In support of this year’s #BreakTheBias theme, I launched my mission to break the motherload bias. I want to eradicate the age-old stereotype of ‘think manager, think male’. I want the world to Think Leadership. Think Female.
I decided to take my Think Leadership. Think Female. theme on the road and see what progress has been made, and what work is left to be done. Spoiler alert: a lot of work is left to be done. I had illuminating conversations with 4 women from the US, UK, Germany and Japan. Why these countries? I’m glad you asked.
I took a course at the London School of Economics in comparative human resource strategies way back in the 90’s while I was doing my master’s degree. I got to choose which countries I wanted to compare for a final paper. Canada wasn’t an option so I chose the US. Given I was going to school in the UK, I chose that next. Germany was an appealing option because they had interesting labour laws and works councils to explore. Last, I thought Japan’s culture of lifetime employment would be a fascinating add to the mix.
Twenty years later, I’ve gone back to these regions, this time to compare the progress toward the advancement of women. I asked about the hot topics, the urgent barriers to be addressed, and how to make movement. You will notice commonalities in the barriers that exist for women in these countries such established gender stereotypes and pandemic implications. You will also learn how history and culture shapes the unique and deeply engrained struggles yet to be overcome. You will hear hope and you will hear despair. You will read about incremental infinitesimal change and giant chasms to be filled.
I hope you enjoy the outcome of my conversations with these fierce women as much as I enjoyed having them.
What is the current situation in your country right now with respect to the advancement of women? What are people talking about now?
GER – Germany is viewed as advanced from an engineering and technology standpoint, however from the advancement of women, traditional viewpoints still reign. While female participation in the workforce is widely accepted, there is a belief that once a woman has a child, she is expected to work part-time for a period, or for the remainder of her career. The prevailing view is that women are more innately suited to educating and caring for children. This is changing but not nearly fast enough. There is a term still in use called rabenmutter, which translates to raven mother and is defined as a ‘bad, uncaring mother’. While the term rabenvater also exists (raven father), the term is defined as ‘uncaring’. The guilt that comes with the ‘bad mother’ connotation is real and felt by those women aspiring for more from a career.
GBR - Sustained female C-suite leadership is a challenge in the UK. We appear to have a pandemic of women stepping away from corporate leadership. They are either getting to the top but not staying, or they’re not reaching the level they thought they would. We need to measure tenure and sustainment, not just reaching the top. Statistically we only measure corporate roles. But women who have moved into entrepreneurship or other areas are having so much impact and it’s not measured. Another challenge is ageism. We have a culture of celebrating the success stories of younger women. It creates a bias of what a successful female leader looks like. The UK is really leading the way in conversations around women and age.
JPN - Japan ranks 120 among 156 countries for overall gender gap and is the second worst in the world for gender pay gap. The ratio of female managers is 13.7% (compared to Asia Pacific overall of 22.5% according to the Welfare and Labour Ministry 2021). It is increasing little by little, but not dramatically. The government introduced a campaign to have 30% female managers by 2030, but this initiative seemed to disappear during the pandemic. Regarding unpaid work time, Japan is the highest in OECD countries where women contribute 5.5 times greater unpaid work hours than men. In addition, gender role consciousness is heavily rooted among the Japanese. On TV for example, a women pilot or women doctor is called out, sometimes with an age attached. The Japanese language dictionary was recently revised with a footnote that includes the term “Mainly” to indicate that it is based on a biased view. There are still many expressions in Japanese that we use unconsciously describing gender roles.
“On TV for example, a women pilot or women doctor is called out, sometimes with an age attached.”
USA – Unpaid labour in the workplace is a hot topic right now. Women take the reigns on diversity and inclusion work (2:1) and don’t get paid for it. Unpaid labour is gender charged at work and then all the stuff at home gets piled on top. Intersectionality of race and gender (see McKinsey/LeanIn report) is a big conversation in US. Black and Brown women are absolutely at the bottom of every data point. Also, there is a thread of patriarchy that runs throughout. We are struggling with childcare, with parental leave, and with reopening of abortion laws. Some companies are doing really great stuff. But in the grand scheme of things, there is a sense of disbelief and shock - “how is this happening!” In the last few years there have been a string of powerful white men (recently is Joe Rogan), who are exhibiting misogynistic behaviors. We need to get to a place where white men are comfortable admitting that they have biases in their decision making. We need to be braver as a society to talk about these things, to be open to listening, and to be wrong. We are so polarized as a country.
