Based on a survey of more than 2,200 executives in 13 countries, the study also found that while male and female executives generally believe their careers are progressing as they had expected, women have lower expectations than men do about how high they might advance in their professions.
Although geography has had a far greater influence on attitudes and experiences than gender, in certain key areas executives believe it is gender that has had the greatest impact on their ability to advance in an organization.
Notably, women identified gender as the top factor hindering their achievement and reported having more modest expectations about the very highest levels they expect to achieve professionally. In fact, women were almost seven times more likely than men to cite gender as the primary reason for not advancing more quickly (26 percent versus 4 percent), with men ranking gender 16th on the list of barriers to achievement, behind things such as lack of passion for their chosen career and lack of family support.
When looking at what factors slowed their progress, women were significantly more likely to attribute internal factors, such as who they are, as a barrier to faster advancement, while men were more likely to point to external factors, such as an economic downturn or company downsizing.
The majority of both men and women felt they had advanced in their careers at the pace they had expected--or even faster than they had expected--when they were first starting out. However, gender differences were apparent when respondents were asked to judge how fast they had advanced in relation to their male and female colleagues. When asked if they had progressed faster than their female colleagues, 55 percent of men and 57 percent of women said yes. But when asked if they had progressed faster than their male colleagues, 50 percent of men said yes, while only 37 percent of women agreed.
The glass ceiling may have been raised in recent years, but it has yet to be shattered.
--From the Editors at Netscape
