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The Wrap: About That Glass Ceiling ...

by Richard Warner

June 27, 2008

T o what extent does sexism still exist in the office and the boardroom? I like to think that we've become more sophisticated than that now, but I'm a middle-aged male.

As professional women are the focus of this month’s issue, I tapped some women execs in my orbit to get their thoughts about the glass ceiling. And I got an earful. It’s still there.

“We have to outperform even to gain equal status,” says Ellen Hartman, president of Fitzgerald and Company’s public relations practice. Longtime COO of Atlanta’s PRSA chapter Denise Grant agrees. “There are a fair number of women in the upper tier of corporate America, but very few at the top.”

The “mommy ceiling” is a big factor, not necessarily some unspoken performance gap. Atlanta author Laura Ries (“The Origin of Brands”), mother of two young boys, says having children delays what many women accomplish professionally. Most men don’t feel the call of nature to make that choice.

Raising kids, she says, is “time consuming, mind consuming and career pausing … but a successful career is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.”

GCI Group President Donna Fleishman remembers, “When I had my daughter Marissa on a Tuesday, I was back in the office on Friday to show the guys I could do it all. Now, new fathers get maternity and family leave.”

So, we’re making progress. Many established, large companies give women and men more flexibility than our parents had. And just as all well-run companies actively recruit minorities, they also target women.

Andre Schnabl, who runs the Atlanta office of Grant Thornton, isn’t the slightest bit bashful about why his company has supported Women in Technology, the dynamic group of women IT professionals. “We need professional women in our firm. They’re critical to our success as a company.”

As it turns out, the glass ceiling is becoming less relevant even where it remains a factor in corporate America. That’s because thousands of professional women are saying, heck with it. We have other options.

Karla Sinclair, who runs the Atlanta Daybook press release service and is this year’s volunteer chair of WomenUp!, points out that many women are starting their own companies, which is challenging corporate executives to rethink how they manage and market to women. “We’re rejecting the traditional male-oriented career path,” she says.

And “women have a greater sense of personal choices: about working or not working, taking a leadership role or not taking one,” says Marci McCarthy, who co-founded the executive recognition company Executive Alliance.

Four years ago, Peter Baron created Caribiner PR, an agency that enables people to work out of their houses on their own schedules and take themselves off the roster during times of other priorities. Twenty-two of his 25 colleagues are women.

From e-mails and phone calls, my conclusion is that women are facing their greatest frustrations in companies that cling to old cultures. And that’s a bigger issue for those companies than it is for their women executives.

Richard Warner hosts “Georgia’s Business” on GPTV and is CEO of What’s Up Interactive.

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