Emerging Markets

The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging Markets

Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Ripa Rashid with Catherine Fredman, Maggie Jackson, Laura Sherbin

Center for Work-Life Policy Study sponsored by Bloomberg LP, Booz & Company, Intel, Pfizer, Siemens AG

THE

HIDDEN BRAIN DRAIN task force

CO-CHAIRS American Express Bloomberg LP Booz Allen Hamilton Cisco Systems Ernst & Young General Electric Goldman Sachs Intel Corporation Johnson & Johnson Time Warner

MEMBERS Alcoa Inc. Aon Bank of America /Merrill Lynch Boehringer Ingelheim USA Booz & Company Boston Scientific BT Group* Central Intelligence Agency Citi* Cleveland Clinic Credit Suisse* Deloitte Deutsche Bank Federal Reserve Bank of New York General Mills Genzyme Corporation GlaxoSmithKline Google HSBC Bank International Monetary Fund Interpublic Group Knoll* KPMG LLP Lowenstein Sandler PC Mayo Clinic McKinsey & Company Merck & Co. Microsoft Corporation Moody’s Foundation* Morgan Stanley New York Times Company Novartis Pharmaceuticals PepsiCo* Pfizer Inc.* Procter & Gamble SAIC Schering-Plough Corporation Siemens AG Sodexo Swiss Reinsurance Co. UBS* Unilever plc* United Nations DPKO/DFS & OHRM White & Case LLP Withers LLP World Bank

As of June 2010 *Steering Committee

© 2010 Center for Work-Life Policy. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction or transmission of any part of this publication in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, is prohibited. The analyses and opinions represented in this report are solely those of the authors.

Cover and illustrations: Beppe Giacobbe Book design: winerdesign

The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging Markets Sylvia Ann Hewlett Ripa Rashid with Catherine Fredman Maggie Jackson Laura Sherbin

Center for Work-Life Policy Study sponsored by Bloomberg LP, Booz & Company, Intel, Pfizer, Siemens AG

THE

HIDDEN BRAIN DRAIN task force

FOUNDER AND CHAIR Sylvia Ann Hewlett

FEMALE TALENT IN EMERGING MARKETS ADVISORS AND LEAD SPONSORS

CO-FOUNDER Carolyn Buck Luce Ernst & Young CO-CHAIRS Joan Amble American Express Anthony Carter Johnson & Johnson Deborah Elam General Electric Anne Erni Bloomberg LP Gail Fierstein Goldman Sachs Patricia Fili-Krushel Time Warner Rosalind Hudnell Intel Corporation Marilyn Nagel Cisco Annmarie Neal Cisco Kerrie Peraino American Express Lisa Quiroz Time Warner Horacio Rozanski Booz Allen Hamilton Billie Williamson Ernst & Young Melinda Wolfe Bloomberg LP

DeAnne Aguirre Booz & Company Anne Erni Bloomberg LP Jean-Michel Halfon Pfizer Inc. Rosalind Hudnell Intel Denice Kronau Siemens AG Jill Lee Siemens AG Tracy Miller Pfizer Inc. Melinda Wolfe Bloomberg LP

About the Authors Catherine Fredman is a senior fellow at the Center for Work-Life Policy. She has collaborated on five best-selling business books, including Direct from Dell with Michael Dell, Only the Paranoid Survive with Andy Grove, and Use the News with Maria Bartiromo, and has written memoirs with Andy Grove (Swimming Across) and for the Dell family. She is an award-winning magazine editor for consumer and corporate publications. Fredman is a graduate of Bryn Mawr college.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett is an economist and the president of the Center for Work-Life Policy (a non-profit think tank), where she founded and now chairs the “Hidden Brain Drain” Task Force, a group of 56 global companies and organizations committed to fully realizing female and multicultural talent. She also directs the Gender and Policy Program at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Gender Gap. She is the author of eight Harvard Business Review articles and nine critically acclaimed nonfiction books including Off-Ramps and On-Ramps and Top Talent: Keeping Performance Up When Business Is Down (Harvard Business Press).

She has taught at Cambridge, Columbia and Princeton universities and held fellowships at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London and the Center for the Study of Values in Public Life at Harvard. She is a featured blogger on Harvard Business Online. A Kennedy Scholar and graduate of Cambridge University, Hewlett earned her PhD in economics at London University.

Maggie Jackson is a senior fellow at the Center for Work-Life Policy. An award-winning journalist known for her coverage of U.S. social issues, she is the author, most recently, of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age. Jackson writes the popular “Balancing Acts” column in the Boston Globe and has written for the New York Times, Business Week, and National Public Radio, among other publications. She has won numerous awards and honors for her work, including the Media Award from the Work-Life Council of the Conference Board and a journalism fellowship in child and family policy from the University of Maryland.

Jackson is a graduate of Yale University, and the London School of Economics with highest honors.

Ripa Rashid is senior vice president at the Center for Work-Life Policy where she led the project on female talent in emerging markets. She has over ten years’ management consulting and diversity and inclusion experience and has worked across Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. Since 2004 Rashid has held senior diversity roles, first as a global diversity manager at Booz Allen Hamilton and then as a director in the Office of Diversity at MetLife Inc. Her areas of expertise include: strategies for attracting and retaining women into leadership roles; global talent management; diversity and inclusion management outside the United States; and innovative work-life and career-pathing solutions. She is the coauthor of the Harvard Business Review article “The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging Markets.” Rashid holds an AB cum laude in astronomy and astrophysics from Harvard University, an MA in anthropology from New York University, and an MBA from INSEAD.

Laura Sherbin is vice president, director of research at the Center for Work-Life Policy where she heads up CWLP’s survey research. She is an economist specializing in work-life issues and gender. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University teaching “Women and Globalization.” She is coauthor of Harvard Business Review articles “How Gen Y & Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda,” “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps Revisited” and Harvard Business Manager article “Letzte Ausfahrt Babypause” as well as the Harvard Business Review Research Report The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering and Technology. She is a graduate of the University of Delaware and earned her PhD in economics from American University.

