Women have struggled for years to make changes in the workplace, which as Fisher points out was designed for men. At the board level, progress is incrementally slow. Globally, according to a Deloitte publication that looked at women in the board room, the worldwide average of women on boards is 19.7%, an increase of just 2.8 percentage points since 2019. It concludes, “if this rate of change were to continue every two years, we could expect to reach a level approaching parity in 2045.” On one positive note, France, which has the highest levels of women on boards in the European Union (second to Iceland with 46%), enacted the Rixain Act , which sets quotas for corporate management bodies. By March 2027, women must hold at least 30% of the managerial positions and 30% of seats on the governing bodies of corporations of 1,000 or more employees.
Gaining parity, equity, and fair treatment at any corporate level including the C-suite cannot be up to women alone. Everyone has a role to play in making change happen. One example of this is by being intentional about sponsorship programs that match high-potential women with successful leaders (male and female). As Fisher makes clear, “while women generally have a lot of mentors, they also need influential people who will champion them internally and externally.” After all, many women, no matter how accomplished, Fisher says, don’t have the self-confidence or belief they can succeed. (As Harvard Business Review reported in 2022, the vast majority of the women interviewed for its report “raised confidence (or lack thereof) as a central factor obstructing their own and other women’s career progression.”)
Fisher points to an April 2021 Glassdoor study showing that 73% of women said they did not ask for a raise during the pandemic, compared with 58% of men. Women believe they have to “tick all the boxes, but no one is a purple unicorn,” Fisher says. “No one is perfect. Women are amazing; they’re solving many equations simultaneously, but they may need a bit of extra encouragement.” Directors and managers should help their direct reports tackle the remuneration question so women can become better at “the art of the ask.” The more they do so, and as they rise through the ranks to senior executive levels, the more comfortable they’ll feel in negotiations.