Research snapshot “Houston, we have a problem": why men are following women’s lead and leaving traditional career paths.

The majority of Elite professional service firms that I have encountered in the past decade have a consistent theme of addressing the ‘Gender Issue’’, with the focus being on how to reverse the loss of senior female resources.

It caused me to consider - what if we have been trying to “fix” the wrong thing? My recent research demonstrates that far from being the problem, women should be reframed as first movers – a bellwether of a deeper set of industry wide practices that are a ticking talent time bomb for both men and women.

For over 20 years talent retention has been a hot topic across industries. The perennial issue has been why it has been so hard to increase the numbers of women who make it through to senior levels in business and industry. The issue is particularly puzzling because for over 20 years the talent pool at the graduate recruitment level has been at or near gender parity. Even more bewildering is that the women entering industry and professions are not exactly shrinking violets – just like their male counterparts they are highly ambitious, highly motivated and have excelled in their educations.

Despite two decades of task forces and large amounts of investment in gender and diversity initiatives, women as a collective group have proved remarkably resilient to being “fixed” and their numbers in senior roles have stubbornly refused to increase to meaningful levels. Perhaps rather than trying to fix women, we should step back and see if their reluctance to collectively “lean in” has insights for the current talent dilemma – how do we keep Millennials and Gen Ys of both genders engaged in the traditional professions?  

To read the full article, please click here