The Gender Agenda

On changes in South Africa

Hello again.  I’m heading away on holiday tomorrow, and I have already packed a hefty suitcase of reading material and several very large bottles of SPF 50 sun-cream.  I’ll be back in a couple of weeks’ time but, in the interim, here’s a guest blog entry from my South African colleague, Lynn Oelofsen. Lynn and I used to work together in PwC UK’s recruitment team and she has recently returned to Johannesburg,  where she is responsible for PwC South Africa’s corporate and social responsibility agenda, and their programme of gender initiatives. 

Before she left London, we were discussing how much South African society has changed in the last ten years -   and so I asked her to write me a short piece about her experiences as a “returnee”. What does it feel like to be a visitor in the land of your birth?

“Almost ten years ago, I bought an aeroplane ticket, packed a backpack, bid farewell to my hometown of Benoni in South Africa and boarded a plane destined for London.

At the time, I had just turned 21 and had little life and career experience. Although I had worked since the age of 15, I had only worked in an office environment for two years. Back then, things were very different in South Africa to how I now find them. Apartheid started dissolving from 1990, schools were only integrated and made multi-racial at the start of 1992 and our first free and fair elections occurred in 1994 when Nelson Mandela became our first black president. The atmosphere of the country was chaotic. Some people were ecstatic, some people were petrified and some people just simply packed up and moved abroad.

My first South African office-based job was working for a freight company just outside Johannesburg. As the youngest member of staff, I was the only one who had ever gone to school or socialised with people outside my own race. It was evident that companies had a long way to go. In this particular company, the managers were all white males, the administrators were all white females, the warehouse staffs was all black males and the cleaners were all black females. Racially, we still had separate toilets and separate end of year events and functions. We addressed the CEO as “Mr Smith” and never by his first name and, fairly often, women would not be included in the male banter bonding sessions. This, however, was all “normal” to me and I knew no better.

Life in London was extremely different. Everyone was equal. After temping wherever I could to pay the bills, my first permanent UK based job was working in a recruitment agency in the centre of London.  My branch manager was female, my supervisor was female, and my colleagues were predominantly female. I realise that this is partly the nature of the industry, but it was almost odd for me to watch a woman take charge and successfully run a branch. I then moved into an HR role before joining PricewaterhouseCoopers UK in 2004. At PwC it was refreshing to see that a manager is a manager, regardless of gender. My female boss made for a great mentor and, even though I am no longer there, I’m still being mentored by her. There was a real sense that nothing is out of your reach – you are in charge of your own future and what the future will bring. If you want to be promoted, you will be – if you work hard and remain dedicated, you will certainly reap the rewards.

The only time in the UK that I felt aware of gender bias was at the time of my second promotion. Out of the five officers promoted to manager, four were female. This I thought was astonishing, until one of the newly promoted managers pointed out that at our level, regardless of our years of experience, the women were all aged 30+ and the man was 28. The other male manager had been promoted a year earlier, also at the age of 28. Why was it taking longer for women to be promoted? We could have challenged this question and taken it up with senior management, but we didn’t. We just accepted it – and perhaps this is where many of us go wrong.

After four years and two promotions in the London office, I made the decision to move back to South Africa, and I transferred to a role in PwC in Johannesburg, which I started a few weeks ago. It is a very different country compared to how it was when I left. After so many years abroad, when I unpacked my bags I felt like a foreigner, the same way I did when I left to go to England. I was unsure of what the working environment would be like, I didn’t (and still don’t) really know my way around, due to major infrastructure changes in preparation for the Football World Cup in 2010, and I can’t really work out the value of the Rand when I am out shopping: “is this expensive, is it cheap?”