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Acknowledgements

T

he authors would like to thank the study sponsors—Bloomberg LP, Booz & Company, Intel, Pfizer and Siemens—for their generous support. We are deeply grateful to the co-chairs of the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force—Joan Amble, Anthony Carter, Deborah Elam, Anne Erni, Gail Fierstein, Patricia Fili-Krushel, Rosalind Hudnell, Carolyn Buck Luce, Marilyn Nagel, Annmarie Neal, Kerrie Peraino, Lisa Quiroz, Horacio Rozanski, Cornel West, Billie Williamson, and Melinda Wolfe—for their vision and commitment.

Special thanks to the Hidden Brain Drain “The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging Markets” advisors and lead sponsors: DeAnne Aguirre, Anne Erni, Jean-Michel Halfon, Rosalind Hudnell, Denice Kronau, Jill Lee, Tracy Miller and Melinda Wolfe.

We appreciate the efforts of the Center for Work-Life Policy staff members, in particular, Shelley Haynes for her administrative support, Diana Forster, Lauren Leader-Chivee, Peggy Shiller, Karen Sumberg and Liz Taylor for their research support and editorial talents. We also want to thank Bill McCready, Stefan Subias and the team at Knowledge Networks who expertly guided the research and were an invaluable resource throughout the course of this study.

Thanks to the private sector members of the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force for their practical ideas and collaborative energy: Elaine Aarons, Barbara Adachi, DeAnne Aguirre, Amy Alving, Rohini Anand, Diane Ashley, Dolores Bernardo, Ann Beynon, Karen Boykin-Towns, Esi Eggleston Bracey, Rachel Cheeks-Givan, Ilene Cohn, Desiree Dancy, Nancy Di Dia, Kelly Fawcett, Stephanie Ferguson, Michelle Gadsen-Williams, Heide Gardner, Valerie Gervais, Paul Graves, Laurie Greeno, Sandra Haji-Ahmed, Kathy Hannan, Henry Hernandez, Jr., Mary Hildebrand, Gilli Howarth, LaShana Jackson, Someera Khokhar, Nancy Killefer, Denice Kronau, Jill Lee, Kedibone Letlaka-Rennert, Cindy Martinangelo, Linda Matti, Donna-Marie Maxfield, Ana Duarte McCarthy, Judith Nocito, Lynn O’Connor, Christine Osvald-Mruz, Juliana Oyegun, Erika Ozer, Kate Quigley, Ellen Rome, Sharon Rozzi, Todd Sears, Susan Silbermann, Jeffrey Siminoff, Eileen Taylor, Geri Thomas, Priya Trauber, Lynn Utter, Jo Weiss, Joan Wood, Helen Wyatt and Meryl Zausner.

Thanks also to Christine Abdallah, Hector Aguilar, Joanne Alam, May Al-Dabbagh, Dai Min Barclay, Subha Barry, Laura Bergerson, Joni Bessler, Fleur Bothwick, Sandra Bushby, Jing Cheng, Chantale Couture, Tracy Ann Curtis, Ben Dattner, Vishakha Desai, Alicia Dick, Lisa Douglass-Doe, Traci Entel, Isabel Fernandez, Polina Gamper, Tais Garcia Martinez, Jill Guarino, Leila Hoteit, Rebecca Kellogg, Rapti Khurana, Sara Laschever, Karma Lande, Liza Landicho, Sandra Lawson, David Lobo, Christian Malherbe, Anuradha Mathur, Beth McCormick, Carolanne Minashi, Maria Muller, Sowmya Nanjundaiah, Priya Pandit, Maria Pronina, Jayashri Ramamurti, Rania Rostom, Sandra Scharf, Singari Seshadri, Ruby Sharma, Liana Slater, Eytan Sosnovich, Lisa Starzyk, Tom Stewart, Carin Taylor, Deborah Tsai-Munster, Andrea Turner, Nermeen Varawalla, Joy Villagracia, Heather Wang, Veronica Wang and Kim Warren. ii

Contents About the Authors i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iv Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The Changing Face of Talent 7 Chapter 2: A Complex Web of Pulls 13 Chapter 3: Push Factors at Work 19 Chapter 4: The Leapfrog Opportunity: Action Agenda 25 Methodology 40 The Hidden Brain Drain Task Force 41 Endnotes 42 Index of Exhibits Introduction Figure 1: BRICs have a larger US$ GDP than the G7 in less than 40 years 1 Figure 2: China surpasses U.S. GDP by 2027 2 Figure 3: Global distribution of the talent pool 3 Chapter 1 Figure 1.1: Figure 1.2: Figure 1.3: Figure 1.4: Figure 1.5: Figure 1.6: Figure 1.7: Figure 1.8: Figure 1.9: Figure 1.10: Figure 1.11:

Percent of women in tertiary education 8 Percent of school-age population enrolled in tertiary education 8 Graduate degree holders in sample 8 Women with high level of ambition 9 Women’s aspiration for top job 9 Women working full-time who out earn their spouses 10 Women’s attitudes towards work 10 Top motivators for women 11 Average workweeks: Women and men working full-time in multinationals 11 Loyalty to current employer 12 Intention to stay at current job for three or more years 12

Chapter 2 Figure 2.1: Figure 2.2: Figure 2.3: Figure 2.4: Figure 2.5: Figure 2.6: Figure 2.7: Figure 2.8: Figure 2.9:

Maternal guilt 13 Cultural pressure to “drop out” 14 Percentage of women in sample without children 15 Daughterly guilt 15 Eldercare and options 15 Percentage of women living with parents 16 Percentage of women providing monetary support for parents 16 Women’s desire to work in the public sector 17 Why is the public sector attractive? 17

Chapter 3 Figure 3.1: Figure 3.2: Figure 3.3: Figure 3.4: Figure 3.5: Figure 3.6: Figure 3.7: Figure 3.8: Figure 3.9:

Percentage of women who work full-time and work more time than three years ago 19 Average number of hours worked: local compared to multinational companies 20 Women treated unfairly because of gender 21 Countries where bias is strong enough to push women out of the workplace 21 Most commonly experienced biases in the workplace 21 Women’s interest in international assignments 23 International assignment critical for advancement 23 Barriers to travel for women 23 Experience safety concerns on a regular basis 24

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ABSTRACT

W

ith debt crises blasting Western economies already weakened by a deep recession, hope for global economic recovery rests in no small measure on emerging markets. The four largest of these—Brazil, Russia, India and China—together represent 40 percent of the world’s population and account for some 45 percent of global growth since 2007. It is no surprise that multinationals are pinning their growth prospects on these dynamic, fastgrowing economies. Yet a key obstacle they face is a cut-throat war for highechelon talent in emerging markets.

