Tokenism

Critical mass, the generally accepted theory regarding women on boards and executive management, says that when women occupy more than 30 percent of the positions in a specific group, positive

social change within the organization starts to happen.

But…

Gray area between having no women in a group of leaders and having three or more women in that group

That area is tokenism

What types of things are said about these “token” women?

Tokenism isn’t just in organizations

MBA stats for 2015

What if Harvard Business School gave itself a gender makeover, changing its curriculum, rules and social rituals to foster female success?

Harvard MBA

Women with same GMAT test scores fell behind on grades

Retaining female faculty was difficult

HBS

In 2011: The administrators installed stenographers in the classroom to guard against biased grading, provided private coaching — for some, after every class — for untenured female professors, and even departed from the hallowed case-study method.

The results in 2013?

Angry dudes

Tokenism isn’t just related to gender

Those with privilege Those without

The Invisible Knapsack

What other types of privilege do you enjoy?

Have you ever thought about this?

How does privilege and tokenism actually impact people?

One year out of college

Why is this happening?!

Equal Pay Act of 1963

Fast Forward 50 years…

$10,784

The median earnings of full-time female workers is 77 percent of the median earnings of full-time male workers

Problems with the measurement

Are we comparing individuals working for the same # of hours?

Does it include bonuses? How do we compare across fields? Larger #s of women enter the “helping”

professions which pay lower wages

When comparisons are made between men and women who work 40 hours per week, women make 87% of men’s earnings, according to the Labor Department.

When economists compare men and women in the same job with the same experience, the analysts find that they earn about the same.

Solutions?

Actively nurturing solidarity amongst women in organizations

Female mentorship Negotiation

Traditional View of Career Development

20 years of financial data on the S&P 1,500

Greatest negative effect on whether there will be women on a senior management team is the presence of a female CEO.

“Female CEOs may not generally endeavor to further the interests of other women in their firms, that is, at least with respect to the CEO position…”