Are women still hitting a glass ceiling? (And can that last much longer?)

Earlier this week, there was a story in the New York Times about a GAO report that women are still not on equal footing in terms of holding management jobs. Click here to see the story.

Implications: Sorry to hear that the playing field has not yet been “leveled” effectively, according to this report. But I think the next couple of years are going to be very interesting to watch, in terms of employment.

Men, after all, took a bigger hit than women during the recession, at least in terms of job loss (according to this story from the NY Times back in February). I’ve heard from a lot of business owners during the past few years… and I’m also under the impression that companies did not cut people during the recession, they cut payroll. (Companies were not targeting people, they were targeting paychecks.) If that assertion is reasonably accurate, and if men were earning more as we entered the recession, it would only follow that men were a more attractive target in management reductions during the great recession.

Could the recession have served as an equalizing force, in terms of gender balance in the workplace? That might be important to think about… because employees (whether line-level or C-suite) are also influential consumers.

Mike Anderson