her salary level is often solely a matter of managerial judgment. In addition, the career path is not nearly so clear since others have not passed this way on their way up the organization ladder. It's rather common for a woman to leave one of these special positions and be replaced by a man. Shortly thereafter, the salary level rises significantly, and the job finds its way into suitable job families.
The suggestion here is not to eliminate such special jobs, since they can be extraordinarily developmental and rewarding, but rather to place women more often in established positions formerly filled by men. This allows not only more proper compensation scales but direct performance comparison and therefore direct competition with the male performer, perhaps refuting the old saw that if a woman is given a job, twice as much is expected of her as of a man.
Assign Short-term Leadership Responsibility
If a woman's first job lays the technical groundwork adequately for higher-level professional work and management responsibility is her goal, additional ways must be found for her to develop leadership skills. Because working for a woman might have an unfavorable effect on male egos, certain devices may be needed to break down some traditional barriers. One suggestion is to give women short assignments as full- or part-time task-force leaders or committee chairmen. With the assignment kept short, she is able to try her wings in an area in which she may have had little experience. Disruption of work routines can be held to a minimum, and there is substantially less risk for both her and the organization than if she were placed in a full-time supervisory position in which she succeeds or fails.
The short-term nature of the assignment also protects the male ego. He knows this is an ad hoc group to be endured for, say, a couple of months. Moreover, he is not alone in this situation-he can share any embarrassment he may feel with other men. And the woman reaps substantial benefits. She gets practice, tries herself out in this role, and learns something about her own reactions to the situation and her own development needs.
Another suggestion involves a similar device. When a work overload occurs, once a woman has established herself in a given professional position, a man or two can be temporarily assigned to work with her on a loan basis until the hump is passed. Administratively, the men continue to report to their usual boss while helping out in an area of only passing needs. This again serves to protect their egos, provides them with the opportunity to find out what it is like to work for a woman, and gives the woman another way to test herself and develop her skills.
A third suggestion is to prohibit all-female units. Women who find it difficult to hire men for their workforces sometimes limit their appointments to women. This tends to isolate the unit and create a distorted perception of the work produced. It may peg the woman as a supervisor who is capable of managing only other women. Thus her career may inadvertently be limited, at least temporarily. Arbitrary edicts are seldom advocated, but this is one situation that might benefit from such a rule during the current social transitions.
