Gender as a Measure of … Everything - Building Gender Balanced Business

COUNTRIES: How countries design the balance of economic, political and social power between men and women tells you a lot about their fundamental values and cultures. It is also becoming an increasingly good indicator of prosperity for all. The fertility rate is a simple metric that summarises the state of the national power balance. If it is too low, as it is in most developed countries, that indicates that society, governments and public policy have not adapted to the reality of women’s desire for financial independence and work, failing to allow women to conciliate that desire with the desire for children. If the fertility rate is too high, as it is in many developing countries, it means that countries have not managed to educate and empower girls to make their own choices. The ideal, in a world that is trying not to grow to unsustainable population levels, would be the replacement rate of 2.1. A child born for every person who dies.

COMPANIES: The balance of power between men and women is an equally illustrative window into companies. The metric here is the gender balance on the Executive Committee. Companies that begin the second decade of the 21st century with little or no gender balance at this level are communicating more than they often know about how they manage talent, meritocracy and markets in a fast-changing world. Companies that lose female talent, or don’t know how to develop it, are mismanaging the majority of today’s educated talent. They also don’t connect particularly well to the majority of consumer markets’ decision-makers. There is a lot of work to do here, and the adaptation has only just begun.

COUPLES: What is true for countries and companies also seems true at a more personal level: for couples. Here the metric is the divorce rate in a given country. I have spent the past year watching many of my girlfriends suddenly leave their spouses. There are many reasons for this, but on the whole, I would dare to suggest some similarities with what is happening in companies.

Women leave companies that have not adapted to the reality of what women have become – fully fledged, multi-tasking, educated, able professionals who often happen to be mothers. The divorce statistics (and my girlfriends) are similarly leaving marriages that have not adapted to what they have become. Most Western divorces are initiated by women, not men. And I would hazard (dangerously, I know) to guess that, like the corporate fall-out, it is because men have not adapted to the extraordinary changes in women – either individually or collectively.

Ironically, it seems to me that companies are trying to get women to behave more like men — while at home, women are trying to get men to behave more like women. Neither approach works. In both areas, it is our differences that frustrate us, and it is our differences that are the fundamental reason that we need to live and work together – our complementarities make us stronger.

I’m not suggesting that divorce is bad, although I think most people (and their children) would prefer to avoid it (for more on marriage and its undoing, read “Committed,” the latest Elizabeth Gilbert book). Like the fertility rate, I think there is probably a healthy level to which to aspire. If the national divorce rate is too low (as it is in much of the developing world), it would suggest that women do not have the financial wherewithal or social option to leave if they want to. If it is too high, as it is in much of the developed world, it means that men and women are still struggling to understand and support each other’s personal and professional needs and aspirations.

In a world of complexity, simplicity is sorely needed. May the three C’s help us focus on the essentials. And get my husband to admit I’m right.…