Читать книгу Brainpower - Sylvia Ann Hewlett - Страница 11

Abstract

Five years ago our groundbreaking study “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success,” (Harvard Business Review, March 2005) found that 37% of highly qualified women take an off-ramp—voluntarily leaving their jobs for a period of time. In addition, fully 66% take a scenic route—working flextime or part-time for a number of years. All in all, nearly three-quarters of the accomplished women in this 2004 survey failed to conjure up the linear lock-step progression of a successful male career. For this they paid a huge price in terms of both earning power and long run promotional prospects.

In the fall of 2009 we conducted a new survey—using the same questionnaire and sampling a similar pool of women—indeed we were able to capture some of the same respondents. We discovered that the ground had shifted in some interesting ways. First, between 2004 and 2009 the number of highly qualified women who off-ramp dropped from 37% to 31%. Some drivers of this decline include: the economic downturn (unemployment rates of 10% make women reluctant to leave a job) and the enhanced importance of female earnings in family budgets—many women simply cannot afford to take time out. In our survey we found that between 2004 and 2009 there was a 28% increase in the number of professional women with nonworking husbands (unemployed or retired).

Secondly, women now off-ramp for a slightly longer period of time—2.7 years on average in 2009, compared to 2.2 years in 2004. This again is linked to the recession. Getting back into the workplace was more challenging in 2009 than in 2004. For example, 20% of women who are currently trying to on-ramp said they are having difficulty doing so because of the downturn.

These small changes between 2004 and 2009 should not obscure the big picture—which remains remarkably constant. Indeed, the alignment between the data sets is uncanny. Take the on-ramping figures: In 2004 and 2009, nearly the same number (74% in 2004, 73% in 2009) of highly qualified women who want to get back to work succeed in finding a job, and only 40% of these were able to find full-time, mainstream jobs.

The 2009 data echoes the 2004 data on another important front: ambition. Highly qualified women continue to be less ambitious than their male peers (35% versus 48% in 2004, 36% versus 51% in 2009). In addition, in both data sets female ambition falls off over time. In 2004, 42% of young women (ages 28-34) saw themselves as very ambitious. By ages 45-55 this figure had fallen to 29%. In 2009 the comparable figures were 45% and 31%. This drop-off is related to off-ramps and scenic routes. As women experience difficulty getting back on the career track, confidence and ambition stall, and many women end up downsizing their dreams.

Finally, the 2004 and 2009 data align on the motivation and engagement fronts. When asked what they want out of work, highly qualified women (in contrast to highly qualified men) emphasize nonmonetary rewards. For women, five drivers or types of motivation (high-quality colleagues, flexible work arrangements, collaborative teams, “give back” to society, recognition) trump the sheer size of the paycheck. For men, on the other hand, compensation is a top pick—coming in second after high-quality colleagues. Women, it turns out, have a high bar. Partly because many of them deal with significant opportunity costs (going to work may well involve leaving a one-year-old in daycare), they need a job to deliver the goods on a variety of fronts.

Five years after the original publication, this research continues to have profound implications: off-ramps and on-ramps are here to stay and employers should sit up and pay attention—or suffer the consequences of sidelining and side-swiping 58% of the highly credentialed talent pool.