Men, Women & the Economy!

We know that overall, men have been hit the hardest in this economy, with most job losses occurring in male dominated fields (think manufacturing, finance, and construction). But the recession has been especially brutal for women in top leadership positions. As companies consolidate key jobs, too often it’s the women who are the best at what they do who lose out. I keep hearing the same story, so I wanted to share it with you. Often, the women are let go despite bringing in a huge amount of business. Too frequently, the guy deciding whom to layoff unknowingly gives the woman’s male supervisor credit for HER accomplishments!

Here are a few tips on how to avoid this.

Surprisingly, even women in management levels at major companies don’t seem to do enough to let folks know all they’re doing for the organization.

The whole glass-ceiling notion hit me especially hard at our recent Glass-Breakers event – honoring women who pave the way for others. America’s most powerful women in business joined us for a private roundtable prior to the awards, including the CIO of Johnson & Johnson and the CEOs of The Limited Stores, Mass Mutual International, The Bank of New York Mellon, Susan G. Komen for the Cure Cancer Foundation and others. Each is remarkable not just because she has made it to the very top of corporate America, but because each also works daily to bring other women up along with her.

But this is the shocker: Three of the women in the room have recently or are about to be forced out of their big jobs, and most likely replaced by one of the guys, who will take over two merged divisions due to company restructuring and the economy. On my way to the very event, I received an e-mail from another woman at a top public company, who happens to be the only woman and the only person of color with P&L responsibility. She too has been pushed out! The women facing huge change seem to be taking it well. This one wrote to me that her “immediate plan is to ‘work’ on my golf game, so I’m taking [some time] off.”

We know the facts. There are fewer women in C-Suite positions today than when PINK magazine (now Little PINK Book – a free daily e-Note for career women) launched back in 2005. According to Catalyst, in 2005 women held 16.4% of corporate officer positions in the Fortune 500 vs. 15.7% last year. The last issue of PINK magazine lists the companies in the Fortune 500 that have ZERO women corporate officers. They’re companies that you’ll recognize. Women shop there. You probably shop there. (Hint – Blockbuster Inc., Apple Inc., Whirlpool Corp. etc.) There are 50 – 10 percent of the Fortune 500 – that have NO women in Corporate Officer jobs.

Yet, I am optimistic. Times will change. I promise. They already have in the sense that there are more women than ever before, poised and ready to take over major leadership roles at the highest levels of business. I also have hope because the Glass-Breakers at our event genuinely believe they can and will change corporate culture. One of the women quipped, “I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t believe that!”

By Cynthia Good