Long Road Remains to Gender Equality in Business, Executives Say
September 30 2015 - 11:09PM
Dow Jones News
By Rachel Feintzeig And Christina Rexrode
Top executives from companies including Facebook Inc. and
PepsiCo Inc. on Wednesday evening said much work remains for women
to be equal to men in American corporations.
Sheryl Sandberg, one of Silicon Valley's most prominent female
executives, talked at an event hosted by The Wall Street Journal
about the deep-seated biases held by men and women that can keep
female executives from reaching the same levels as male
counterparts.
"Companies say that diversity is important, that they want more
women in leadership. Our employees don't believe that's true," said
Ms. Sandberg--Facebook's chief operating officer--speaking to an
audience that included her parents.
In a panel discussion, the chief executives of PepsiCo Inc.,
Bank of America Corp. and Salesforce.com Inc. talked about their
own struggles to blend work and family responsibilities and to help
their workers to do the same.
Indra Nooyi, the CEO of Pepsi, said she was surprised when her
children seemed willing to sacrifice career ambitions for family.
"We grew up with a mom who was never there," they told her, an
experience that has made her re-examine the flexibility she offers
to Pepsi workers.
Ms. Nooyi said that women still carry a disproportionate amount
of responsibility for family life, no matter their position in a
company. She spoke about rushing home from a long day of work to
fix comfort food for her daughter. "You think my husband's going to
do that?" she joked.
Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America and the sixth of
eight children, concurred. "When my parents aged, guess who stepped
in? The daughters," Mr. Moynihan said. "This is just the way it
falls. It shouldn't fall that way."
Mr. Moynihan said it was important to him that his employees not
have to choose between work and family. "You have to show you
care," Mr. Moynihan said.
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff cautioned against lumping all
female workers into one group. For example, companies shouldn't
assume all female employees have the same views on motherhood, he
said.
"There are many different types of women, and you better be
ready to include them all," Mr. Benioff said.
Some of the executives expressed frustration to once again be
examining the issue of women and work, with little progress to show
for all the conversations that have come before.
Ms. Nooyi, when asked if she had faced challenges as a woman in
business, replied, "Oh, it was crappy." Earlier in her career, she
was often the only woman in the room, she said, and men wouldn't
make eye contact with her. She watched her male colleagues get the
best projects, while she was left with the dregs, she said, adding
that her ideas would often be dismissed, while men who said the
same thing would be lauded as having shared a "brilliant idea."
Tech companies in particular have revealed workforces that are
disproportionately male.
New data from LeanIn.Org, which was founded by Ms. Sandberg, and
McKinsey Co. found only 15% of C-suite executives in the 26 tech
companies the organizations examined are women. The sector also
scored low on female entry-level employees.
Mr. Benioff said he wasn't optimistic about the current state of
women in tech. "I think it's actually much worse than what the
research showed, " he said.
Dominic Barton, global managing director at McKinsey Co., spoke
earlier in the evening about unexpected challenges when his company
to make women's advancement a priority. For one thing, he said,
most of the women didn't at first believe him--a sign, he said,
that he needed to talk about the topic more.
Women also made it clear to him that they didn't want to be
promoted just because they were female. "'If you make it easier for
us, we will kick your ass,'" was the message they sent, Mr. Barton
said. "'That's not the way we're going to do it,'" they told him,
"'that will not help us long term.'"
Write to Rachel Feintzeig at rachel.feintzeig@wsj.com and
Christina Rexrode at christina.rexrode@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 30, 2015 22:54 ET (02:54 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024