Posts Tagged ‘Career’

Women in Business

Being a Diversity Manager is like being a Doctor / Ein Diversity Manager ist wie ein Arzt

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 by Astrid Bosten

© pix4U - Fotolia.comDuring my two weeks vacation on Christmas season I had to realize that being a Diversity Manager is like being a doctor. If a doctor enters the room all of a sudden the present people start to moan about this and that and tell about illness and sickness.

Nearly the same happens if you enter the room as a Diversity manager, of course just if the present people even know what a Diversity manager is… but they did! So, as soon as I came into a room people – especially the male ones – tended to start a discussion about the women’s quota. And – believe me or no – as passionate I am discussing on that topic, during my vacation I do not feel the urgent need to do so…

But nevertheless we did – at least a little discussion for “beginners” about the business case of women in leadership positions; but the strangest thing about that discussion was that all the men who were there have and strongly support their working academic women. And they see how hard they are struggling to reconcile family and career… the upshot was that one thing for the entire men was sure – they feel discriminated. Okay! Why not? A first-hand experience could be the first step in the right direction…

 Rethinking, Exemplify, Experience [DE]

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Women in Business

Family Circle / Im Kreise der Familie

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Same procedure as every year… when Christmas approaches, usually the entire family gathers around the Christmas tree. Christmas time is the season to realize and reflect the importance of our families.

This has always been the same and will stay the same. The things that changed are the roles people play within their families. May be that dad is cooking the Christmas dinner, while grandfather is just arriving in time from work and mom is writing the last e-mails on her laptop. World upside-down? Not at all. This seems to be the modern way of life.

We wrote many posts about women, female careers, role models, politics and society. But the place where everything comes together as one is our family. If both parents are employed – a dual career couple – then things have to be organized.

 In his latest post, Roland Kopp-Wichmann writes about the challenges families face when both parents work. In the end he poses one essential question to make a decision pro or con career: Let’s assume you look back to your life when you are 70 or 80 years old; what are the important things that endure a lifetime? And what are the things that lose importance?

This is the question I had to answer about eight years ago. What is really important in my life? My answer is a clear and definite one: my children and my family are the most important and ever lasting elements in my life! They give sense to my life. Nevertheless I don’t have the feeling that I have to make a decision but that I have to strive, I have to structure and I have to organize more – at least for the next few years.

A friend of mine once told me: “Astrid, you have to make a decision. You can’t have it all!” But I wasn’t convinced. Why do I have to make a decision? It all adds up in an equation if the constant and the variables are chosen right. The constant things in my life are my children and my family. Their well-being, joy and our quality time have priority. But my children as well have their constant things in life: school and nursery school. But the time we spend together is valuable time.

And then there are the variable elements in this equation: these are the hours of work and the place of work. It’s your leisure time and your recovery time. In fact this looks like that: I stand up at 5 a.m. in the morning to work for the first two hours from home. When my children wake up we spend our time until all of us have to go our ways. Not later than 9 a.m. I arrive in the office where I spend the next 6 – 7 hours. In the afternoon I pick up my girls and we spend the afternoon until they fall asleep. Depending on the amount of work I open my laptop once again in the evening.

This lifestyle does not just demand your own flexibility but a flexible employer as well and a line manager who supports you and who values the output of your work not the amount of hours you spend in the office. At Henkel there is the rule of “pay for performance”. Additionally to that the family oriented measures like two company owned nursery schools and trusted working hours gives the opportunity to integrate private and working life.

This is why I would pose Roland Kopp-Wichmann’s question in a slightly different way: Not pro or contra a career decision but pro or contra an employer and environmental circumstances.

 For your and your family all the best und lots of quality hours at Christmas time! [DE]

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Women in Business

The silent quota / Die stille Quote

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Pro and cons against women’s quota dominated the diversity discussion this year. And although there were so many rumors around this topic, the German Telekom was the only enterprise that walked the talk and introduced a women’s quota. Tina Müller, Corporate Vice President hair-, body-, skin- and oral care at Henkel now adds a new idea to this discussion: a silent quota.

