Old stereotypes stunt Canadian women’s career growth

Canada is rightfully regarded as a progressive nation when it comes to gender equality in the workplace but certain stereotypes still prevail and it could be decades yet before the playing field is truly level.

Prof. Beatrix Dart, associate dean of executive degree programs at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, grades Canada as being in the "middle of the road" on the subject.

"If I compare Canada to the most conservative countries, it's certainly doing better than say Switzerland — which is my home country — but compared to the most progressive ones, namely the Scandinavian countries, there's still a lot that can be done," she tells Yahoo! Canada Finance. "Unless we tackle stereotypes and biases it's hard to imagine how society will change. That's probably the biggest challenge as cultural change takes a long time."

That's not to say there hasn't been significant improvement over the years. Prof. Dart points out that overt discrimination against women in the workplace has (thankfully) gone the way of the square wheel. Okay, but then why isn't it commonplace to see more women rising to the executive ranks?

Old habits hard to break

"The worst obstacles for women in business still appears to be 'mindset' that both women and also men have. It's all around the implicit bias and stereotypes how women and men should behave," she explains. "It's this notion of 'women take care and men take charge'. These are so ingrained and they create so many limitations and double standards."

Those stereotypes trickle right on down to corporate performance evaluations.

"I think it's still true that men get promoted on the basis of their potential but women still get promoted on the basis of their actual performance," she says. "That's the harder nut to crack and it's why nothing has changed in 30 years."

According to a recent survey of 500 female managers and executives conducted by Ipsos-Reid on behalf of Randstad Canada, there's much room for improvement in order for women striving to reach the managerial and executive ranks.

Three in five (60 per cent) women see managing work and family as the most challenging obstacle. Though outdated, perceptions of women in managerial and executive roles (51 per cent), limited opportunities in the Canadian market (50 per cent) and a lack of female mentors and training (49 per cent) remain difficult factors to overcome.

"What these results aren't telling us is why more women are getting into the middle management slot versus the executive slot," says Gina Ibghy, vice-president, organizational development and human resources, Randstad Canada.

Perhaps it's a lack of training? "We train women to take on a lot of work and to execute as flawlessly as possible. That's why they're getting those mid-management roles but it's also why they're staying there. The jump to upper management is strategic. That changes the paradigm of how you behave. That's not something we're developing women for enough yet from my perspective: how to approach the business world so they can break that glass ceiling."

Perhaps the most frustrating (and tired) finding in this survey is the number of Canadian women in managerial and executive roles that continue to see a very real divide in the way men and women are compensated and rewarded when reaching the senior ranks.

An estimated 77 per cent feel there remains a moderate or large divide between the salaries women can expect for performing the same roles as men, with Ontarians (83 per cent) feeling it most strongly in their market. This divide extends to promotions, influence in making important decisions, and being given the best jobs/projects.

"Women don't learn to negotiate as well as men do and it starts at the entry-level," Prof. Dart says. "It compounds over the years dramatically. You can see the salary gap just widening over the years and it's because women don't ask for as much as men do."

Maybe women are being pigeonholed into 'pink jobs'. For instance, human resources or marketing has been slated in the corporate world as being so-called pink roles.

"Pink jobs (are a result of the expectation) that women will take a time-out whether for motherhood or parental leave. It's still considered risky to promote women because they might not want to commit themselves 120 per cent," Prof. Dart adds. "There was a great study done by TD about two years ago called 'The Motherhood Gap' which shows every time a woman 'steps out', financially and by career path, she gets punished when she comes back."

Randstad Canada's Ibghy admits she doesn't think she'd have done as well as she has in her career if she hadn't moved early on to work in the U.S. for 15 years.

"In the U.S., the business world seems to be more progressive than here in Canada and I worked in Texas," she remarks. "There's a barrier that seems to exist in Canada … women here are getting stuck in the mid-management level. In the States what's king is dollar. So if you can make money for a company they'll look past your gender."

Finding a mentor

Also of concern, 84 per cent of women polled by Ipsos-Reid say their organization has not provided them with a sponsor or mentor to help in their career path. But to what extent is an organization responsible for assisting an ambitious employee regardless of their sex?

"I've had the good fortune of having a lot of amazing women role models but I don't think there's enough yet," says Nadia Ciani, vice-president, human resources at Manpower Group Canada. "As an individual, if you have career goals you have to find ways to reach those goals and be proactive; take the reins for your own destiny. At the same time, any good organization would say that having some kind of mentorship program would benefit the company."

Ciani adds individual networking is key, not only with help finding a job, but also to help one's career move forward.

"If you can network with other people that are doing the kinds of things that you want to do in your career, not only will you get advice but you never know when a new opportunity may arise," she says.

With all of this in mind, and when asked how the young female business students she sees at the U of T are preparing to fight for the right to climb the corporate ladder, Prof. Dart paints a disappointing picture.

"Whether male of female, they both pay the same tuition fees. You'd assume they'd have the same expectations coming out of the program in terms of career chances but unfortunately that is not the case," she reports. "Women have already lowered their expectation for what job opportunities will be available to them. It's almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. They don't apply for certain roles because their expectation is that they won't get them."