A few days ago, all thirty of the companies comprising Germany’s blue-chip DAX index pledged to increase the proportion of women in management positions. The Atlantic said “that’s news in itself. What’s more interesting, however, is what didn’t happen that day, and what some German politicians openly argue should have happened.”
German Labor Minister Ursula von der Leyen thinks the way to solve the “Glass Ceiling” problem is through legally binding gender quotas. The idea has also received support from others; Social Democrat Andrea Nahles openly supports gender quota laws, and reports indicate that a “working draft” of regulations are circulating in the Family Ministry.
Germany isn’t the only country concerned about the proportion of women in management positions – it’s been a topic of discussion in the United States for a number of years.
But would establishing gender quotas completely solve the problem? I’m not sure that they would. In my opinion, the Glass Ceiling has deep societal roots. In order to get rid of the Glass Ceiling, we need to change the way we think about women in leadership. Here’s an interesting story to illustrate my point:
Frank Flynn is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at Columbia Business School. In one of his classes, he experimented with gender perceptions using the Heidi Roizen case study. Here’s Professor Flynn’s description of his experiment:
“I presented to students the results from a study I did a couple years ago involving the Heidi Roizen case. Specifically, with Harvard’s permission, I changed the original materials so that one section of the class received a version of the case called “Howard” Roizen (same case, just different pronouns) and the other section received the original case. Before class, I had the students go online and rate their impressions of “Roizen” on several dimensions.”
The results of Professor Flynn’s results show that students were much harsher on Heidi than on Howard. The students thought that Heidi and Howard were equally competent, but they didn’t like Heidi, they wouldn’t hire her, and wouldn’t want to work for her. Students said they found Heidi less humble and more power hungry and self-promoting than Howard. Interestingly, both male and female students had the same reaction to Heidi.
Would imposing gender quotas change these views? Probably not. Some people think the change has to start with women themselves. Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief operating Officer at Facebook, has some interesting thoughts on why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions, and what women can do to change that:
What do you think? Can we shatter the Glass Ceiling through legislation alone, or is a deeper societal shift needed?