Our research finds that the solution to the BRIC talent crunch has been hiding in plain sight. Every year, large numbers of college-educated women enter the BRIC professional workforce. Yet somehow this rich talent pool has

iv

been ignored, overlooked and under-utilized. Despite an expanding body of work on the “BRIC phenomenon,” few studies consider the potential of educated, ambitious women. Books such as Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s Half the Sky and From Outrage to Courage by Anne Firth Murray, and numerous studies conducted by global multilaterals and NGOs paint a mostly monolithic portrait of women in emerging markets, one of disempowerment, oppression and lack of agency.

This research sets out to examine an alternate and equally important reality, that of highly educated “white collar” women in emerging markets. In 2009, spearheaded by Bloomberg LP, Booz & Company, Intel, Pfizer and Siemens, the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force launched a study to explore the nature of

v

top female talent in the BRICs and the UAE (included as a lens into the talent landscape in the Middle East). What attributes do these women share? As the first generation to enter the professional workforce in sizeable numbers, what is the scope of their ambition? How do their cultures support or derail their aspirations? And given the unprecedented opportunity to craft “first out of the gate” policies and processes, what can multinationals do to attract and retain this tranche of talent?

We find that across the world women increasingly outperform men in tertiary education. In Brazil, 60 percent of college graduates are female; in the UAE, 65 percent; in China, 47 percent; and in Russia, 86 percent of women ages 18 to 23 are enrolled in tertiary education. As a result BRIC women now make up between 30 percent to 50 percent of the workforce. And like educated women everywhere, they are determined to make the most of their credentials.

Over 80 percent of women in India aspire to top jobs; in Brazil, China and the UAE, the figure is over 70 percent. In comparison, 52 percent of highly qualified women in the United States are shooting for top jobs.

Working mothers in BRIC/UAE are able to aim high, in part, because they have more shoulders to lean on than their American and European peers when it comes to childcare. Between hands-on extended family, inexpensive domestic help and an increasingly wide range of daycare options, professional women in these geographies are not sidelined by motherhood. But while childcare may not be a heavy burden, eldercare is and will only get worse. Fully 81 percent of highly qualified BRIC/UAE women already have significant eldercare responsibilities, with 42 percent having parents or parents-in-law living with them. In fact, “daughterly guilt” can outweigh “maternal guilt” among professional women as they juggle careers with family responsibilities.

Discrimination is an ongoing issue—in both local and global companies.

Gender bias, centered on executive presence and communication style, continues to limit women’s careers. In Brazil, India, China and the UAE over a quarter of survey respondents (men as well as women) believe that women are treated unfairly in the workplace; in India the figure is 45 percent. Extreme jobs are another challenge, with 60 hour-plus workweeks common. In China, highly qualified women working for global companies average 71 hours a week, in Russia 73 hours, significantly more than their counterparts in the U.S. or Europe.

Cultural constraints also limit women’s upward mobility. Because of societal disapproval of women traveling alone—in India, 73 percent of female respondents report difficulties on this front—BRIC/UAE women often eschew customer/clientfacing roles which involve frequent business trips. This tends to “cap” their careers.

Finally, safety concerns are a harsh fact of daily life for professional women in these countries: Close to a third or more feel unsafe getting to and from work, and that number rises to over 50 percent in Brazil and India.

The rapid expansion of the BRIC and UAE economies over the past decade has opened up an unprecedented range of professional opportunities for educated women. Many multinationals already rely on this growing cadre of “white-collar” professional women. Yet they have done so with little understanding or systematic analysis of the complicated career dynamics of this rich talent segment. For global companies, a deeper understanding of the professional needs and aspirations of educated women is the surest route to continued growth, now and in the future.

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Key findings: • More women than men are graduating from university in the UAE (65%) and Brazil (60%), while in China it’s 47 percent.

• At least 80 percent of women in India, Brazil and the UAE aspire to top jobs. In China the figure is 76 percent, compared to 52 percent in the United States.

• Over 80 percent of women in Brazil, Russia, India and the UAE love their work, compared to 71 percent in the U.S. Nearly three-quarters are willing to “go the extra mile” for their employers, on par with the U.S. figure of 85 percent.

• The vast majority of BRIC/UAE women have “shoulders to lean on” for childcare.

• “Daughterly guilt” is as bad as “maternal guilt,” with 88 percent of women in China, 73 percent in the UAE and 70 percent in India struggling to balance career with responsibility to elders. More than 80 percent of BRIC/UAE women have significant eldercare responsibilities.

• The average workweek in BRICs is significantly longer than the standard 40-hour week with 60-hour-plus workweeks common in global companies in China (71 hours) and Russia (73 hours).

• In India, China and the UAE over 30 percent of survey respondents (men as well as women) believe that women are treated unfairly in the workplace; in India fully 45 percent of men and women share this view.

• Problems of bias can be severe enough to make a significant percentage of women disengage or consider quitting; particularly in India (55%) and China (48%).

• Over 75 percent of women in India and China, and 65 percent in the UAE, see international assignments as critical to career advancement.

• 73 percent of Indian and 74 percent of Chinese respondents report family and societal disapproval of women traveling alone on business trips.