A huge part of me had concerns about staying with PwC; I loved the UK firm and the people and wondered if it would be the same in South Africa. I’m glad to say I was wrong to worry. The people are just as talented and professional as in London. My role is an interesting one – as the Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, our focus is on helping our communities and on skills development. As the Women in PwC Project Manager, my role is to help retain and empower our key female talent. I’m pleased that times have changed since I first started working in SA – the Partner to whom I report is female, as are the managers in the department. The networking group for women has incredible support from both male and female senior staff. Everyone is committed to closing our gender gap, and, in South Africa, focusing on equal opportunities for all races as well.

I’ve only been back for two months but I am already feeling less like a foreigner and more like I am back at “home”. I miss my colleagues and friends in the UK - it made a great second home for so many years and gave me so much in the form of life, cultural and career experience. Hopefully, I will be passing that knowledge and experience on here.” 

We miss you in London too, Lynn (as do the staff in your local branch of Starbucks, no doubt).

Until next month, post holiday –
Cleo

An “equal opportunity” recession?

What is the collective noun for a group of news articles on the same or a similar topic? A “lemming” of articles? A “squawk” of features?  Add your own.  Either way, I picked up on a couple of stories and trends in the UK press last week, which made me consider how work patterns, specifically, work patterns for women, may end up changing over the next year or two in response to the changing economic climate.

Last Sunday’s (UK) Observer newspaper carried a full two page, broadsheet centre spread story entitled “The real victims of the credit crunch? Women”. Ruth Sunderland, the Observer’s business editor, asked whether the:

“… Downturn could reverse the huge economic gains women have made over the last few decades?”

- and noted:

“…if the gender aspect of the economic crisis is ignored, it could jeopardise the progress towards equality at work, and threaten the financial independence many women prize and have struggled to achieve, as well as making families more vulnerable through the loss of a large chunk of household income.”

On a more positive note, Sunderland suggested that:

“Both feminist and mainstream economists have pointed out that the credit crunch is quite literally a man-made disaster, a monster created in the testosterone-drenched environment of Wall Street and the City. There is a growing body of opinion that, if there had been more female decision-makers, the agony could have been avoided. The crunch has emboldened advocates of boardroom diversity, who insist we now need to get more women at the top in financial institutions as a matter of urgency, to prevent it happening again; their hope is that corporate Britain will be reshaped, bringing a healthier gender balance into the upper echelons.”

A few days later, the UK’s collective body of trade unions, the TUC generated a few tabloid headlines along the lines of “Two Women Sacked for Every Man”, with a report which drew attention to the slump in retail and hospitality, where more women are (or were) employed. General Secretary Brendan Barber commented that “This is an equal opportunities recession” and noted that the female redundancy rate in the UK has risen by 2.3%, almost double the rate for men.

Another TUC study revealed that one in four workers aged 55-64 has put retirement plans on ice due to the recession. 

This made me wonder about the potential ways in which employees may choose (or be encouraged) to flex their working patterns, and what employers could do to retain talented and committed staff through a take up of creative resourcing models.  For more on how one company, Chubb, is tackling this issue in the US, read Alison Maitland’s article from the Financial Times last month; other ideas that I have either read about or learned of via the grapevine of friends and colleagues, include:

• Offering the option to work a compressed week (for example: 35 hours in 4 days) to everyone (not just women)
• More use of job sharing options
• Greater use of flexi-time,  as a default rather than grudgingly granted “by exception only”
• Offering the opportunity to work part-time for a fixed period

In terms of trends, I think we will see, along the lines of the retirement trend mentioned above, women opting to come back to work after perhaps, the end of their “funded” maternity leave, rather than taking, as they can under UK law, an additional period of unpaid Additional Maternity Leave.  I also wonder if some maternity returners will opt to return for more days (four instead of three, or full time) than they might originally have chosen to work post-partum.  I know of at least one non-PwC colleague who is going back to work after her maternity leave sooner than she had envisaged due to personal economic reasons, and another is returning full time whilst her now redundant, ex-banker husband stays at home with the children.  I have also heard of a couple swap, in which she has super sized her working days from three to five whilst her husband has accepted his employer’s offer of a part time role and is providing the childcare for two days a week, thus removing the need for and cost of a nanny.

