Two weeks ago we struck a nerve with a column asking why there weren’t more female role models at the top of the supply chain profession. The remaining question is the big one: what to do about it?
Our online poll got a solid 147 responses in just a few days – 40 filled out by men and 107 by women, suggesting either that women care more about the topic, or maybe just that men are afraid of saying something embarrassing. A majority of all respondents say that fewer than 20% of supervisory level positions in their companies are filled by women. It is apparently very common for many of you to be the lone woman in the meeting.
In terms of whether career opportunities differ, the sexes don’t exactly see eye to eye. Men decisively say there is no difference, while women, at least marginally, believe they are disadvantaged. My read of this data is that women face barriers that they cannot easily articulate or are reluctant to admit, but that men generally cannot feel. A little honest discussion is the obvious starting point.
The silver lining: every problem is also an opportunity
Answers we got for the next two questions blew my mind. First, we asked the politically incorrect question of whether men and women are fundamentally different in terms of natural skillsets. This is a minefield, of course, since the implication that one gender is predisposed in any direction opens the door to their being ill-equipped in another. As such, and on the heels of 40 years of indoctrination that we are all equal, I was expecting most to answer that skills don’t differ by gender. Wrong! Everybody, and especially women, lean toward the idea that we are in fact different.
To me, this is obvious good news. As I said in my last column, I believe collaborative skills are especially important in supply chain, and in my experience women are better at this. Our data doesn’t dig into how we differ, but for my money diversity of capability makes for a stronger team in every domain from sports to healthcare to wilderness survival. Thank goodness for our differences.
The real win for top leaders, however, is revealed in the answers to our final question of whether people believe uniquely female skillsets are good for supply chain. Both genders, but especially women, believe they bring something of particular value to the profession. I can only speculate what each respondent had in mind when they selected this answer, but what is clear from the data is that we collectively think things will work better with more women in these meetings.
Make it happen
There is a personal challenge here for women. Beth Ford, a member of our Executive Advisory Board and the CSCO of Land O’Lakes, makes the point that women will often defer when they have only four of five requirements for a given job opportunity, whereas men will take it even if they only have one of the five. How many of you are sitting there, knowing you can do a better job, but holding back because you’re not 100% sure? Guess what? Your male colleagues already think you can do it.
For supply chain leaders, regardless of gender, there is a different personal challenge. You must make it possible for your rising female stars to keep rising. One e-mail I got from Daniel Weber, CSCO of Beiersdorf, netted things out crisply: “Frustratingly, often very talented women drop out of the career path to cater for family.” Given that we all run 24×7 global operations, it must be possible to structure the work in ways that allow people to keep on living while advancing at work. Isn’t this really just a big optimisation problem?
Women in supply chain are too few, and their path to the top is at least partially blocked. Yet we all seem to think they bring something to the party that will make it better. The time to break this problem down is now.
Kevin O’Marah
Chief Content Officer
SCM World
Please contact me directly with any comments, questions or suggestions. I welcome your feedback.
