Economist, founding president of the Center for Work-Life Policy and author of the upcoming book Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business Is Down, Sylvia Ann Hewlett believes American companies have a potential problem on their hands with female executives.
Writing on the Harvard Business Review's website, Ms. Hewlett points to research showing that 84 percent of women executives are seriously considering leaving their jobs. This is compared to 40 percent of men in executive ranks.
Losing females from the c-suite is bad for business, Ms. Hewlett maintains, because research studies show companies with a larger percentage of women in top positions outperform those that are more male oriented and thought to be more susceptible to group think.
"My favorite study, published last October by CERAM Business School," Ms. Hewlett writes, "showed that firms in the CAC 40 (the French equivalent of the Dow Jones Industrial Average) with a high ratio of women in top management showed better resistance to the financial crisis. The fewer female managers a company has, the greater drop in its share price since January 2008."
Companies that are serious about retaining top talent have programs in place to help them improve their skills and advance careers. Ms. Hewlett cites Intel and Johnson & Johnson as companies that have developed targeted programs with these goals in mind.
Discussion Questions: Are retailers doing enough to recruit and retain female executive talent? Are there programs at specific companies that you can point to as examples of the right way to go about helping female executives improve their skills and advance their career opportunities?