• Safety is an issue, particularly in India and Brazil, where more than 50 percent of women report feeling unsafe while getting to and from work; overall, over 30 percent feel unsafe on their daily commute.

• The public sector is an attractive alternative to private-sector employment, especially in Brazil (65%), China (57%), and India (51%).

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INTRODUCTION

I

n 2001, Jim O’Neill, chief economist of Goldman Sachs, coined the term “BRIC” for the four countries predicted to dominate the global economy in the next 40 years. Since then, Brazil, Russia, India and China have exceeded expectations, accounting for some 45 percent of global growth since 2007, compared to 20 percent from the G7 economies.1 The combined contribution of emerging markets to global growth was over 80 percent since 2000,2 with China and India’s economies ranked the 3rd and 12th largest in the world, respectively.3 Even as Western Europe and the United States struggle to emerge from the recession, the BRICs have remained remarkably resilient. Indeed, in the eyes of many economists, the BRICs are actually leading the global recovery.

Figure 1: BRICs have a larger US$ GDP than the G7 in less than 40 years4

150000

BRIC

GDP (2007 US$ Trillions) 129.2

120000

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90000 79.8 66.1

60000 53.8

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The BRICs’ surge represents a pivotal point in the history of globalization: Following centuries of dominance by Western Europe and the United States, the economic balance of power is steadily shifting towards emerging markets. The enormous leaps in productivity, purchasing power and consumer demand in the BRIC nations recently led Jim O’Neill to predict that their combined GDP could exceed that of the G7 economies within the next 20 years5 with China projected to be as large as the U.S. by 20276 (see figures 1 and 2). Emerging markets, in short, are now the growth engine of the world.

Figure 2: China surpasses U.S. GDP by 20277

80000

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GDP (2007 US$ Trillions)

70000 60000 50000

39.4

40000 30000 20000

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4.7 4.4 3.5 3.0 2010 2010 U.S.

21.6 22.3

2020 2020 China

Japan

5.4 4.2 4.0 2027 2027

Germany

5.9 5.7 6.0 2050 2050

UK

The Talent Gap in Emerging Economies But the growth potential of these emerging economies—and that of multinational corporations pinning their own plans for growth on those markets—is facing a critical obstacle: a cutthroat war for high-echelon talent.

Businesses based all over the world are feverishly competing for people who, often for the first time in their lives, “have numerous options and high expectations,” wrote Douglas A. Ready, Linda Hill and Jay Conger in 2008.8 The problem is especially dire at the top ranks. At the very moment when many multinationals are setting aside the engrained “corporate imperialism” that led them to ignore local managers, they face alarmingly small rosters of local talent to promote.

The enormous labor forces of the BRICs notwithstanding, topnotch talent is hard to find: Local universities remain uneven in quality and the educational curricula often emphasize “hard” skills over the “soft” management abilities and critical thinking essential for global success. Each year, for instance, India produces as many young engineers as the U.S., and Russia ten times as many finance/accounting professionals as Germany, yet top-quality, “ready” talent is estimated to be a mere 25 percent of those professionals in India and 20 percent in Russia.9 Similarly, in China it is estimated that fewer than one in ten university graduates is prepared to succeed in a multinational environment.

One-fifth of companies in the BRIC nations have to replace up to half their staff every year due to skills shortages.10 2

Educated BRIC Women: A New Narrative The solution to the BRIC talent crunch is hiding in plain sight: Millions of educated women have entered the professional workforce in BRIC countries over the last two decades. Yet somehow this rich talent pool—as many as 26 million in 2006— of highly qualified women has been ignored, overlooked and under-utilized.11 Figure 3: Global distribution of the talent pool12 Women andIndividuals Mulitculturalwith Individuals tertiary education

MENA Women and Mulitcultural Individuals 2% Women and Mulitcultural Individuals Africa 4% White Men 5% White Men South America 17%

White Men

12%

60

53%

MENA

60

MEN

50

Africa

21%

China

50

Afric

40

South America

North America

40

Sou

30

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53% Western Europe

10%

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20

83%

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Centrat/Eastern Europe Asia-Pacific

Western Europe

19% Rest of Centrat/Eastern Europe Asia-Pacific

Nor

Wes

Cen 10

0

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30

20

10

Women and multicultural individuals

India

Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific

Asia 0

Central/Eastern Europe Western Europe North America South America Africa MENA

The main reason: Despite an expanding body of work on women in emerging economies, most research casts women in a “narrative of victimhood.” Books like the best-selling Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn and From Outrage to Courage by Anne Firth Murray, as well as highly publicized reports and initiatives from the United Nations and the World Bank, promulgate the notion that all women in emerging economies are oppressed, their potential obscured by poverty and their presence relegated to the sidelines of male-dominated cultures.

These problems are real and of critical importance. But what of the growing ranks of educated women entering the global workforce in unprecedented numbers? Women comprise 65 percent of college graduates in the UAE, 60 percent in Brazil and 47 percent in China, while in Russia 86 percent of women ages 18 to 23 are enrolled in tertiary education.13 As a result of these impressive educational gains, BRIC women in just a few generations have gained traction in the world’s economy, making up between nearly 30 percent and 50 percent of the workforce in these nations.14 The educated BRIC women who step out of the shadows of their less-fortunate sisters encounter another misconception: That their ability to participate in today’s workforce lags behind their American and European counterparts because they have to stay home and care for their families. That’s just not true. Under Communism, women in Russia and China were encouraged to help build their 3

nation’s economy and were put to work. In the Soviet Union, for example, ninety percent of working-age women were in the paid labor force.15 In Brazil, India and the dynamic economies of the Middle East, educated women are bolstered by traditionally close-knit extended family and the availability of cheap domestic help.

In short, the potent pool of highly qualified professional women in emerging markets is composed of neither victims of oppression nor second-rate Western “wannabes.” But multinational and local organizations should not make the other mistake of assuming that these women are BRIC clones of their counterparts in advanced industrialized economies. The fact is, their career dynamics—both the opportunities they represent and the challenges they encounter—are complicated and fundamentally different. To give just one example, for talented women in BRIC and the UAE, “daughterly guilt” can be just as burdensome as “maternal guilt.” In countries like India, China and the UAE, where notions of filial piety underpin the cultural value system and where demographers project a leap in the percentage of the population aged over 60, eldercare responsibilities are a ticking time bomb.

