Has the gender revolution stalled? - Obstacles to women becoming leaders

The situation of women has indeed changed a lot over the last century. But it is not linear: there are stops and even steps backwards. There are several reasons why more and more people have been writing about the stalled revolution since the 1990s. First of all, while women have invested a lot of time and energy in becoming educated and meeting social expectations in the labour market and in family life, working several shifts at once, more and more women have taken on managerial positions, leading increasingly emancipated lives. Or at least moving towards it. At the same time, the position and attitudes of men were changing much less: men were not interested in change. One reason why the revolution is incomplete is therefore that men are generally less likely to be involved in what society considers "feminine" tasks, whether feminised occupations or caring for children or households. The key to moving forward is therefore for men to have a stake in gender equality.

The relative advantage of women at the national level is not only stagnating, but is regressing here. There is a higher proportion of women among graduates, but this is not being reflected in labour market processes. Why not?

While it is very important that the proportion of female graduates has risen significantly, it is still a problem that the occupations chosen by women are lower paid, have shorter career paths, so that even if they are in a managerial position, for example, they earn less. Behind this lies very high labour market segregation. This is why it is important to open up careers for men and women.

How has the GE (General Electric) slogan "The Female Leader", a new product born in the early 2000s, been put into practice?

GE was one of the first to introduce women's networks, or women's networks. The aim was not only to attract female talent, but also to retain it. There was and is a great need for this, as women who have children are subject to almost unacceptable conditions imposed by companies focused solely on economic performance. The Women's Network exercise has been very successful, as women have been able to discuss with each other, with their managers, with high-level corporate decision-makers, not only issues directly affecting their careers, but also insights into strategic issues. The Women's Network was therefore not just about women and not just for women.

How can they get corporate support for their careers, and indeed, the first step is whether they want it?

It is in a company's interest to look after its employees, their loyalty and motivation. So increasingly, company policies are being put in place to increase loyalty and reduce turnover. But a lot also depends on relationships, whether formal or informal. Mentoring and sponsoring can also be an effective way to get started. But remember that women individually or in groups cannot change structures that are based on patriarchy. The fact is that women's free care work, cheap female labour and women's subordination are a given on which everyone builds, rather than challenging the system.

"Women's leadership positions during regime change were common because women had invested heavily in human capital, i.e. had acquired a high level of professional knowledge in previous decades, for example in economics, finance and law," he writes in the introduction.This was rewarded with high positions by large international corporations. Has this changed as well?

Over the past decades, men's foreign language skills have improved, on the one hand, and women's initial relative advantage has declined, on the other. On the other hand, more and more women have also moved into senior positions in Western countries, so it is no longer uncommon to see women in senior positions in large international organisations. Hungarian women, although similarly educated to men, generally need to demonstrate higher levels of competence to be as willing to be selected for senior management positions.

In this complex and complicated situation, what is the message of the Hungarian reality for women?

It is important to be aware of the systemic problems in order to know more about the society around us. It is also very important to be agential, i.e. to act and represent our interests, and to build a self-conscious career. But this cannot happen without solidarity with others, especially women.

The Covid period-as in all other areas-has brought many new experiences in this field. The chapter "Mum's on call" is about the role of digital technology for women leaders' work-life balance. Are there specific experiences in this area?

Working online has been a huge privilege made possible by the use of digital technologies. However, we regularly find that the use of digital tools is not only about the psychological effects, but also about how the boundaries between work and personal life are blurred in both space and time. In fact, mobile technology significantly increases the need for constant availability and the colonisation of the workplace by the employee's private life. For women, digital technology also creates the illusion that it is possible to be both a perfect worker and a perfect mother in the same place and at the same time, which clearly leads to self-exploitation.

Sipos Júlia