Management consulting needs more women at the top

In recent years, the management consulting industry has seen a slow, but steady improvement in its female diversity, with the number of women in partner ranks and senior positions on the rise. Yet according to Fiona Czerniawska, founder of Source Information Services and Sandra Guzman, Director of nbi, an international human capital consultancy, the industry still has a long way to go when it comes to female leadership. In this article they reflect on why a few women isn’t enough. I had a road-to-Damascus like moment recently, talking to some senior women partners in a Big Four firm. We collectively realised that while the proportion of women partners remained low, individual women partners tended to have a higher than average percentage of women working for them. Women, it seems, attract other women.

And it’s a point that comes through again in recent research from Source Information Services in collaboration with nbi, a human capital consulting firm. Together we interviewed almost 40 senior people in leading consulting firms around the world. One partner in Australia described how her early career had involved several occasions in which she’d had to choose between a relationship and her job (she chose the latter). Eventually married and with young children, she found herself working for a senior female partner alongside other women who were also juggling their home and business lives. “The partner didn’t have the best reputation internally, so it was her who reached out to us, rather than us choosing to work with her. But she created in my experience a uniquely supportive environment in which we all helped each other.” No one was made to feel bad when they had a childcare issue or domestic crisis; everyone worked together. Another interview made a similar point: “If a senior woman is working part time, actually that is something that is desperately relevant for making women feel supported. Flexi-working is desperately relevant for women, and I can do that, I can help with advice and I’m a role model.” More women at the top mean more women lower down, because women who feel part of a supportive team are less likely to leave when they start juggling work and families. Crucially, they’re also working alongside people who recognise that work doesn’t come first: “I don’t have to sell my soul,” was the way one woman put it.

see more: http://www.consultancy.uk/news/2597/management-consulting-needs-more-women-at-the-top