Women in business — many are managing very nicely

Press, 9 May 1979, Page 23

Women in business — many are managing very nicely

The McKenzies chain of department stores has informed the Stock Exchange that it has appointed Mrs Alison Dinsdale as one of its directors. She is believed to be the first woman to be made a director of such a large New Zealand company, and is no doubt destined to become a symbol of success for other women trying to make their way in the business world. In this article LEONE STEWART looks at how they are doing . . .

Management jobs — once synonymous with the male establishment — are opening up io women with ambition and initiative. About 70 women attended the University ot Canterbury’s recent seminar on women in management.

But progress is slow. Although females make up 32 per cent of the labour force, only 11 per cent of employee managers are women. Very few women last year earned $12,000 or more, an annual income reached by 10 per cent of New Zealand’s male employees.

As the economist Brian Easton, one of the speakers at the seminar, puts it, in 1971, only 0.5 per cent of the female employee workforce attained the income level of 10 per cent of the men. His really bad news is that the percentage had not improved since 1966. although the numbers of females with high earnings is increasing relative to men.

Most of the women who make it into management positions do so, it seems, in traditionally female areas such as housekeeping and other service industries, and the textile industry. Few women become clerical supervisors, even though 61 per cent of clerks are women. Only

marginally more are sales managers and supervisors in spite of women making up 34 per cent of the country’s sales force. But there is some good news; female self-employ-ment has been rising since 1961, according to Mr Easton’s statistics, even if much of that is again in traditional female fields such as hairdressing. Whatever the statistics say, Miss Pauline Hester, principal speaker at the seminar, is optimistic about women’s future in management. In the course of her travels around the country as a director of an Auckland-based staff training firm she finds women managers in “the most surprising companies.”

Pauline Hester has chosen to live in New Zea-la-d. During her year as an international vice-presi-dent of Jaycees she came here on a world tour, and “fell in love with the country.” So a year later she left England and settled in Aupkland.

Initially, she planned to set up in management training on her own. Her plans changed when she met her fellow directors. The trio work in an agreeable atmosphere of mutural respect. In her cosmopolitan career which has

taken her to America and Africa. Miss Hester has never encountered male chauvinism. An outgoing personality, she blends an ability for shrewd assessment with a flair for getting along with people. The problem, she maintains, lies with women’s attitudes. “If a woman is defensive, and expects men to limit her, that’s just what will happen,” she says. “Develop a winning strategy instead.” Pauline Hester is strong on strategy. She does not believe in just letting things drift along, or letting promotions pass by. Her philosophy is to work out what you want and to go after it. Time at any stage in an aspiring manager’s life is not to be wasted. Women can use the early childrearing years to prepare for a later role by learning public speaking, doing a part-time management course, polishing up their meeting skills at the local Parent Teacher Association, or even just by reading. Formal, tertiary education is not, to her, very necessary. Wellmotivated women make the time to read and study. Pauline Hester is not suggesting that women set

inflexible goals. She would find it regrettable if women felt it necessary to choose between having a career in a demanding management job, and having children. If she had had children herself she considers she would have coped with both. “But that’s not to say everyone could. It’s very much a matter of individual choice as to what each woman can do, with the help of her partner.”

When a woman chooses a demanding career it is important, she believes, for her to discuss the implications fully with her partner. Then the need to work longer hours, to have help in the house, or even to move to another city for promotion will be less disrupting. “So many of our problems these days are caused by people not communicating with each other enough.”

Once a woman has decided she wants to progress in management, Miss Hester’s advice is to choose your company. Interviews with top executives will quickly reveal those companies most likely to appoint and promote on merit without sexual prejudice. Although she admits that many companies do

under-utilize women, Pauline Hester insists that once a company sees potential its executives will want to tap it.

“Know your product or service,” is her number one rule. Knowledge is the best counter to male suspicion of female competence, including client resistance to dealing with women.

“If you know the answers, men will start listening to you, and come to regard you as a reliable member of the staff.”

The worst thing a woman can do is to campaign loudly for her rights. Women heed to work on the advantages Pauline Hester says they have over men: “Greater empathy and human insight, sincere feelings for the needs of others.”

are learnt and practised in homemaking by women. Board-room procedure is important too. Apparently many women fail here because they do not know how to speak effectively, how to make a contribution at the right moment. Bad impressions are very hard to overcome, especially for women.

Women too, very often by their own account, find it difficult to “sell” their abilities. Men, however, grew up learning to think positively about themselves, an attitude reinforced in schools. in sports, and in clubs. When Pauline Hester is taking company management training courses she often asks women to stand up and tell her their good points. “They usually can’t. They don’t seem to have confidence in themselves. More seifevaluation is what they need.”

Being skilled in handling people is the basis of good management. “That’s one of the problems with today’s managers,” she says. “We have to understand all the different cultural forces in. our society.” Good managers need organisational ability, skills to plan an efficient working day, and the ability to make decisions. Pauline Hester regards it as ironic that few managements yet recognise that these skills

She believes that many women do not recognise their own valuable attributes because they are used to thinking of themselves in relationship to men, rather than as individual identities.

The best approach to both getting the job done and getting along with male colleagues looms large with many business

women. Pauline Hester concedes it can be a problem. “Men are often defensive. They are not always secure in their business role, so they see the emerging woman as a threat. Men need to feel comfortable with us, but we should remain feminine.” Both men and women often find it difficult to establish a straightforward. friendly business relationship with a colleague of the oppsoite sex. “Both sexes need to educate themselves so that they do not always translate the responses of colleagues into sexual connotations.” Pauline Hester simply smiles at the assertion she often hears that women

are too emotional to manage. “Men who show their feelings on the job are regarded approvingly as dynamic personalities. When women do that they are , regarded as too emotional.” Her response is that we must go through two generations to rid ourselves of such conditioning. It is the mothers who are going to change these concepts, encouraging freedom of choice from childhood. In the meantime women are going to have to develop team spirit. Not enough women, in Miss Hester’s view, recognise the potential of other women and foster their development. Men can also change with experience. “A male

will often say he does not want to work for a woman,” she says. “But when you interview those who have, the majority say they would work for a woman anytime.” What about the frequently-raised objection that women are not ambitious, that they will not accept the added responsibilities of promotion? “Women do often reject promotion, for what are to them very real reasons. Apart from family reasons, they often fear being unable to handle subordinates. Yet they feel quite confident in teaching jobs assuming responsibility for young children.” Pauline Hester declares herself delighted with the seminar. The consensus

among the participants is that it was a very stimulating gathering. The University of Auckland is now keen to have its own seminar on women in management. Miss Hester wants to see the next Christchurch seminar go a step further. She is proposing a seminar designed not to just discuss theories about women in management, but to teach actual skills and management techniques by duplicating working conditions. And she envisages companies paying for female staff to attend, as they do for men. “People are beginning to accept that women have the skills. Now we have got to utilize them.”