A new Catalyst report
uncovers that
three times as many women (19%)
as men (6%)
lost their executive level jobs.
The Wall Street Journal
felt the difference was due to the small sample size.
Ilene H. Lang, president and CEO of Catalyst,
stated that
“gender-based stereotypes about
leadership during tough times and
limited access to informal networks and mentors
may be partly responsible for the disparity.”
I’d be extremely curious to see
what those executive positions were
(this was not examined in the report).
Human resource and marketing executives
are more likely to be consolidated
with other departments
than say…
operations or sales.
Studies by Catalyst
reinforce my first hand experience
finding that
“women often choose staff jobs,
such as marketing and human resources,
while most senior executives and board positions
are filled from the ranks of line managers
with critical profit and loss responsibility.”
Is it gender that is driving the job losses
or responsibility?