Statoil bowls and help at home get everyday to go around for Telenor top Berit Svendsen.
– It goes possible to have a family and be CEO. You just have to organize your life a little differently, she says.
Svendsen is chief of 4,000 employees at Telenor Norway and has a number of boards.
– We must acknowledge that we have failed to produce enough female executives in business. The development has virtually stood still, she says.
Svendsen wrote afterword in the book SHEconomy that comes out this week. One of the book’s central points is that the need for better gender balance is not about equality itself, but rather to utilize all the talent mass fully and understand markets firms operate in.
– Women rule over 70-80 percent of household purchases and is an underutilized resource management talents. Companies that do not understand this, miss a golden opportunity, says one of the authors, economist and lecturer Benja Stig Fagerland.
Along with defense, commerce is the biggest likestillingssinken when it comes to women in top management positions (see graph anymore down in the case).
In politics over 41 percent of top managers were women, while in business is only 13 percent.
– Norway is seen as equality stronghold and is known around the world for quota law, but the fact is that it has not given the major contagion effects we wish. People abroad are closest cardiac when they see how few women leaders we have, says Fagerland.
– Paradox that industry laggards
Norway ends on 50th place in a recent survey of gender balance among leaders all levels of public and private sector, conducted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). This is behind countries like USA, Iceland, Australia, Sweden, Canada and the UK.
Oslo Stock Exchange is an example of Norway nor is a pioneer when it comes to women in top management positions.
None of the Norwegian stock exchange giants have a female boss. Indeed, one must down to the 62 largest company, offshore company Bonheur, to find a female CEO.
In this company, which is completely without employees, Ms. Olsen listed as CEO, but the daily operations are controlled by Fred. Olsen & amp; Co.
– The Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Minister of Defence, NHO boss and LO boss are all women. It shows that we can and will lead. It is a paradox that the business sector is so far behind, says Svendsen.
She emphasizes that companies must always choose the best at any position, but that it is an important task to ensure that there are good candidates from both sexes.
– It has been a scarce when several of the largest Norwegian companies have hired CEOs in recent years. They have done a poor job of talent development.
– Wonderful bowls on Statoil
Author Fagerland hope the book will help to raise the equality debate in Norway to a new level.
– We are stuck in a little fruitful discussion about whether the glass ceiling exists or not – as if all women are equal and hit at the same obstacle. We believe it is better to think of this as an obstacle course with many different challenges. Some will kick hurdles straight down, others will jump over them, while some people find them impossible to get past, she says.
The Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Minister of Defence, NHO boss and LO boss are all women. It shows that we can and will lead. Perceptions that women lack the necessary “killer instinct” or that they must be superheroes to combine work and family are examples of preventing any encounter, according Fagerland. Telenor boss agrees.
– No one can be the perfect mother who bakes cupcakes for any event while she is director general, but there are wonderful bowls of Statoil, says Svendsen and laughing, before she adds an a more serious tone:
– It is important for me to emphasize that it is possible to have a family and be boss. You just have to organize your life a little differently. We have, for example, someone who helps us at home. In addition I have a husband who is on the notes.
Svendsen think the problem in Norwegian industry is that the development of female managerial candidates not on the agenda.
– The boards are concerned value creation day to day and that the strategy implemented. When I bring up the question of talent and female role models, it comes as a big surprise. It applies almost all the boards I’ve sat in, apart from DNB, says Svendsen.
– Women must not “fixable”
In the book acknowledges the authors that women and men do not necessarily exert leadership similarly, but they emphasize that it does not mean that women must become more like men.
– Many women want to be leaders, we see that for example in politics and organizations, but we will not “fixable on, “to be. It is the system and the culture we need to change and “fix” says Fagerland.
– Can not it be that fewer women will become leaders?
– In most surveys, slightly more men than women that they want to be leaders, but that we write in the book – why nobody asks why too many men want to be leaders? If you use these surveys to repeat again and again that women will not lead, then it becomes a learned truth and a hurdle in itself.
– Norway is at the forefront of equality in many areas, but the proportion women in the top of the business violates this picture. Here we differ in a negative direction, says Mari Teigen, Research Director at the Institute for Social Research.
She says that Norway consistently score lower than many of the countries around us on the proportion of women in business.
– Different studies show slightly different figures for the number of women in leadership. It is because the picture looks different depending on how far down in the hierarchy you go. But if you look at the top management position in Norwegian industry is no doubt that it is extremely male dominated, says Teigen.
Her own research shows that 87 percent of the top leaders in business were men in 2012, compared with 95 percent in 2001. Then CEOs, chairmen and some corporate executives expected.
– It shows that development is moving in the right direction, but that it goes much slower than in some other sectors. It’s a long way to go, says Teigen.
– Small and disappointing spillover
She agrees that contagion effects from quota law has not proven very large. While the proportion of women on boards of public limited companies has increased from 9 to 41 per cent in ten years, the proportion of women in ordinary corporations increased from 15 to 18 percent.
– There are of course many more AS’s than ASA- is, so it is considerably more difficult to increase this percentage significantly. But regardless of infection effect on other boards and business leaders have been small and disappointing.
Teigen think it’s a good idea to move away from the discussion about the glass ceiling.
– Some studies find that there is a glass ceiling, others not. The basic problem is that this is a metaphor and that it is unclear how to define the glass ceiling. Therefore, I think it may be appropriate with a slightly wider discussion about the arguments for more equality.
Why are there so few female executives in business? Share your opinion in the comments.
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