Methodology and Thematic Focus The ever-expanding body of work on the “BRIC phenomenon”— exemplified by such recent publications as Imaging India by Nandan M. Nilekani, The China Strategy by Edward Tse or When China Rules the World by Martin Jacques— typically focuses on individual countries and adopts a broad-brush approach to the business or economic landscape. Analyses of the talent issues that are critical to the continued growth momentum of the BRIC economies remain primarily qualitative in approach and fragmentary in scope. Most of these studies rely exclusively on qualitative information gathered through interviews, are often limited to business leaders and senior managers, and focus exclusively on men.16 Without exception, even those that spotlight the “war for talent” and the looming skills shortage make no reference to a key segment of the talent pool: Highly qualified, ambitious women.

This project therefore fills a fundamental gap in the research. It is based on a robust combination of quantitative data collection and in-depth qualitative research gathered through the Center for Work-Life Policy’s proprietary multi-pronged methodology. Quantitative data was gathered through representative surveys of 4,350 college-educated men and women in Brazil, Russia, India, China, the United Arab Emirates and, for comparative purposes, nearly 3,000 respondents in the United States. Qualitative data was collected through focus groups, our Virtual Strategy SessionSM tool and in-depth interviews involving high-echelon men and women across the targeted geographies. The research spanned levels and experience, ranging from those new to the workforce as well as senior managers and business leaders. Data collection took place over a one-year period between February 2009 and February 2010, and is, to our knowledge, unparalleled in scope and scale.

In addition to the BRIC countries, the UAE was included in the research as a lens into the talent landscape in the Middle East. Despite recent economic setbacks in hubs such as Dubai, the Emirates continue to play an important role as a gateway to the region for many global multinational organizations. Insights into the specific

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opportunities and challenges of managing talent in the UAE add a valuable dimension to the rich and complex themes we uncover for BRIC countries.

The Takeaway for Global Companies The rapid expansion of the BRIC economies over the past decade has opened up an unprecedented range of professional opportunities for educated women. Many multinationals are relying to an increasing extent on this growing cadre of “whitecollar” professional women in the BRIC countries, yet they have done so with little information or systematic analysis of this rich talent segment.

Emerging markets women have much to offer. Smart BRIC women and those in the UAE are not only catching up and, in some cases, exceeding their male counterparts in academic credentials; they bring a rich diversity of opinion and a keen sense of the consumer marketplace to their employers—contributions that bolster the bottom line. They are enormously ambitious and passionate about their work, and are determined to play an ever-larger role in the economic progress of their countries. Yet although women in emerging markets have managed to progress and advance on both academic and professional fronts, they remain largely overlooked and undervalued. A critical piece of the solution to the complex talent issues faced by global multinationals, they have remained largely invisible, even when they have been in plain sight.

Our research provides an in-depth analysis of the complicated career dynamics of highly skilled women in the BRIC and UAE economies, information that will be essential to multinationals as they poise themselves for global expansion. One fact is clear: Educated women in BRIC nations and the UAE are already a force to be reckoned with. Together with their female peers in other parts of the world, they are fundamentally altering the talent equation. But they will not grasp their full potential unless their employers help them leapfrog the organizational constraints women face in established professional structures in developed economies and the limitations of their own cultures.

As global organizations build their presence in emerging markets, they have a unique opportunity to “get it right,” that is, to establish systems and processes for managing talent which allow highly qualified and ambitious women to flourish and contribute as fully as their male peers.

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1 Chapter 1: The Changing Face of Talent

W

hen Maria Pronina graduated from Nizhni Novgorod Linguistic University in 1995, she expected to follow the conventional career track and become an English language teacher. Disappointed with the low salary, she switched jobs and started to work as an interpreter, first for the regional government, then for a local company. She picked up a management degree and became a supervisor, then moved to a multinational technology company.

She still remembers the moment when she realized that her career horizons had no limits. “I really did not believe that coming from a very low level I had a real chance to make it rapidly. But at my first annual performance assessment, I suddenly understood I could be recognized and could do well. That was the turning point for me.”

Today, Pronina oversees 14 direct reports and 400 independent contractors as facilities and services team manager for Russia/CIS at Intel. Her ambition is to stay with her employer—and do even more. “My employer is doing a lot for my development and provides almost everything I would like to have. I would like to stay at this company but be responsible not only for Russia and CIS but also Europe.”

Like Pronina, educated women in BRIC nations and the UAE are unleashing their ambitions and letting their career aspirations soar. By helping them realize their full potential, multinational corporations reap the benefits of a unique talent pool: one with an unprecedented combination of impressive educational qualifications, untrammeled career visions, and an enviable work ethic.

Educational Excellence Just as in the United States, where women college graduates outnumber men, women are flooding into universities and graduate schools in BRIC nations and the UAE. They represent 65 percent of college graduates in the UAE, 60 percent in Brazil; in China, they are already 47 percent of this group17 (see figure 1.1).

While it is no surprise that in Russia, where communism promoted universal access to education, 86 percent of women aged 18 to 23 are enrolled

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in tertiary education, the numbers in other markets are equally impressive18 (see figure 1.2).

More than a third of women in the appropriate age group in Brazil and the UAE are enrolled in tertiary education, a percentage notably larger than that of their male counterparts; 50 percent of the Indian women in our sample hold graduate degrees, 10 percent more than the Indian men (see figure 1.3). As one of the women we interviewed explained, “There was a time in India when people saved up money for their daughter’s marriage or for their son’s education, but the urban middle-class community in India doesn’t do that anymore. Today, son or daughter, the priority is education.”

The broadening access to higher education has been paralleled by vast improvements in the quality of education available in BRIC countries and the UAE. Until very recently, top students in developing economies sought entry to the most prestigious universities in the U.S. and Western Europe. Today, though, emerging markets can boast about their own ivory towers.