In what ways has the pandemic impacted women in your country?
GER - At the beginning of the pandemic, we went back to traditional gender roles. When schools closed no one asked who would take care of the children because it was absolutely assumed that it would be the women. The assumption was that women are home or working part-time, so that is the solution. This viewpoint was criticized a lot in the media during this time. Jutta Allmendinger, president of the WZB Berlin Social Science Center, professor of educational sociology and labor market research at Humboldt University, and senior fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, has been an advocate in Germany stating that the home office is not gender neutral and prevents women from starting a career. On a talk show interview, Jutta claimed that women would suffer "a terrible retraditionalization" in the corona crisis.
GBR – The pandemic created a great re-evaluation causing more women to step away from executive level leadership. It is well documented that women experienced increased fatigue and risk of burnout. Also, hybrid working creates such tension with presenteeism and remaining visible. Many women had done so well and made it all work while working from home, and now there’s such a sadness about hybrid work arrangements or going back to the office fulltime. Some have had their best years working with increased flexibility. And it’s funny because usually ‘best years’ are related to performance, but now it’s also measured by balance.
JPN – Women were affected more than men because of the pandemic (18% men versus 26% women) in terms of job loss, job change, decrease in work hours or time off. During the pandemic women’s unpaid work and men’s paid work hours are both long. A 2021 report by the cabinet office stated that because employees worked at home, more women felt stress because they had less time for themselves. For men, however, working from home was favorable because it removed commuting time. They could now use commuting time to be with their families. The suicide rate for women during the pandemic increased among female high school students and housewives.
USA - When it comes to COVID women have been struggling with caregiving for the past two years. And there is a sense that life was hard enough before - juggling a career and family was tough enough. Then you layer patriarchy, gender role expectations, and then pile COVID on top! It absolutely broke women. They were responsible to check in on everyone in their lives, family and professional. Also, companies have less people, so you must put in the hours. There’s a show must go on at all costs mentality. We see the great resignation on the one hand, and then those who don’t have the agency to say no to the scope creep in their lives.
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is #BreaktheBias. What is the biggest bias that needs to be broken in your country?
GER – The concept of the ‘working woman’ needs to be addressed and that women who dare to aspire to a career must behave as men do. There are a few traps that keep women at home. For example, German tax laws do not support that women have jobs outside of the home. Tax splitting is unequal and often it is viewed as unbeneficial for the woman to work. Also, it’s wonderful that you can take three years of maternity leave and still have access to your job, but it also supports this trap. There is pressure to use the whole maternity leave because the children will be better off with you at home. Last, because of the part-time working trap, women end their careers with much less pension and struggle when they are older.
“Also, it’s wonderful that you can take three years of maternity leave and still have access to your job, but it also supports this trap.”
GBR - Age and women is a big barrier in the UK. Social media and society still celebrate those that have it all - the exceptional few - which is not relatable. It feels like there is a race to the top, yet we live in an age of skill shifts and flattening organisations. Superheroes are often young! When you think superhero, you see the Marvel bodies too! This poses a great risk to sustained female leadership. Menopause is talked a lot about now too. It’s no longer tabooed to talk about in the mainstream. Psychologically this is critical because it’s one less thing to experience alone.
“Menopause is talked a lot about now too… Psychologically this is critical because it’s one less thing to experience alone.”
JPN - Gender role consciousness is the biggest barrier to break. This includes women, as well as men. Japan is a closed country – an island. In our history, we believed that men should be tough, and women need to be protected. This shows up today in the language we use unconsciously. For example, Otokomasari is a term used for women who act aggressive, moreso than men. It means strong-minded, independent, and mannish. Or the word Yome, meaning wife, consists of character combinations that mean in the house to another house. The expectation is that the Yome is married to the household with the unwritten job description that specifically states her underling position to cook, clean, raise the kids and tend to elderly parents. In fact, Japan’s national broadcast had commented that while Yome is not a legally proper word, many men use it towards their wives even now.
USA – To help break the bias I want to invite women to look inside to their own misogyny. It comes out in ways that is hard to recognize. Even now, I catch myself. My instinct when I see another woman is to make assumptions. White women in senior leadership roles, especially in the Gen X demographic, for example, were brought up with expectations for how a woman should look and act. If a woman dresses in a certain way, she was this and that. We couldn’t be too loud, or aggressive. In corporate America when a woman is strong and outspoken, then her performance review labels her as brash. We are contorting ourselves every day so that we don’t get labeled as forward, annoying, and always having something to say. Men don’t think about this at all. By contorting ourselves we’re not setting the right examples for those women that come after us. We delay it for every other woman after us.
