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Chapter 5

Ambition is Problematic

Danielle was always a high achiever. She excelled in college and law school, eventually settling at a seven-person law firm in a small town in Delaware. When she became pregnant, she never questioned that she would return to full-time work.

But balancing motherhood and the demanding schedule of a litigator was, Danielle recalls, “too unpredictable and stressful.” After three unhappy months, she off-ramped, only to encounter an unforeseen difficulty: “On the one hand, I was so happy to be home with my son. But on the other hand, I had been recognized throughout my life for my accomplishments.” Danielle realized that she needed to find a different career, one that enabled her to care for her son and satisfy her ambition.

An avid baker, Danielle had often thought of turning her interest into a business. A friend offered her use of an industrial kitchen and Danielle had the opportunity to turn her dream into reality. “To be able to look at a wedding cake that I made, to see the happiness it brings and have people compliment it is a great feeling of accomplishment.”

Sustaining ambition is key to keeping women on track in the corporate world. Yet just as we found five years ago, there is a significant age and gender gap when it comes to professional ambitions. Our survey data shows that highly qualified women are significantly less ambitious than their male peers. As Figure 5.1 shows, more than half of the men (51%) surveyed consider themselves very ambitious as compared with about a third of women (36%). In the business sector the gap is slightly wider—57% of men describe themselves as very ambitious, compared with 40% of women.

Anna Fels, in her groundbreaking work on women’s ambition, makes a compelling case that for both men and women ambition is a function of three things: mastery of skills, recognition by others, and the probability of achieving desired goals.13 She finds that women are much less likely than men to receive reinforcement and recognition, and this is one of several powerful factors that force a downsizing of female ambition.

As women grow older, their ambition levels decline. While 40% of women between the ages of 28 and 40 describe themselves as “very ambitious,” only 32% of women in the 41 to 55 age range do.

Not surprisingly, there is a correlation between off-ramping and ambition levels. Thirty-eight percent of women who have never off-ramped describe themselves as very ambitious; only a third of women who off-ramped say the same.

Circumstances often collude to shrink a woman’s ambition, however, and diminished ambition often precedes her decision to off-ramp. Women often cut back their career goals in response to a “push” from their workplace rather than a “pull” from outside forces.

When we asked the women in our focus groups why they had chosen to leave, the overwhelming response was the inflexibility of their workplace, managers and coworkers. Rose, a focus group participant, explained, “My manager was so incompetent! I saw how our group was making the work/life balance nonexistent. I tried to look for opportunities within the company but he did not make it easy. Life is too short to work hard for people who don’t value your contributions and don’t respect your life outside of work.”

As women are forced to choose between career and family obligations, a vicious cycle ensues. With every request for flexible work arrangements, every promotion passed up because it might involve an onerous travel schedule, or every high-profile assignment avoided because it would require single-minded focus, the perception grows that women are less committed to their work. That, in turn, makes them less likely to be promoted, which only further erodes their commitment. Confronted with an “either/or” choice, women either cut back their original career ambitions or, like Danielle, find another field in which they can flower.

The downsizing of ambition has a cascading effect for all women in the workplace. As Figure 5.4 shows, women in the workplace experience a distinct lack of support networks. Only 11% of women in our 2009 survey have a sponsor—someone to “use up chips on their behalf” in order to move them forward in their careers. Similarly, just over a third have role models they can look up to, and even fewer (32%) have mentors. With few women in senior roles to guide them, and even fewer whom they see successfully balancing their work and personal lives, young women start to feel stalled in their careers and respond by downsizing their professional ambition—and the vicious cycle continues.

Such lack of support not only pushes women who are wavering about whether to stay or go to depart, but it leaves them without a network of colleagues to connect with when they do. “Many of the women in my department had never off-ramped and didn’t have children, so there was no example or understanding of what I was going through,” recalls Sharon, a mother of two. When she did off-ramp, she told us, “My support systems were not as supportive as I thought. I was depressed a lot, and could not explain why. In addition, there was a loss of self-confidence.”

The 2009 data echoes the 2004 data when it comes to ambition. In both data sets, female ambition diminishes over time. 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.

Takeaways

Sustaining ambition is key to keeping women on track in their careers. Yet circumstances such as extreme jobs and an inflexible workplace, combined with a lack of support networks, role models, and sponsors, collude to diminish women’s career dreams.

 Women often cut back their career goals in response to a “push” from their workplace rather than a “pull” from outside forces.

 A significant lack of support networks and role models leaves women feeling isolated and discouraged: 89% don’t have a sponsor to move them forward in their careers, 68% lack mentors, and 61% lack role models.