Breaking the Glass Ceiling for Women
16th October 2018
Teresa Norman, Diversity and Talent Management Specialist, explains the thinking behind our new programme, Breaking the Glass Ceiling, and how these fundamental tools will help women build their careers. If you’re interested in being part of the pilot and to get access to the programme at a heavily discounted rate, please email us at contactus@marshallacm.co.uk.
We know there’s a problem and there shouldn’t be.
Equality has been improving for at least a century, 100 years ago women started getting the vote, in the 1950s for the civil service stopped making married women leave, we have an Equality Act that enshrines equal rights between the genders, and women are going to university in greater numbers than men.
Yet, in the City, financial institutions are having to set targets for the number of women in senior management and on the Board. The gender pay gap is slowly decreasing but it is still at 18%.
So, what we can do?
Companies can do two things:
- introduce policies and processes that make it easier for women to combine work and parenthood and make sure that they address conscious and unconscious bias, and;
- Invest in development for women.
We want to talk to you about the second.
How companies can invest in development for women
We know that often coaching and mentoring are part of the development offer for women and we have developed a product that could really help your mentoring programmes.
Before we tell you what the product is, let me give you an exampIe from my own experience as to why this will help.
I remember many years ago, signing up for a mentoring programme in an organisation. I attended a beautifully run seminar which absolutely clarified how I found a mentor and what mentoring was.
I booked a meeting with a senior woman very willing to help, sat in her office and neither she nor I knew what to talk about. I booked two more meetings and then we both gave up.
We had no structure or purpose besides good intentions.
Our elearning programme, “Breaking the Glass Ceiling”, changes this.
It’s an elearning programme that helps women either at the beginning or mid career understand their values, setting goals, how to develop presence and the fundamentals of negotiation.
So far so good. But what it also does is provide a structure for the mentor to guide the participant through the programme.
The participant works through the exercises and uses them to prepare for the mentoring meeting.
The mentor is given questions which help probe and develop the insights that the participant has come up with, and therefore deepens the learning experience.
Join the Breaking the Glass Ceiling pilot programme
We are looking for a company who is prepared to pilot the programme, so that we can then develop it for a wider audience.
You will help us but you will also learn a great deal about making your mentoring programmes a success and of course, making a contribution to equality.
In return, you’ll get early access to the programme, plus the ability to feedback and shape the final programme – all at a heavily discounted rate compared to the full cost once the final programme launches.
If you’re interested in being part of the Breaking the Glass Ceiling pilot and to get access to the programme at a heavily discounted rate, please email us at contactus@marshallacm.co.uk.