I am on a mission called Think Leadership. Think Female. I want to break a bias called ‘think manager, think male’. It’s a stereotype where we associate men and male characteristics with leadership. What must happen to change this bias?
GER – I realized a number of years ago that it’s hard to play the ‘tough role’ that is expected in business and then switch it off when you get home. And we shouldn’t have to do that in the first place. The stereotypical male macho image is not good for the world. Just look what’s happening. We need to see the world through female eyes, that are not so quick to destroy things. We need more women to lead in business which would benefit employees, customers, and the environment too. We need more role models, women, who dare to be themselves and not let men oppress them, who stand up for rights and opinions. Last, we need men who say “yes, we are privileged, we always have been, and we realize it’s a structural thing, and we are ready to fight along side you”. There are many men who realize the benefits of a real partnership when women are strong and independent and liberated and equal. Life is easier when they have strong and free partners.
GBR – Not only is the ‘think male’ concept outdated, ‘think manager’ is outdated too. Managers come from the age of industrialization. We’re in the digitalization age. We need to think humanocracy. We need to think matrix and horizontal leadership. We have the opportunity to shift the concept of leadership completely. The role of a leader needs to be gender agnostic and it doesn’t need to mean people manager exclusively. We need to define and celebrate leadership through alternative career routes. Some of the best female leaders I know are not people managers in fact.
JPN - Recently I read research done in Japan by Nomura and Kawasaki regarding gender unconscious bias in leadership. I was surprised to learn that female leaders are more biased than men toward gender stereotypes of leadership. Women believe that female leaders should be nice, whereas men possess business aptitude and should be resilient. Many women in Japan need to reframe their view and gain confidence. We need to establish assistance to women at school and in organizations. We also need to discuss and redefine what effective leadership characteristics should be in Japan. We can be comfortable to be as we are, but we need to be aware that we have bias and get out from our comfort zone. When we take small steps, it will lead to big changes.
USA - A lot of therapy for a lot of people will be required to make change. We can’t legislate or dictate or teach our way out of misogyny. It is a process. In our every day lives we can make progress, but we need to also have confronting conversations with people in senior leadership, especially men, without regard for how uncomfortable they will feel or that they will retaliate. All of us must do this together. Until we are all doing this regularly without regard then it won’t stop. I’m an optimist and I am not feeling like in my lifetime we will get there.
“I’m an optimist and I am not feeling like in my lifetime we will get there.”
About these amazing women
GER – Doris Martin-Pauls is a seasoned Human Resources leader with a legal background. She has worked in over ten international companies throughout her career. She thrives in global companies and when working with different cultures. Doris has always tried to foster support of career women and knows the struggles of being a single mother with a career in an old-fashioned country.
GBR – Sinead Laverty is a purpose led matrix leader in a global workforce consulting world. She is in a commercial (sales) role with expertise in talent development and career management. Her passion for broader diversity and inclusion comes from growing up in Northern Ireland and experiencing segregation and a fear of difference. Advancing women in leadership excites Sinead as she has experienced and witnessed the impact of a developable mindset and skills on women, their workplaces, families and broader society.
JPN – Hiromi Nezaki is a progressive leader with a global view. She has worked her entire career in global companies, beginning with a start up team that opened Japan’s first international hotel. Hiromi worked for a multinational global leadership development company for 20 years becoming an executive coach and leadership development expert. Hiromi credits her passion for helping women advance to growing up with a strong working mother who had the courage to divorce. Surrounded by strong Japanese women, Hiromi moved to Tokyo on her own to start a career. She sees the power in helping women grow, gain insight and confidence.
USA – Tracy Oswald is a professional suspender of disbelief. An experienced corporate leader at a media company, she sees herself as a coach and teacher across all she does. She operates through a lens of ‘anything is possible’ and ‘woman first’. Tracy confronted her own misogyny after attending an immersive MacBeth exhibit in New York City where she became obsessed with Lady MacBeth and the treatment of women back then, and today. She is on a mission to help women take up more space in this world in a way that creates conversations and not pushes people away.