Workplace still unequal

Although the U.S. Census Bureau’s Web site says that 5 million more women than men currently… Although the U.S. Census Bureau’s Web site says that 5 million more women than men currently live in the United States, women are still in the minority when it comes to holding upper-level positions in corporate America.

In some cases, the disparity is easy to see – 51.8 percent of Fortune 500 companies have no women or only one woman serving on their directorial boards.

“No Seat at the Table,” a new book by Douglas M. Branson, who holds the W. Edward Sell Chair in Business Law at Pitt, addresses this exact issue and its implications.

“I’m focused on why haven’t women made it,” Branson said.

Branson addresses the “lack of progress about women in the corporate sphere and gaining seats on boards of directors” in the book.

Empirical data from Fortune 500 and 1000 companies mostly contribute to Branson’s conclusions, but more abstract sociological reasons cause the difference between men and women in the corporate world.

“Women, in reaction to men, think ‘I don’t want to work that hard if success isn’t possible,'” Branson says. Yet he also claims that “males would be surprised at the statistics,” suggesting that the realistic numbers of successful women fall well behind male expectations for equality.

In addition to this self-hindering attitude, inescapable biological differences add to the trouble. Work and gender issues usually conflict, as seen in the case of maternity leave, ultimately leading to a conflict between women’s careers and families.

Working women can be perceived as less capable to work because of their lack of the ability to travel and to be on-call around the clock when they have children at home. Therefore, women with two or more children earn 60 percent of the pay for comparable positions held by men, Branson said.

Perceptions about women do not help the situation.

According to Branson, while men use more imperative speech, women are more likely to communicate less forcefully, punctuating their speech with uncertainties like “Don’t you think?” or “You know?” As a result, men interpret women to be more emotional and unsure.

The trends described in “No Seat at the Table,” no matter what their causes, signify a definite lack of progress over the past few decades for women in the workforce, Branson says. While the nation has taken great steps toward equality between the genders, problems such as the so-called glass ceiling still exist.

Branson cites in his book that since successful women usually sidestep onto corporate boards and into successful careers from vastly different career tracks instead of climbing a traditional corporate ladder, the invisible glass ceiling becomes obvious.