Canadian-born diversity strategist, professional speaker, trainer and best-selling author JEANNE MARTINSON met with Helena Grech to discuss the issues surrounding women in leadership roles as well as understanding ‘the glass cliff’

 

Jeanne Martinson explained that ‘the glass cliff’ is a phenomenon which refers to women in either the corporate world or a political party being more likely than men to be given leadership roles during periods of crisis or downturn, when the chance of failure is the highest.

She said that this phenomenon is certainly happening in some European countries and that, in the case of political parties, the predisposition to appoint females to roles that are perceived as ‘unwinnable’ is high because appointing females benefits the image of the parties themselves.

She said that, in this way, parties look progressive and project a certain image, but the positions they choose for their female candidates are those that have little chance of success.  She continued by saying that therefore, although on the surface it may look as if male candidates are more successful, one must look at the actual types of roles to which they are appointed in order to get a clearer picture of the overall situation.

She said that some researchers argue that this phenomenon occurs because, more often than not, when a company is in turmoil or experiencing a downturn, bringing in a fresh perspective and fresh ideas is a good option to bring that company out of turmoil. Therefore the argument is that if a company has gone downhill during the leadership of a man, bringing in a woman who invariable thinks differently, perceives differently and takes different decisions could be the ingredient needed to turn that company around.

Other researchers have argued that appointing women to a company or political party that is experiencing turmoil provides a greater opportunity for power and respect.

Female labour force participation

Ms Martinson explained that many women aspire to high-level positions but, in reality, a substantial number never realise their aspirations. She said that this phenomenon – and understanding why it exists – propelled her towards her work in gender issues.

Turning to how one would go about bridging the gap between ambition and reality, Ms Martinson said that the first thing is to understand why this gap exists. She explained that there is a historical element to the issue, pointing out that, in the past, it was more likely that men would require a certain position in a company because they were expected to support a whole family on just the one income.

She said that the argument that women are not as ambitious as men is simply untrue and that when looking at women in managerial positions, the overwhelming majority have ambitions to reach the top rung of the corporation with which they are employed.

Ms Martinson said that American studies had established that, up until the age of 10, the number of boys and girls aspiring to be presidents or to other high-level roles is the same, but beyond that age, you start to find many more males with ambitious goals than females. She explained that, to some extent, this is due to representation in government and other professions. The fact that many young girls may not know any female politicians, lawyers, architects or engineers leads them to believe that these professions are more suitable for men.

She highlighted Malta’s unique position, specifically referring to the availability of free healthcare child care. She said that for many mothers around the world, going out to work ends up with them being out of pocket, with expensive child-care costing them more than they are earning. This is a huge barrier to entry into returning to the workforce.

She then highlighted another unique element that supports higher female workforce participation in Malta, which is the provision of free education. She said that for large families in countries where education is not free, parents may be more inclined to pay for their sons’ education than their daughters’ due to the belief that men will eventually have a family to support but women can find financial and economic support in a marriage. Ms Martinson explained that this is another large barrier to entry into the workforce in the many countries that do not provide free education.

“The price of education is important inasmuch as it holds back women. Malta’s free education system and free child care system are very powerful when it comes to working towards women’s equality,” she said.

 

Legislation promoting females in the workforce

Turning to relatively recent Western trends, where mandatory minimum numbers of women at board of director level are imposed on companies by legislation, Ms Martinson said that if we let the numbers of women appointed to boards change organically, the change would happen far too slowly.

“If we wait for things to change naturally, it will be centuries before women are fully represented at board level. What we do know is that when there are more women at board level, the return on investment and the profitably of those publically-traded companies has increased. Now we know that there is a direct economic influence,” she said.

Asked why a company experiences higher levels of profitability with more women at board level, Ms Martinson said that this can be seen not only with the promotion of more women. She said that when there is a situation where all board members are from a similar background, have had similar experiences and ultimately think along the same lines, someone from a different background can bring in new ideas which will ultimately benefits the company.

 

Strategising

Ms Martinson concluded by pointing out another factor that hinders women from reaching top-level positions. Many men, she said, have a long-term goal, and almost all the decisions they make – what course to take at university, what woman to marry and how many children to have – are made with that goal in mind. Women are not so likely to follow this course and therefore when an opportunity arises in later years, very often decisions were not taken earlier on in life to allow a straightforward passage onto the top rungs of companies or political parties.