Progress of Women: Unlocking the Full Potential of Women in the U.S. Economy

[Part I]

Excerpted from the 2011 report by Joanna Barsh and Lareina Yee McKinsey and Co.

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Higher numbers of women in executive positions translate into higher corporate productivity, according to a 2011 study by the global management consulting group McKinsey and Co.  Titled Unlocking the Full Potential of Women in the U.S. Economy, the study says:

• Companies whose boards included  19-44 percent women performed 26 percent better than companies with zero women directors
• The attributes that business executives globally say they believe to be most important—intellectual stimulation, inspiration, participatory decision-making and setting expectations/rewards—were more commonly found among women leaders
• Companies with three or more women in top positions (executive committee or boards) scored higher on McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index than their peers

Yet despite sincere efforts by corporations since 1970 to advance women into leadership positions, women are still scarce as you look higher in the corporate hierarchy.

According to the study, women cite certain barriers to advancement that cause them to decide either to stay at their current level or to move to another organization:

• Lack of role models
• Exclusion from informal networks
• Not having a sponsor in upper management to create opportunities
• Entrenched beliefs that women can’t handle certain jobs and discharge family obligations. Women, too, hold limiting beliefs that stand in their own way, such as waiting to fill in more skills or just waiting to be asked.

Another phenomenon also limits women at the top: women often elect to remain in lower-level jobs if they derive a deep sense of meaning professionally.  More than men, the study says, women prize the opportunity to pour their energies into making a difference and working closely with colleagues.  Women don’t want to trade that joy for what they fear will be energy-draining meetings and corporate politics at the next management echelon.

Read the complete report here: Unlocking the Full Potential of Women in the U.S. Economy

Seven young journalism students at the University of Washington, acknowledging the fact that they faced challenges in their careers unequal to men, banded together to share knowledge and promote the progress of women in communications. Theta Sigma Phi evolved under many names, but more than a century later, the need to address inequities in our profession and as women remains a core value.

The Progress of Women Committee of Women Communicators of Austin keeps the spotlight on inequalities in our profession, acknowledges progress of equality, and shares information to further that progress.