For those nearing the end of their careers, I predict not only a delay in retiring but also an adoption of easing into retirement by working part time, or perhaps by taking up interim roles elsewhere in the organisation.  Both of these ideas could be a real boon to a resource-constrained employer, enabling them to retain key, experienced talent for a short but crucial amount of time or project.

And for organisations who have predictable, perhaps calendar-based peaks and troughs in their annual work patterns, taking a creative look at skills vs. timing could provide them with an innovative way of working: perhaps some men and women would like to work full time for an intensive period of time over “the busy season”, whatever that may be, and then work part time or take a career break for another portion of the year?

On a positive note, I also see changes such as these challenging various workplace stereotypes, along the lines of “flexible working means part-time working” and “only women work part-time”.  I think that the more men we see in part-time AND flexible roles, the more usual it will be for the traditional ways of working to be adapted and adopted by a wider range of workers and employers – and that can only be a good thing.

Until next time,
Cleo

Women as role models – is it fair?

The recent British press coverage about French justice minister Rachida Dati “returning to work” a mere five days after she gave birth to her first child via Caesarean section gave me much pause for thought.

For those of you who are outside the UK and who therefore may have missed what felt like,for a few days last week, the almost blanket coverage and hand wringing by the (mostly female) commentators about the fact that she has done this – the back story is that Ms Dati had her baby and was then seen striding into a meeting, looking groomed and happy, brandishing a folder and showing no visible evidence at all that she had just given birth to her first child.  My French is nowhere near good enough to know if the French media took the same approach, but here in England, the gist of the message was:

- She’s crazy – this is crucial bonding time for she and her baby and that is –
- Way more important than going back to work – and meanwhile –
- Who’s taking care of the baby? And –
- What message does this give about childbirth and maternity leave to both –
- Other women and –
- Employers?

On the last point, Barbara Ellen of the Observer commented that:

“One of the most galling aspects of all this is what manna from pinstripe heaven it will be to the Alan Sugars of this parish - confirming an entrenched corporate belief that female maternity leave is an expensive inconvenience, a PC luxury, even a ****-take.”

(I also thought there was a slightly snarky tone to some of the articles regarding how well groomed and put together Ms Dati appeared to be, but that may have just been the old Anglo-French rivalry rearing its head once more.)

Anyway – the reason that I put “returning to work” in inverted commas in my first sentence was because every article that I’ve read seems to be inferring that Madame is “back at work” for good now, having had her five days off – and most of the indignation has sprung from that assumption. I looked at it from another angle – that yes, she was up and functioning but was effectively just popping into the office for an hour or so.  Which is of course completely different from returning to work full time at that stage of your child’s life, oui?

There has also been indignation as to the apparent message that she is giving, namely that, childbirth is a mere inconvenience from which it takes a few short days to recover and that anyone who isn’t up, about and fully co-ordinated (one commentator took exception to Ms Dati daring to sport “matching earrings”, mon dieu) is betraying the sisterhood and is giving the message to “employers” – by which I guess we mean “male employers” – that taking any more than five days (say: four months, six months,  a year …) is lead swinging of the highest magnitude and that the resultant crimps in your career are both self-inflicted and only to be expected.

Which in turn brings me back to my original ponder – is it fair to Rachida Dati to rebuke her for the decisions that she has made about HER child and HER career, and to therefore expect her to be a role model for other women – therefore berating her when she behaves in a way which is not perceived to be role model worthy but which does suit her own agenda?  I’ve read quite a lot on-line from women indicating that they barely knew their own name and where their shoes lived five days after they’d given birth, let alone were in a fit state to get up, dressed, find their earrings, leave their baby and go to work (for however long a period). 

