Nan Langowitz
Director and Cofounder, Center for Women's Leadership
Associate Professor of Management
For years we’ve thought about the issue of women’s advancement in business as a pipeline question. Once there were enough women in the organizational pipelines of companies, we would see women advance in large numbers to the ranks of business leadership. The theory was that a tipping point would eventually come, at which time there would be enough critical mass of women in the business world that many of the age-old questions about possible gender difference would simply go away. Organizations began tackling the various parts of the elephant. Catalyst, Inc. began to catalog the number of women serving as senior executives and board members of Fortune 1000 firms. Various media publications set up criteria and awards for “the best place for women to work” or “family friendly companies.” The Committee of 200 commissioned reports looking at the career aspirations of teenage girls as well as at the experience of women in MBA programs. Schools of business began to do research and write case studies, focused on women in business and organizational life. Yet, the solution to fostering greater involvement in business leadership by women may lie not only in providing access, role models, and encouragement, but in changing the frame for how women view business. We need women to enter and stay in the pipeline at greater rates. To do that, we need to change the frame through which they view the business world.
The traditional view of business by many women, young and old, is that business is a somewhat seamy enterprise, in which profits rule at any cost, organizational politics (considered a dirty word) abound, and little of true value is created. Many often say, “I want to do something meaningful” and so they reject business as a choice. Teen girls mirrored this view in a 2003 report commissioned by The Committee of 200, in which they reported placing a high value on making a difference in the world and caring for others and cited the so-called “helping professions” of law and medicine as their primary careers pursuits; business was mentioned less than 10% of the time.
Well, here’s a different way to frame that world! What if we talked about business as the place where organizations provide employment to hundreds or thousands? What if, as a result, women knew those individuals would have decent food, housing, and medical care through employee benefit programs? What if we focused on how companies can support local communities not only through the employment they provide and the taxes they pay, but also through the volunteer activity of employees and the philanthropic support given to local causes? What if we spent time highlighting the ways in which products and services of organizations provide real solutions and value for customers? What if we reminded folks that company cash flow gets reinvested into the economy – through vendor contracts, employee salaries and their spending, capital project investments, among others? That’s a picture of an organizational world where important work is being done and where people and communities are at the heart of the activity.
Yes, it’s true that businesses care about profits and that any group has interpersonal dynamics and power plays (just watch kids on a playground, grown-ups in business didn’t invent this!), but well-run businesses are primarily focused on value creation. We need to start teaching young girls and women that business is a place where they can create real value for the world. They can be the captains of organizations that provide jobs, create important products and services, and deliver true benefits to communities. Businesses are the engines of wealth creation and social benefit. If that’s not meaningful, I don’t know what else is.