“A quota is always an insult for women who made it to the top. On the other hand I see that without a quota everything develops very slowly,” said Tina Müller in an interview she gave the newspaper Welt am Sonntag this weekend. Her way out of this dilemma is a silent quota: “[…] a mutual agreement of all managers to specifically recruit and promote women.”

For her career, decisions because of a quota didn’t play any role. In fact her success is the result of the support she got from her family, her own ambitions and performance and line managers who promoted her because of her performance without taking gender issues into account.

Tina Müller’s advice for women nowadays: conscious decision making and taking the opportunities they have – in case of doubt this also includes female attractiveness. [DE]

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Women in Business

„Too White, too German and too Male“ / „Zu weiß, zu deutsch, zu männlich“

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

© Viorel Sima - Fotolia.com“Too white, too German, too male”  This was Siemens’ CEO Peter Loescher’s statement in 2007 when talking about the top management of German companies as the newspaper “Die Welt” reported lately. For him there was only one logical consequence: Diversity has to become an important topic of the strategic orientation of companies.

According to a recent study „Women Matter 2010. Women at the top of corporations: Making it happen” of McKinsey, Loescher was completely right with his statement. The authors of this study conclude that the advancement of diversity through top management and especially the CEO is the most important tool to advance female careers. However, usage of quotas or objectives holds the last place in this ranking.

In particular important is the middle field of this scale: It seems as leadership seminars especially for women as well as mentoring programs are important tools to bring women into leadership positions. Environment-related topics like flexible work or childcare however seem to be less important.

When we think about the interpretation of these results we come to an interesting conclusion: While the environment is an important factor, a competence problem seems to be the literal reason for the minor representation of women in leadership positions. To make it clear: Most of the women aren’t able to manage! Do you, dear readers, agree with that opinion? [DE]

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Diversity & Inclusion

The ideal mother: successful, relaxed, caring and attractive / Die ideale Mutter: erfolgreich, relaxt, fürsorglich und attraktiv

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Last week the study “Having babies in Germany” commissioned by Milupa was published. For this study about 1000 young women have been interviewed, amongst them mothers, pregnant women and also women without children. 

Results showed that young women feel the pressure to cope with different roles: they want vocational success, being a loving and relaxed mother and at the same time attractive for men respectively their husbands. To cope with all these demands is nearly impossible and therefore young mothers are often troubled by a guilty conscience. 

This also seems to be an important reason that more and more women decide against children. About 61 percent of the interviewees said, that children are valuable and that it’s the mothers’ role to advance them. According to the authors of the study the point in time to get children is going to be postponed more and more backwards because women are afraid that they can’t manage the challenges.

But also financial aspects are important for the decision for or against children: 58 percent of the interviewed women said, that children are a cost factor that one must be able to afford. Also women demanded better reintegration after maternity leave and more childcare opportunities.

Therefore we at Henkel introduced a maternity leave passport for pregnant women or men who are leaving the enterprise to take care of their children. Beside important information on legislation, dates and deadlines the passport contains meeting suggestions with mentors or line managers of their former department. By that women and men as well as the superiors stay in contact and can discuss on the job return early in the beginning of this process.

Additionally we have two company workplace nursery schools for about 115 children from six months to six years with attractive opening hours: from 7.30 a.m. to 6 p.m. This time zone enables to realize a full time engagement as well as part time solutions.

The last support we can give to women and men in maternity leave is to join the parent’s network we founded in summer this year. This network is meant to exchange experiences, to improve work-life-opportunities as well as to support each other and organize some family oriented events.

However, although these measures are valuable and important, on social aspect has to be improved as well: the social pressure on perfect moms in Germany.

Do you have children? What are your experiences? What should your personal employer of choice offer in terms of work-life-balance opportunities? [DE]

In der vergangenen Woche erschien die von Milupa in Auftrag gegebene Studie „Kinderkriegen in Deutschland“ . Im Rahmen dieser Studie wurden insgesamt 1000 junge Frauen befragt, darunter Mütter, Schwangere und auch Frauen, die (noch) keine Kinder haben.

Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen dabei, dass sich junge Frauen einem hohen Druck ausgesetzt sehen, mehreren Rollen gleichzeitig gerecht zu werden: Die Frauen wünschen sich beruflichen Erfolg, wollen eine gelassene und liebende Mutter sein, dabei jedoch auch körperlich attraktiv. Diesen Ansprüchen allen gleichzeitig gerecht zu werden ist in der Realität jedoch äußerst schwer und so plagen viele Mütter vor allem ein schlechtes Gewissen und eine innere Zerrissenheit.

Genau dies scheint ein wichtiger Grund dafür zu sein, dass sich immer mehr Frauen gegen Kinder entscheiden. So äußerten 61 Prozent, dass Kinder eine Kostbarkeit seien und es Aufgabe der Mütter sei, diese optimal zu fördern. Der ideale Zeitpunkt Kinder zu kriegen, werde daher aus purer Angst den gesellschaftlichen Ansprüchen nicht gerecht zu werden, immer weiter hinausgeschoben, so die Macher der Studie.    

Jedoch spielen auch finanzielle Aspekte eine wichtige Rolle bei der Entscheidung für oder gegen Kinder: Etwa 58 Prozent der befragten Frauen äußerten, dass Kinder ein Kostenfaktor seien, den man sich erstmal leisten können müsse. Auch forderten die Frauen, dass Wiedereinstiegschancen nach der Babypause sowie die Ganztagesbetreuung von Kindern verbessert werden müssten.

Wir, bei Henkel, unterstützen daher werdende Mütter, oder Väter, die in Elternzeit gehen, mit dem so genannten Elternzeitpass. Dieser Pass beinhaltet mit viel Wissenswertem rund um die Elternzeit, Antragsfristen, Rechten und Pflichten auch eine lose Vorgabe in regelmäßigen Abständen Kontakt mit dem Unternehmen bzw. der Abteilung zu halten. So verliert man sich im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes nicht aus den Augen, bleibt im Geschehen und macht für die Abteilung den Wiedereinstieg planbar.

Die zwei betriebseigenen Kitas bieten zudem rund 115 Betreuungsplätze, schon für Kinder ab sechs Monaten. Auch die Öffnungszeiten bieten genug Freiraum, um seine Arbeit in Teil- oder Vollzeit nachgehen zu können.

Das im Sommer gegründete Elternnetzwerk eltern@henkel.com bietet allen Henkel-Eltern sich über Themen rund um die Vereinbarkeit von Familie und Beruf auszutauschen und natürlich gegenseitig zu unterstützen. Einzelne Arbeitsgruppen kümmern sich zudem um die konkrete Mitgestaltung eines familienfreundlichen Arbeitsplatzes.

Trotz dieser vielseitigen Maßnahmen bleibt jedoch die Wichtigkeit eines grundsätzlichen, gesellschaftlichen Problems bestehen: das Idealbild einer perfekten Mutter muss sich noch ändern.

Haben Sie Kinder und sind gleichzeitig berufstätig? Was sind Ihre Herausforderungen? Was wünschen Sie sich an Unterstützung von Ihrem Arbeitgeber?

Women in Business

Women’s suffrage / Frauenwahlrecht

Thursday, November 18th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Last Friday, November 12th, an important birthday was celebrated in Germany: women’s suffrage in Germany was turning 92 years last Friday. For the first time, women got the right to take part in elections on 12 November 1918. Although Germany was not the first country that introduced women’s suffrage – for example Finland (1906) and Denmark (1915) were earlier – there were other countries that introduced women’s suffrage even later – for example USA (1920), Great Britain (1928) and France (1944).

Despite of women’s suffrage patriarchy withstood for a long time in Germany. The feminist author Alice Schwarzer for example is reporting that in Germany men until 1977 had the right to bar their wife from going to work if the women for his reason would neglect their duties as a housewife  – and this is just 33 years away from now!

Watching the actual situation of women in the world of work, we can see that many things have changed. Women are demanding career opportunities, have equal rights and also the mindset of their male colleagues is changing (even though slowly).

So, is everything fine regarding female careers? A study conducted at the University of Minnesota in 2006 says no! Potential risks can be found even today – but from an unexpected side. The results of the study are showing that stereotypes held by managers have significantly changed over the last 30 years. They now accept female leaders, especially when they had positive experiences in the past. In contrast, male students show a lot of machismo in their view of women in general. Regarding their prejudices, they are comparable to male managers 20 years ago. What’s the reason?