Six of China’s universities are ranked among the top 200 in the world, as are two each in India and Russia.19 The shift in quality is even more pronounced at the graduate level, with the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad and the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Beijing recently included in the top 25 of the Financial Times’ Global MBA rankings in 2010 taking their place alongside such storied institutions as Harvard Business School, Wharton United United Kingdom Kingdom 20 and London Business School.

Figure 1.1: Percent of women in tertiary education

80 80 70 70 60 60

United United States States

65%

60%

58%

58%

57%

50 50

Figure 1.3: Graduate degree holders in sample 60 UAEUAE

47%

40 40 30 30

China China

45

20 20 Brazil

10 10 0

men

39%

Russia

India

China

(enrollment) (enrollment)

UAE

U.S.

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30

Russia Russia

0

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15 Figure 1.2: Percent of school-age population enrolled in tertiary education

19% 12%

0

23%

14%

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86%

40%

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wom

50%

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men Notably, 26 percent of the students at ISB and 33 percent women at CEIBS are women, a figure on par with representation at top MBA campuses in the developed world.21 Furthermore, many Western-based business schools are partnering with or opening their own campuses in emerging markets. Insead, one of the world’s top-ranked business schools has its original base in France, but has offered full-time MBAs at its world-class Singapore branch since 2000 and opened an executive education center in Abu Dhabi in 2007. This is no isolated trend: University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business

100 has had an executive MBA program based in Singapore since 2001 and Harvard Business School is slated to open a Shanghai campus in 2010. If the trends are any guide, a significant percentage of the students will be women.

The message for global companies: Educated women in emerging economies are already important sources of skills and expertise. The rising demand for advanced education on par with the best of the West, the corresponding opportunities now available in their home countries, and the increasing number of women taking advantage of these opportunities will indelibly change the face of talent in the years ahead.

Aspiration and Ambition Highly educated women the world over are ambitious, but the widespread nature of 100 and aspiration among BRIC/UAE ambition women is extraordinary: 85 percent of women in India80 and 92 percent in the UAE consider themselves very ambitious, in Russia and China the figure is close to two-thirds (see figure 1.4).

60 Furthermore, at least 75 percent of women in Brazil, India, China and UAE aspire to hold a 40 top job (see figure 1.5). Compare these figures to the mere 36 percent of women in the U.S. 20 who consider themselves very ambitious and it becomes clear that the motivations that drive BRIC/UAE 0 women to acquire higher degrees Brazil Russia India China UAE and credentials in ever-increasing numbers continue to propel their professional goals.

100

Figure 1.4: Women with high level of ambition 100 92%

80 60

80

59%

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6063%

85% 65%

40 36%

20

0

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Brazil Brazil

0 Brazil India RussiaChina India UAE Russia Russia India China UAEChina

UAE United States

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Figure 1.5: Women’s aspiration for top job 80

80%

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4060% 52%

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Brazil Brazil

0 Russia Russia India China UAEChina Brazil India RussiaChina India UAE

United UAE States

In focus group after focus group, we heard frequent mention of this drive. One HR leader in China noted, “Communism has always emphasized that women can do whatever men can do. For the majority of college graduates, career is a very important thing but we often find female candidates to be as competitive, if not more so, than their male counterparts.”

These impressive levels of aspiration have not fallen out of the clear blue sky. The dynamic, fast-evolving nature of the BRIC economies adds to the sense of possibility and optimism.

The adrenaline rush of being front and center of the tremendous transitions underway can fuel ambition in a big way. As Leila Hoteit, a UAEbased principal at Booz & Company, puts it, “We have the opportunity to be involved in highimpact projects that are reshaping countries and the region as a whole.”

Part of what fuels the extraordinary ambition of women in emerging markets is a shift in their social status. The regions’ rapid economic growth has transformed gender roles in a way that the West tends to underestimate, not just by encouraging female participation in the workforce but by enabling them to move into management positions.

China and Russia have long been ahead of the game, benefiting from a Communist legacy that established broad access to education and work for women. By 2004, women made up 20 percent of China’s entrepreneurs and nearly a third of senior managers in state-owned enterprises, according to government data, compared to 9

100

a quarter of U.S. senior managers.22 In Russia, 73 percent of businesses now have a woman in senior management.23 Thanks to an influential women’s advocacy movement, Brazilian women hold about 40 percent of jobs, leading South America in share of female workers in the labor force, and they hold 45 percent of managerial jobs and 30 percent of executive positions.24 A new breed of urban, middle-class Indian woman is fueling the “India Inc.” phenomenon: 15 percent of India’s senior executives are women25 (not much less than the U.S. figure of 20 percent), as are 11 percent of its CEOs, outstripping the paltry 3 percent among Fortune 500 and FTSE 100 CEOs.26 Women account for only 19 percent of the UAE workforce but change, however embryonic, is at hand.27 A recent mandate that university students engage in an internship before graduation is 100100 helping young Emirati women transition to the job market, and pioneering leaders such as Sheikha Lubna al-Qasimi, a tech expert and the UAE’s80 first80 female economics minister are providing the role 60 60 models for the ambitious.

