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In my organisation we carried out a small survey to find out why it was that women managers were not applying for senior management posts that they were well qualified for?

An increasing number of men and women seem to be saying that they don’t want the hassle. The pressure to keep within reduced budgets, the pressure to delivery continuous improvement and the pressure to meet ever more demanding performance targets just put some people off.

There were however some specific explanations that women gave, typical of these was the individual who said “they were not sure if they could do a 100% of the job” and that they didn’t feel able to apply for a post unless they were certain they would succeed at it. This was in marked contrast to the view of men who were much more prepared to give it a go as one said “if they don’t think I can do it they won’t appoint me”. The barrier here seems to be unreasonably high expectations that women place on themselves. The answer is either encouragement from a line manager or mentor.

Many women thought that a higher pay job was not only more demanding but required a higher level of commitment. By this they meant longer hours, the ability to routinely work evenings and weekends. That is attending evening meetings, taking phone calls at home and reading reports over the weekend. Women frequently said they were not free to do this as they had family commitments outside of work. In fact many of the women who are in senior management roles are notable for not having any dependents or family commitments. Of course the long hour’s culture and achieving the right balance between home and work is an issue for both men and women.

Many women said they felt uncomfortable with the tradition macho management style that they perceived as still predominating. They noted the focus on budgets and performance rather than partnerships and people. What’s interesting about this is that the modern Chief Executive is an influencer and a shaper someone who needs good people skills and the ability to make partnerships work as Local Authority objectives can no longer be achieved by working in isolation.

The message would appear to be that organisations need to change their culture in order to attract more women into senior management posts. The implications are that if you want a representative work force at all levels with in an organisation you need to take action to make it happen.


Blair McPherson is a senior manager for a large local authority he is also author of An Elephant in the Room –an equality and Diversity training manual published by www.russellhouse.couk