But Ms Dati is clearly happy enough and well enough to do all of this, and is surely also smart enough and sufficiently aware of the impact on her daughter to make the decision to do so.  She doesn’t appear to have asked to be regarded as a role model, or for her actions to be examined on a global scale, judged and then found wanting.

All of this reminded me that Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, co-author of “Why Women Mean Business” sent me a fabulous picture last year, bearing the image “Stop Fixing the Women!”.

Avivah’s point is that the current gender imbalance is not of women’s making, so why therefore do we both look to women to “fix” the problem and, while they’re at it, fix themselves?  And I think that expecting women in the public eye, in particular, to be role models and for their every word and deed to be played out on a public stage and picked over as fodder for debate, whilst said women are simply living their lives and trying to juggle home and career based commitments, is absolutely unjust.

Yes – let’s have female role models. We have some ourselves, here in PwC, and they are all fantastic examples of women who have carved impressive careers for themselves, from whom we can learn.  But please can we let women choose if they want to be role models to others?  And, unless they stick their hands up and say so, can we leave them alone to do what they feel is best, even if what they are doing isn’t what we would have done under the same circumstances?

Mentioning Avivah, her new website, WOMEN-omics, launched earlier this week.  Avivah comments that the site is a global portal which:

“… shifts the debate from ‘What’s the matter with women that they aren’t reaching leadership positions?’ to ‘What’s the matter with companies that haven’t optimised the other half of the talent pool and marketplace – the female half?’"

Take a look – it’s a good resource, with some very interesting articles.

Until next time,

Cleo

Update – on using “My Mentor” in Bangalore

Hello again and Happy New Year.  Let’s start off 2009 on the Gender Agenda by sharing some great news from India. 

I mentioned last year that a lady called Rashmi Seth had won a copy of Maureen Frank’s “My Mentor” toolkit at the prize draw in Bangalore when we launched MM at NASSCOM.  We asked Rashmi to let us know how she was getting on with the toolkit, which is a boxed set of DVDs, CDs and a workbook for women to go through in their own time. 

Just before Christmas, Rashmi popped up with this update!  So here she is, in her own words.

About Rashmi:

Rashmi works in the software industry in Bangalore (check her out on LinkedIn – what an impressive profile) and is the mother to two sons – “Sometimes in the evening, my 8 year old twin boys also sit besides me when I am going through the My Mentor lessons” - maybe there’s a future match there – as Maureen Frank has eight year old twin girls …

“20th November 2008 was a lucky day!  Yeah, I won a copy of the ‘My Mentor’ toolkit in the prize draw. WOW! I just couldn’t believe my name being called on by Maureen Frank of Emberin to collect the ‘prized’ possession.

Thank you Cleo for mentioning it on the PwC blog:  http://pwc.blogs.com/gender_agenda/2008/11/index.html

Flashback, it was the second day at NASSCOM’S IT Women Leadership Summit 2008 - Transforming Enterprises and Societies. The NASSCOM agenda for this conference seeks to address gender diversity and inclusivity and Women in Leadership positions in IT and the BPO sector.

A very well organised and equally well represented summit! Though personally, I would have gone for a gender neutral theme – maybe ‘IT Leadership Summit’. Overall, it was a well spent two days of ‘gyan’, networking. Yes, I met some great leaders and really interesting individuals.

For me, the take aways were that organisations need to:

• Be AWARE about the need for diversity and gender inclusivity

• Educate everyone (top-down, left-right) on ‘the need’
• ‘Walk the Talk – encourage, empower, create policies and implement it across [This one was from Cleo- very well said!]

And these so aptly apply to ‘individuals’ as well! I really liked the ‘build your personal brand’ statement from Maureen.

Coming back, to share the ‘My Mentor’ kit experience. It is a great self-help kit. You relate to the content instantly and the examples are so apt. The best part is it helps you not only at a professional level, but you tend to re-learn so much at a personal level. Thanks, Maureen for bringing this out!

I am still going through it and will keep you posted on how I have progressed in a few weeks’ time.”