The glass ceiling is still keeping women out of the C-suites, in the view of working women.
A survey done by job-search firm Randstad Canada has found that 62 per cent of working women identify gender discrimination as the leading cause for lack of female executives. Forty-one per cent of men feel that way.
The survey, released Monday, was commissioned as part of Randstad’s Women Transforming the Workplace initiative.
“The fundamental differences in how women and men are responding to the same question forces us to consider what underlying unconscious biases are at work – for both women and men – and how organizations can address them,” Carolyn Levy, president of Randstad Technologies, said in a statement.
“If this number of working men don’t believe gender discrimination is an issue and that there simply aren’t qualified women for leadership roles, it creates a barrier for women’s advancement,” she said. “By acknowledging these issues, we correct them and create more balanced leadership teams and boards.”
Women make up just 19.5 per cent of board members for Canada’s top 500 companies. Only 8.5 per cent of highest paid positions are held by women in Canada’s top listed companies, according to Randstad.
The survey also found:
- 71 per cent of working men and women believe balanced representation of both genders on a leadership team will have a positive impact on a business’ financial success. However, this is offset by a lower proportion of men (65 per cent) than women (77 per cent) who acknowledge the potential gender-balanced leadership teams hold.
- 27 per cent of men said the reason there aren’t more women in leadership is because of a lack of qualified and skilled candidates.
- 50 per cent of Canadian women said prioritizing family life keeps women from leadership roles, compared to 42 per cent of men who stated this to be true of women.
- 26 per cent of women responded that “women don’t take enough risks to advance their career” whereas only 19 per cent of men shared this view..
- 32 per cent of Canadian workers believe the lack of executive female role models is the leading explanation for why we don’t see more women in C-suite roles, with nearly as many saying there is a lack of training and support (25 per cent) for women.
“The survey revealed Canadian workers continue to think of men as more confident and analytical while women are seen as empathetic and active listeners,” siad Randstad. “Both men and women responded that men are more likely to excel at math, science and computers whereas women are more likely to excel at caregiving, communications and fine arts.”
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