We report on a series of forums in Europe which should help get more women into top positions within companies.

Speak out and be yourself

The 'glass ceiling' is as much a barrier in women's heads as within the companies themselves says Lizzy Venekamp at a recent conference in Amsterdam. The forum is part of a series of Women in Leadership events being organised across Europe by international career development company QS.

There is a real business case for having more women in top positions pointed out Venekamp, "Companies promote diversity not just to be politically correct, but to make more profit."  Research backs this up. "It shows that teams with more diversity in age, background, culture and gender are more creative and innovative," she said.

What steps to take

But women and companies need to take some serious steps to fix the balance. Women should not only choose their employer carefully warns Venekamp. "Choose your partner with equal care," she said pointing out that women raising a family and managing a demanding career without a helpful partner are more likely to fall short of their goals than those with the necessary support.

"And be critical of what you accept to do at work, consider networking as part of your job and make clear choices," added Venekamp.

Venekamp advises employers to make managers responsible and accountable for diversity within the company and not just rely on the human resources department. "Give your managers 'diversity awareness' training and look actively at how to create diversity in teams," she said.

As well as speakers such as Venekamp, who is the director of Opportunity in Bedrijf, a company which helps organisations within the Netherlands develop new policies to achieve a balanced workforce at management level, the Amsterdam event included presentations by career coaches and companies which have proven success in diversity management.

Diversity policies not enough

"Good diversity policies aren't enough," said Dutch bank ABN AMRO's Fernando Lanzer. "You need to take a more emotional approach. People follow how leaders behave and women need help to address this emotional agenda. The best way to do this is through being the leaders themselves."

"When women first start out in business it's easy," said Marina Wielders, manager of diversity at chemical company DSM. "The going gets tough later on when, through voicing their opinions, women clash with 'authority' within the company. This is when women need the self-confidence to speak up."

As Wanda Cornelissen of Shell said, "The challenge is to keep qualified women in the company at 30 to 35." Research shows that this is the age when women are most likely to feel frustrated at work and also when they are most likely to consider having children if they haven't already done so.

"You need to focus on both men and women when you are giving flexibility to employees to help them achieve a good work/ life balance," said Cornelissen.

And balance is key as ABN AMRO's Lanzer added, "Get a group of women and put a man in and things will improve — and vice versa."

Outnumbered

Around 600 women attended the conference, most of them new business graduates or young professionals starting out in their professional lives, and many of them admitted to feeling outnumbered in the workforce.

"Just be yourself," advised Lanzer, "Make it clear that you are not shy of being a woman and having a different approach."

And confidence is essential. For instance, when it comes to equal pay as Lizzie Vennekamp pointed out, "most of the bigger companies have systems in place to make sure remuneration is fair, but women need to take opportunities to negotiate higher pay."

But there's still a long way to go before women are seen as equal. As one woman put it during the panel discussion, "I was made fun of by male colleagues when I left the office for coming to a women's conference."

Useful links

Opportunity in Bedrijf (Opportunity in business) in the Netherlands
http://www.opportunity.nl/

Opportunity Now in the UK
http://www.opportunitynow.org.uk/

Catalyst in the US
www.catalystwomen.org

QS is organising similar Women in Leadership events this year in Munich (27 April) and London (7 July and 2 December), Frankfurt (7 December) 
www.qsforums.com

April 2005

Natasha Gunn is the editor of Expatica HR.

Subject: Diversity management