Women rewriting rules of work

In the second of two articles on women in the boardroom, we look at how they are snubbing corporate life for more flexibility. By Camilla Berens, news editor, Financial Management.

It’s unlikely that the corporate aversion to hiring women of child-bearing age for top jobs will ever be cured completely. However, this is only one of the challenges that women face as they reach their mid-thirties. A study has found that women move from an idealistic, ambitious approach to work in their twenties to a more pragmatic attitude in their thirties.

The report, from the Weatherhead School of Management in Ohio, said that women must show great endurance if they want to reach senior level. They have to handle the conflicting interests of work, relationships and community involvement, a career that may have reached a plateau, and a ticking biological clock. It warns that, unless women are guided carefully at this crucial mid-career stage, they will start redirecting their energies elsewhere.

Escaping the nine-to-five

But surely highly motivated women won’t be deterred by such challenges. Could it be that a generation of working women is bypassing the macho corporate world and taking a new approach? It would seem so, according to a recent poll of 1,000 female managers by recruitment firm Hudson. Its survey found that 54% were either seriously thinking about escaping the conventional nine-to-five grind or had already left it. The reasons for this, according to Hudson, are a ‘bid to reinvent working patterns’ and a need for ‘flexibility and autonomy’.

The proportion of escapees in the accountancy sector was slightly lower at 44%. Nevertheless, it is clear that a significant number of female financial professionals are seeking alternative routes to ‘having it all’. Hudson found that more than three-quarters of female accountants were disappointed with their working lives. The main reasons they cited for this were a ‘lack of free time’ and ‘poor career prospects’.

It’s not only family demands that are making them look further afield, according to Guy Hayward, Hudson’s managing director. ‘Many have tasted corporate life and decided that there are better ways of making their mark on the world,’ he said. ‘To have more control over where, when and how they work, they are establishing their own companies, retraining or pursuing a portfolio career.’

An internal BT survey mirrors these findings. A fifth of those women who had quit the company were going to set up their own businesses. Nearly 90% said that the company could have done more to encourage them to stay. Understandably, the researchers conclude that BT still has some work to do. This includes making its culture less macho, paying more than lip-service to work-life balance and placing more value on the skills of its female employees.

Giving corporate life the slip

Clare Thommen ACMA, is one ambitious woman who was determined not to be held back by corporate inertia. She walked away from a promising career in financial services with Scottish Life to start her own lingerie business. At 25, she was already finance manager at the firm’s Edinburgh office, running three teams and reporting to the chief executive. She was also the only female senior manager.

Thommen’s rise was impressive, but she bailed out soon after a colleague who had supported her ambitions quit the organisation. ‘I’d been on a very steep learning curve, but after he left I really felt I couldn’t progress,’ she recalled. ‘I might have stayed on if there had been a fast-track career programme.’

Instead, she was left feeling frustrated and facing an ‘undercurrent of condescension’ from some of her colleagues. Today, she and business partner Fiona McLean are running their Edinburgh-based boutique Boudiche and business is booming. Turnover increased fivefold in the first six months of operation. ‘I’m the kind of person who constantly needs to challenge herself,’ Thommen said. ‘I was well paid, with a final-salary pension and a company car. But I’d rather take a risk now than sit back in ten years’ time and ask what if? Now all my passion and energy can go into my own business rather than someone else’s.’

The future for women in finance

As more women choose accountancy careers - 44% of CIMA students are female - what are their prospects? Without a culture shift, many firms will lose out as a growing number of talented female professionals seek more flexible working arrangements. Nearly three-quarters of employers surveyed by Hudson agreed that a female exodus would have a major impact on their businesses.

But both reports also show that, while many firms talk about meeting the needs of female staff, far fewer practise what they preach.

The Weatherhead report suggests initiatives to make the workplace a more attractive proposition for women facing the mid-career crunch. These include:

• the provision of coaching and mentoring
• managers who actively support women’s career development
• access to organisational resources and relevant opportunities to develop skills
• challenging assignments
• an acknowledgment of their specific talents
• a recognition of aptitude learned through life experiences and unconventional career histories.

The UK government is continuing to push for change. More than 30 of the FTSE 100 companies have signed up to a mentoring scheme designed to encourage more women to apply for directorships. Tessa Jowell, minister for women, estimates that making the most of women’s skills could bring benefits worth up to 3% of GDP. ‘Tackling occupational segregation is the right thing to do not only because of fairness. It also makes economic sense,’ she said.

The effectiveness of such schemes remains to be seen. What is clear is that there are a lot of successful women in business, but it’s increasingly on their own terms.

This article first appeared in the April 2006 edition of Financial Management.

January 2007