As women flood into management positions, a startling number are earning salaries greater 40 40 than their spouses. In Brazil, China and UAE, at least 20 percent out earn their spouses. Their 20 20 contribution to household income is not just appreciated but indispensable, as living costs 0 0 escalate in emerging markets, especially in urban areas—consider that seven of the 30 most expensive cities in the world are in Russia, China and UAE.28

50

Figure 1.6: Women working full-time who out earn their spouses

40

42%

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30 28% 20

19%

20% 16%

10 0

Brazil

10

Russia

India

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UAE

United States

An Enviable Work Ethic This rich reservoir of ambition represents a huge opportunity for employers, particularly as it is reinforced by an extraordinary degree of zeal and commitment that these women bring to work. Over 80 percent of our respondents in Brazil, Russia, India and the UAE report loving their work, and a similarly high percentage are “willing to go the extra mile” for their companies (see figure 1.7). This is good news indeed for employers, particularly when compared to results of studies such as Towers Perrin 2007-2008 survey which found a mere 21 percent of global workers to be engaged in their work.29

Figure 1.7: Women’s attitudes towards work

81%

85%

81% 82%

81%

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85% 76%

70% 58%

Willing to go the extra mile

Love work Brazil

Russia

India

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UAE

United Kingdom BRIC/UAE women, in contrast, express a deep connection and passion for their jobs, United States citing the intellectual stimulation, the sense of personal growth, and the quality of colleagues as key motivators (see figure 1.8). A professional services employeeUAE in China says, “My company has provided me with the platform to do things I China really want to do,” a message echoed by a senior India manager at a multinational corporation in Brazil who views her company to be “like a university— Russia you can learn so much here.”

Brazil

Figure 1.8: Top motivators for women

100

70

Job Security Compensation Quality of Colleagues Being Able to be Myself

Job security

96%

Compensation

96%

Quality of colleagues

95%

Being able to be myself

95%

Job security and compensation are also major motivators, no surprise in economies which have been marked by political, economic and social volatility. When all elements are met, that translates into uncommon levels of hard work, loyalty and commitment. These qualities lend special traction to a fierce work ethic, making talented women in emerging markets valuable employees worth investing in.

A truism about emerging markets talent management is that highly qualified talent is notoriously hard to hold onto, even in a recessionary environment. Part of the problem is the long hour workweeks (especially onerous for men), see figure 1.9. But high growth rates are also a huge driver. The bottom line: Finding and retaining top talent is cited as the biggest single barrier to company growth in emerging economies. It has been reported that one-fifth of companies in developing countries had to replace half their staff annually.30 In contrast to the attrition figures tracked by many HR consultancies, our data on BRIC/UAE educated women—which delves into actual intentions and career goals—reveals a strong sense of commitment toward their employers.

More than 80 percent express loyalty to their current employer, with 49 percent declaring a desire to continue working at their current company for three years or longer (see figures 1.10 and 1.11). In fact, our analysis firmly counters the image of rootless job-hoppers, always on the lookout for a higher salary and willing to exploit the paucity of qualified talent to get it.

Figure 1.9: Average workweeks: Women and men working full-time in multinationals

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11

What can they do to keep ambitious BRIC/UAE women stimulated, motivated and committed? “I’m interested in having a very United States challenging position. That’s something I’m always looking for,” says Natalie, a senior executive in Russia.31 Parvati, an Indian management UAE consultant for an international company, is unambiguous about what she seeks from her China work and employer: “I want the ability to solve interesting problems that are constantly different India in scope and scale, problems that don’t have a clear-cutRussia solution, so you have the intellectual freedom to figure things out.”

Brazil In short, to ensure continued access to the deep pool of highly qualified female talent, employers must provide access to a meaningful range of opportunities to grow, develop and advance.

Figure 1.10: Loyalty to current employer 100 95%

92%

80

97%

93%

88%

79% 60 40 20 Brazil

Russia

India

China

UAE

United States

0

The rich reservoir of loyalty and commitment among BRIC/UAE educated women cannot, however, be taken for granted. Rather, the data need to be considered within the context of their high levels of ambition and aspiration. To fully realize the enormous potential of BRIC/UAE female talent, employers need to go the extra mile in return.

Figure 1.11: Intention to stay at current job for three or more years

65%

60 58%

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55%

52%

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women 46% 45%

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2 Chapter 2: A Complex Web of Pulls

A

senior Indian professional with a nine-year-old son, Malini seems to exemplify the elusive idea of work-life balance. But she is quick to point out that her success in satisfying the demands of career and motherhood is due to having many shoulders to lean on. “I could sustain my career only because I had a support system. I was helped by my parents and my siblings when the baby was small. Now that my son is older, I have a nanny to help outside of school hours.”

Childcare, one of the most common career-killers for women in the United States and Western Europe, is rarely a serious problem for their emerging markets counterparts. Between hands-on extended family, inexpensive domestic help and an increasingly wide range of daycare options, professional women in these geographies are not sidelined by motherhood.

A Robust Matrix of Support

100

Figure 2.1: Maternal guilt

86%

80 60

59%

65%

89%

62%

40 20

0

Brazil Brazil

Russia Russia

India India

China China

UAE UAE

Working mothers in BRIC/UAE are able to think big and aim high because they have multiple shoulders to lean on. Grandparents are the prime pillars of a robust matrix of support. “I don’t think that childcare for many women in their 30s and 40s is a problem,” muses one HR professional in China. “Most have one child, who normally has two sets of grandparents.”

The ability to lean on elders to a greater extent for childcare stems from a number of factors, not least of which is the fact that many grandparents come from cultures where it was common to have children early; now that their children are having children of their own, they are relatively young and remain in good health.

Furthermore, in many of these countries, the official retirement age remains lower than in the developed world, and expectations of retired life are very different. “My parents, in the Chinese tradition, are very willing to help,” said a Chinese management consultant. “They don’t want to relax and travel like parents in the Western world.”

13

In addition to grandparents, professional women in BRIC/UAE are typically able to construct an entire “system of support,” thanks to inexpensive and readily available domestic help and, more recently, a growing infrastructure of daycare options.

Our earlier research in the U.S. pointed to maternal guilt as a critical pull factor for women in high-pressure, demanding jobs, one that could override the gratification of and commitment to such work. Although somewhat mitigated by the family support network, not surprisingly, the majority of working mothers in emerging economies echoed the widespread feeling of maternal guilt (see figure 2.1).

However, when we probed deeper, we discovered a sophisticated awareness of the trade-offs of having a high-powered career and an appreciation for its benefits. As one working mother in Brazil explained, “Sometimes I feel guilty but I change my mind rapidly because without my job, I could not support education, health, our house, vacations, etc.”

