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A silver lining to the cloud of crisis? |
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The Women in Business panel met on the second day of the EBRD’s 18th Annual Meeting (16 May) to consider how the financial crisis is affecting women in the region and whether it may actually present opportunities as well as threats. Moderator Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President of Women’s World Banking, reminded the audience at the outset that the discussion “is not about gender for gender’s sake… it’s about building better, stronger companies,” which is more necessary than ever in the current climate. She pointed out that research shows that companies with high levels of diversity among employees at all levels show a greater return on equity than those without. A point under discussion was the now long-standing issue of how to achieve higher levels of representation for women not only at senior management level, but at Board level. It was apparent throughout the debate that this is one situation is which you have to start at the top and work your way down: if the Board of a company is not committed to giving women equal opportunities to fulfil their potential, policies and initiatives are simply just so much lip service. Noreen Doyle, former First Vice President of the EBRD and now non-executive Director of Credit Suisse, Newmont Mining and QinetiQ, gave the example of a CEO she had known who had insisted that every shortlist for a vacant managerial position should have at least one woman and at least one non-white male on it; and the one manager who failed to comply with this was fired. This she used as an illustration of real commitment at Board level. Why is it so essential to have women at Board level? Is it enough simply to make sure that they are equally represented amongst employees? Ms Iskenderian pointed out when opening the panel that the more diversity there is around a table where a decision needs to be made, the better the outcome, quoting journalist Nicholas Kristof: “Would we have been in the same mess today if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters?” A helping hand A theme that recurs in these discussions is how women who reach the top can help others up the ladder. Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was quoted: “There is a special circle in hell for women who don’t help other women.” The panellists described a variety of ways in which high achievers can do this. Olga Selivanova-Shoff, Managing Director of Morgan Hunt Executive Search feels this is important but points out that a successful woman wants to be identified by her function, not by her gender; she wants to be seen as a professional above all. She pointed out that simply being at the top gives other women a role model and created confidence. “And on a Board, you can do specific things, such as work with Human Resources or network to attract more women employees to the company.” Mariana Gheorghe, CEO of Petrom and a former Senior Banker at the EBRD agreed that simply as a role model, women in management positions provide an example for others to follow. “Your career path is telling a story. It can happen to them as well.” Frequently bearing the pressures of family and household as well, many women feel they cannot reach the top, she said. Pavel Kysilka, Deputy CEO of Česká spořitelna, on the other hand explained how a company can implement change itself, if the will is there. Česká spořitelna has undertaken a comprehensive gender programme. Mr Kysilka gave some examples of what his company has actually done to redress its gender imbalances. They are aiming for gender equality in their workforce and are setting targets and incorporating achievement of these targets into performance appraisal. In order to encourage women to return from maternity leave, they offer remote working, a shorter working week and a “basket” of options, from which women employees can choose the working pattern that best suits them. They have worked on encouraging women applicants in the recruitment process. On the “soft” side, gender awareness workshops for all staff and management have been introduced and a special workshop to help women build self-confidence. While not all targets are achieved, Mr Kysilka points to significant progress in a year and hopes to return with a success story soon. The downfall of communism – a downer for women? “The transition burden has been heavier for women,” said Ms Iskenderian. “They pay higher interest rates, they get turned down for funding and they have lost the previously strong social infrastructure which, under communism, allowed them to rise to the top by merit.” Nobody disagreed. Ms Doyle pointed out that this concern had been the impetus behind the first EBRD Women in Business Panel in 2002. “I am a capitalist to my heart, but capitalism had a very distinct disadvantage which weighed heavily on women,” she observed. “There is less equality of education for women because of the costs and capitalism has provided no substitute for the social network. While corporations have been willing to take on some of the responsibility, they are limited by their duty to produce returns for shareholders. This, perhaps, is where the financial crisis could perhaps give us a fresh start,” Ms Doyle pointed out. “The Anglo-Saxon system has come into disrepute. The pendulum swung out to one extreme, perhaps now it might start to drift back. For women that would be a good thing.” All the panellists agreed that this is where government needs to step in, but the insufficient representation of women in parliaments and governments was acknowledged as making this more difficult to achieve. The vexed question of quotas When questions were taken, one member of the audience mentioned that recent research has shown that it will take women 73 years to gain equal representation at Board level in the United Kingdom; should we therefore be thinking about quotas for corporate boards, as has been done in Norway? On the whole, the panel thought not. Ms Selivanova-Shoff was clear that in Russia at any rate, this would be counter-productive. “We had quotas in the Soviet Union for gender and for ethnic minorities and they weren’t good for efficiency.” Again mourning the loss of state-funded education for all and the deleterious effect this has had on women’s higher education, Ms Selivanova-Shoff fears that currently there are far fewer women than men capable of working at that level. Nor was Mr Kysilka in favour. He has been part of a far-reaching initiative, but without quotas. “We gave our women employees a choice. 98 per cent of them said no to quotas. They didn’t want to feel that they were promoted for their gender. They want equal opportunities and more confidence. So we have targets, not quotas.” This view was reinforced by Ms Gheorghe. “Many women feel insulted by quotas. They feel they are not recognised for their talent. I can see their use, if they are a temporary measure, to encourage women to apply for positions and to give them confidence,” but not for the longer term. Ms Doyle said that while she was not really in favour of quotas, she was glad Norway had done it. “It sets an example,” she asserted. International finance – it needs some stabilisers Mr Kysilka was adamant about the importance of a female workforce. “In bad times you need talent; if you lose talented women or have them in the wrong roles, the whole company loses.” Also, he said, in the financial sector in particular, a certain kind of masculine behaviour has been a key contributor to the crisis: excessive risk taking. “Women are much more stable in their behaviour and this stabilises company behaviour.” On this, Ms Doyle had a heartening statistic to share. As she observed, one quarter does not show permanent change, but in the first quarter of 2009, of all newly appointed Board directors in the United States and the United Kingdom, 38 per cent were women. “This is an acknowledgement, in the UK at any rate, that the “old boys’ network” represents club thinking and that diversity in the Boardroom can help the CEO.” Perhaps Lehman Brothers & Sisters is a dream that can be realised.
By Nikki Braterman, Internal Communications Manager
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