The explanation of researchers is easy: While the world of work has changed significantly over the last decades, there is nearly no change in private life: still women are the ones who are doing most of the housework. And exactly this is the picture, children, teenagers and young males have in mind when thinking about women.

So, if you as a mother or a father want to offer your daughter a better reconciliation of family and career: Stay a role model – even at home! [DE]

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Diversity & Inclusion, Women in Business

Are Women Leaving the Field? / Stell dir vor, es ist Karriere und keine geht hin

Thursday, November 4th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Some weeks ago the German newspaper „Stern“ released an article about women who were successful in their careers and in top leadership positions but then decided to leave their careers. To find answers for this phenomenon we found different reasons that obviously let to these decisions:

General conditions. The general conditions of a management career follows the 24/7 rule: 24 hours availability at seven days a week. And of course: Fulltime work is another requirement for managers in top positions and the higher you get the more you have to stand the political power games.

Men. Actually men are the builders of today’s working environment and conditions. They made the important decisions during the last millenniums and corporate cultures often are an effigy of the male managers’ attitudes.

Women. Like men, women’s motivation is also: self-fulfillment. They do like earning money and status symbols. But when it comes to the decision between a career under “male” conditions” and a family live”, women often choose the second one. Or they build their own careers with conditions they can determine and a work where motivation and self-fulfillment is in line.

In combination of these three conditions, the reason why women are leaving the field of male careers, is: Women don’t like general conditions made by men.

 

As much as the reasons might be right and comprehensible, one question raises: If women are leaving the field, who will be there to change the conditions?

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Women in Business

Career 40 plus? / Karriere 40 plus?

Thursday, October 28th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

From september 20 to 22 the HRM Expo, Europe’s biggest Human Resource Management expo and convention, took place in cologne. There, the Women’s Symposium extensively introduced measures, companies developed to support women. Especially women in leading positions was often discussed. A sign, that the times are changing?
According to the newspaper FAZ, companies roll out the red carpet for talented women.
Also a new concept, which could change Human Resource Management completely, was discussed: Career 40 plus.
At the moment, the course of a career is set between the age of 30 and 35, when many women decide to have children. If the most important time of a women’s career was around her forties, women would have another chance to break through.
What do you think? Are the forties the best time for a women’s career? [DE]
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Diversity & Inclusion

Leadership-mistakes, men make / Führungsfehler, die Männer machen

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

After Roland Kopp-Wichmann listed eight reasons why and how women constrain their own career, he published the same list for men.
He explains, that the own father can have a big influence on a man’s career. For example men with dominant fathers often have problems accepting orders or criticism from their boss. Therefore, unsettled father issues should never be solved at the job.
The fear of showing weakness is still a part of the male identity and can stand in the way of the career. Power and strength on the other hand are associated with masculinity. Men in management positions have power, but they often fail to communicate it adequately. While women are communication-experts, men have problems listening and coming to the point. The eight mistakes of women mentioned „asking questions“ and „apologies“. But men, on the other hand, don’t ask enough questions, because they imply ignorance.
One of the biggest mistakes, men make at work, is to believe that they are among themselves. Thus, when filling an open position, they first consider other men and disregard talented women. [DE]
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Women in Business

Leadership Tips for women / Führungstipps für Frauen

Thursday, October 7th, 2010 by Astrid Bosten

Eight reasons why and how women constrain their own career can be found on Roland Kopp-Wichmann’s personality blog. They add up to one central mistake, women make at work: They are too polite and stick too much to the rules.

For example, women don’t express their demands directly. Thus, their requests can be misinterpreted by men.

Also, the female body-language doesn’t express leadership behavior. Tilting the head or holding on to the back of a chair expresses insecurity and restraint.

Finally, women ask for permission or apologize too often and for the wrong reasons. „Excuse me please…“, „May I…“ Proposals for solutions are more productive than excuses.

Kopp-Wichmann advises women to change this behavior. The job is not a popularity contests, he says. Gaining respect should have the priority. Women who behave dominant are often perceived as negative, but are also respected. What do you think? Should a manager be respected or be liked? [DE]

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