Assertion needed as women suffer "dramatic" absence around NZ board tables

New Zealand business women have to be more assertive if they want to arrest the alarming drop in their numbers in senior management roles in this country, according to the latest research from Grant Thornton.

Figures released from the Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) to mark International Women’s Day on March 8, show that New Zealand women are going backwards rapidly on several fronts when it comes to senior management and boardroom appointments.

Stacey Davies, Partner, Privately Held Business at Grant Thornton New Zealand, reports that New Zealand has dropped to 28th place in a league table of 35 countries surveyed compared with 15th out of 45 countries surveyed in 2014.

“In 2004 New Zealand was ranked third in the world of the countries surveyed, so in a little over a decade we have gone from being world leaders to trailing near the bottom,” Davies says.

“It’s concerning that the trend is accelerating having dropped 13 places in one year.”

Currently only 19 percent of New Zealand businesses surveyed have women in senior management positions – an all-time low since the survey started in 2004 and 9 percent below New Zealand’s long run average of 28 percent.

“The rate of decline is extremely worrying,” she adds. “Thirty-seven percent of New Zealand businesses surveyed don’t have any women in senior management.

“This number has steadily increased over the years from 26 percent in 2012 and is higher than the global average of 32 percent. New Zealand has the dubious honour of being in the top 12 countries with no women in senior management.”

But why?

“It has nothing to do with the level of education,” Davies adds. “Survey data shows that women have no problem holding their own when it comes to earning the qualifications to get them in the door.

“The results from last year showed a worrying downward trend and perhaps we are now seeing that come to fruition.

“There is also potentially a perception amongst women that if they work hard they will be recognised and rewarded for their work. This is just not eventuating.”

As Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg writes in her book Lean In - ‘Hard work and results should be recognised by others, but when they aren't, advocating for oneself becomes necessary.’

As a result, Davies claims women “can’t just sit back and wait” to be invited to the top table, they need to invite themselves or push to be invited.

“In my own career, and seeing the same in many others over the years, I have found that you have to put your hand up for the stretch assignments, take a step (or sometimes a giant leap) outside your comfort zone and be your own best advocate as you simply cannot rely on someone else to do it for you,” she says.

Senior Management

The study also looked at perceived barriers to achieving a position in senior management with sixty nine percent of New Zealand women failing to see any barriers to advancing into senior roles.

However, this declines to 55 percent when adding the male portion of the sample into the mix, meaning there are some barriers but women aren’t aware of them.

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Meanwhile, thirty three percent of our Australian female counterparts feel that there are barriers to women entering senior roles.

“None of the New Zealand women surveyed perceived a gender bias, however 7 percent of the male sample saw a gender bias,” Davies adds.

“The global average of women who feel there is gender bias is 19 percent, which is the same in Australia.

“Perhaps this suggests some element of naivety in New Zealand around gender bias.

“A Google search for “gender bias in the workplace” brings up more than 1.2M hits in 0.29 seconds. There is clearly a lot of data around this.”

Consequently, Davies believes the issue of gender bias in an interesting one, as a lot of it probably goes by unnoticed.

“Research has shown that women’s leadership styles and mistakes are judged more harshly than men’s by their peers and that men are promoted based on potential, while women are promoted based on past accomplishments,” she adds.

“The bias can be covert from the questions asked in interviews, to subtly undermining women’s abilities by calling them ‘girls’.

“Similarly, many of the female leaders spoken to in the survey wanted to be known not as female business leaders, but simply business leaders, successful in their own right.”

Twenty-three percent of New Zealand women surveyed also see the lack of female role models as a barrier and given the relatively small number of women in senior management, and in fact declining numbers, this result is not surprising.

The question of introducing a quota system to guarantee a percentage of women in senior management or board positions was also surveyed - in New Zealand support for quotas is 40 percent, down from where it was two years ago at 44 percent, and still behind the global average.

“The business world remains broadly split on the introduction of quotas - 47 percent globally support the idea, up from 37 percent two years ago,” Davies adds.

“They may not be the correct solution in every country, and I have mixed feelings about quotas, but given the absence of progress perhaps legislation can create the “step change” that is needed to facilitate future female advancement.

“It is well proven that greater diversity in decision making produces better outcomes. If an economy is only using half of its most talented people then it immediately cuts its growth potential.”

Davies says businesses need to think about how they access different skillsets.

“Diversity leads to better decisions in all walks of life,” she adds. “Business growth comes from diversity of opinion. By thinking and acting differently from the competition, businesses can unlock their potential for growth."