This is an interesting observation...although I'm curious - what do you think drives the gap in business savvy by gender?
There was an era when it might have been education. When I did my MBA, 21 years ago, we were just 18% women. - But I know that was a blip — it's more like 35% today and in fact had been a chunk higher around the turn of the millenium.
For those who lack formal business education, are you suggesting that men are self-educating more than women (or perhaps better mentored?)?
Hi Lucy, there are many factors. You cite one - the fewer women getting MBAs, but even MBAs aren't protection against having or being seen as having business savvy because many women specialize in marketing or organizational behavior. Even when specializing in finance, some women have told me that the big picture perspective that I teach is lacking. So that's one reason.
Another is bias - in some cases women aren't lacking in business savvy, but managers don't expect us to have it while they do expect men to have it. That was a major finding of my research. I remember one executive telling me, "I was proud to have mentored a woman and a man last year. Now, with what you've shared, I see that I mentored the man on the business and the women on building confidence." (As if confidence in business doesn't require business savvy.) So what managers expect and what they mentor on are other factors.
Yet another is the fact that if a man shows leadership abilities (defined incompletely as people skills) he's often told, "You're good with people, consider taking this management job in operations." Women are told, "You're good with people, you should go into HR or marketing." Add in the dynamic of where women v men are guided - men to the core busiiness, women to staff functions.
women c
And yet another factor: man y women stay away from financial acumen because, "I'm not good at maths." or "It's not part of my job."
It needs to be said that none of this means that women aren't or can't be good at business savvy - successful F500 women CEOs are the most obvious arguments that we can be and are.
Finally, for now, I want to make the point that organizations don't tell us that business savvy is a key part of leadership. It is under-measured in performance evals, 360º feedback, under-represented in leadership programs, under-coached. The reason is because it's the context that's unseen by insiders. If you've listened to my TED Talk, it was the executive's comment about the importance ofhigh potential candidates having business, financial and strategic acumen, "It's a given."
This is an interesting observation...although I'm curious - what do you think drives the gap in business savvy by gender?
There was an era when it might have been education. When I did my MBA, 21 years ago, we were just 18% women. - But I know that was a blip — it's more like 35% today and in fact had been a chunk higher around the turn of the millenium.
For those who lack formal business education, are you suggesting that men are self-educating more than women (or perhaps better mentored?)?
Hi Lucy, there are many factors. You cite one - the fewer women getting MBAs, but even MBAs aren't protection against having or being seen as having business savvy because many women specialize in marketing or organizational behavior. Even when specializing in finance, some women have told me that the big picture perspective that I teach is lacking. So that's one reason.
Another is bias - in some cases women aren't lacking in business savvy, but managers don't expect us to have it while they do expect men to have it. That was a major finding of my research. I remember one executive telling me, "I was proud to have mentored a woman and a man last year. Now, with what you've shared, I see that I mentored the man on the business and the women on building confidence." (As if confidence in business doesn't require business savvy.) So what managers expect and what they mentor on are other factors.
continued.
Yet another is the fact that if a man shows leadership abilities (defined incompletely as people skills) he's often told, "You're good with people, consider taking this management job in operations." Women are told, "You're good with people, you should go into HR or marketing." Add in the dynamic of where women v men are guided - men to the core busiiness, women to staff functions.
women c
And yet another factor: man y women stay away from financial acumen because, "I'm not good at maths." or "It's not part of my job."
It needs to be said that none of this means that women aren't or can't be good at business savvy - successful F500 women CEOs are the most obvious arguments that we can be and are.
Finally, for now, I want to make the point that organizations don't tell us that business savvy is a key part of leadership. It is under-measured in performance evals, 360º feedback, under-represented in leadership programs, under-coached. The reason is because it's the context that's unseen by insiders. If you've listened to my TED Talk, it was the executive's comment about the importance ofhigh potential candidates having business, financial and strategic acumen, "It's a given."
I could write so much more.