In addition to the financial advantages afforded by their work, many of the women also expressed a realization that maternal guilt was largely self-inflicted, with little or no bearing on the actual well-being or happiness of their children. “I feel guilty at times, but no one else makes me feel guilty,” confessed an Indian working mother of two school-aged children.

“My kids are actually proud of me.”

With the notable exception of India, where traditional cultural norms appear to persist far more intensely than elsewhere, few of the women we interviewed experienced family or social pressure to abandon their careers when they had children (see figure 2.2).

Even in India, change is loosening what some participants in our focus groups referred to as a “code of conduct.” One Indian executive spoke for many of her peers: “My husband says, ‘there’s no way you are leaving your job. You’re way too driven, you’re well-qualified, and you have ambition.’ My mother wanted to study and couldn’t, so she pushed me to achieve things she was not able to. So there is no way I could consider leaving my job.”

14

Figure 2.2: 60 Cultural pressure to “drop out”

50

52%

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22%

0 Got married Brazil

Russia

Had first child India

China

UAE

One further surprise: Our data uncovered a contradiction to the prevalent view that all women in emerging markets have children. As is the case in the developed world,32 a significant proportion of educated women in emerging economies do not have children. Although national birthrates remain significantly higher than in Western nations, educated urban women across the developing world have benefited from the advances that have lowered birthrates in the U.S. and Europe: Access to education and birth control that enables them to delay motherhood until they choose to have children. In fact, in our sample of college-educated women between the ages of 21 and 64, fewer than half in Brazil, Russia and India are mothers (see figure 2.3).

In short, educated BRIC/UAE women are able to satisfy their career ambitions, either because the robust support systems rooted in their cultures help them avoid being encumbered by childcare or because they have chosen not to have children. However, they are not immune to family-rooted forces that can derail a career. In emerging economies, these pulls come from an unanticipated direction.

0

Brazil

Russia

India

China

Figure 2.4: 100 Daughterly guilt

Figure 2.3: Percentage of women in sample without children

88%

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The Eldercare Time Bomb

Brazil Brazil

Russia Russia

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UAE

While BRIC/UAE women readily avail themselves of multiple “shoulders to lean on” for their childcare needs, they are far less open to delegating or outsourcing care arrangements for their parents and in-laws (see figure 2.5).

An Indian woman in one of our focus groups explained, “In the Western world, outsourcing eldercare is perfectly acceptable. People plan for it in advance like they do for college education.

In India, there’s a huge stigma attached to using professional help or complete outsourcing like sending them to a home.”

Adult women in BRIC/UAE live with their parents or in-laws, in numbers far higher than that for the U.S. (see figure 2.6). Between 33 percent and 64 percent of BRIC/UAE women also assist their parents financially and the amount of support—necessary in countries where state benefits for the elderly are limited or nonexistent—is substantial, between 18-23 percent of annual income (see figure 2.7).

The pull which does loom large in the lives of 100 many women in emerging markets is eldercare.

80This is especially true in India and China, where notions of filial piety underpin the cultural value 60 system. While many women in our sample did not have children, the vast majority—81 percent— 40 do have eldercare responsibilities. “Daughterly 20guilt” and its alternative, daughterly responsibility, can be an even greater burden than maternal 0guilt (see figure 2.4). In fact, in India and China, Brazil Russia India China UAE daughterly guilt exceeds maternal guilt among our survey participants.

Figure 2.5: Eldercare and options 100

UAE

94% 95% 80 60

China

78% 69%

70%

India

70% 53%

Russi

51%

40

48%

Brazil

33% 20

24%

27% 17%

5%

5%

0 Have eldercare Willing to useWilling hired help Willingin to put in assisted living/home Have Eldercare Willing to Use Hired Help to put assisted liveing/home Brazil

Russia

India

China

UAE

15

Figure 2.6: Percentage of women living with parents 60

59%

58%

50 40

39% 30

28%

26%

20 10 0

Brazil Brazil

Russia Russia

India India

China China

UAE UAE

80Figure 2.7: Percentage of women providing 70monetary support for parents 64%

60 50

57%

58%

India India

China China

51%

40 30

33%

20 10 0

Brazil Brazil

Russia Russia

UAE UAE*

Percentage of annual income to support parents: 23% 21% NA* 23% 18%

The eldercare burden on society in general and women in particular is a ticking time bomb.

As a result of better healthcare and increased life expectancies, demographic projections for BRIC/UAE project a huge leap in the percentage of the population aged over 60. Even in India’s relatively youthful population, individuals over 60 are expected to comprise 20 percent of the population by 2050.33 China’s demographic outlook seems particularly dire; thanks to the double whammy of the one-child policy introduced in 1979 and rising longevity, by 2035 there will be two Chinese elders for every child.34 We repeatedly heard of the dilemma highachieving women face today or anticipate facing in a few years’ time in negotiating the balance between their careers and their eldercare obligations. A female accounting professional in Beijing summed it up by saying, “It is a very heavy role.”

Although elders today represent a net benefit to the career professional in BRIC/UAE, it is clear from the demographic projections that the situation is poised to shift dramatically in the near future. Unless they want to risk losing a significant number of their most qualified women at the peak of their professional powers, multinational organizations must move beyond Western notions of work-life pulls on women and begin to craft solutions that help tackle this very real and potent set of issues.

*Data for UAE not available given restrictions on tracking salary levels.

Furthermore, there was overall consensus that adult children would change their lives to take care of their parents and that, in fact, the obligation towards parents loomed even more important than that towards one’s children. As a highly qualified woman in the UAE explained, “Across the Arab world, it is part of the expectation of what children do: We take care of our parents when we grow up.”

16

The Lure of the Public Sector In the West, private-sector companies have long been uncontested in their ability to offer the best and the brightest a distinctive—and often superior—value proposition in comparison to jobs in the public sector. Typically, these advantages consist of higher pay, performancebased compensation, accelerated advancement paths and a richer range of experience, to name a few. The public sector, in contrast, has often been viewed as a bulwark of bureaucracy characterized by poor pay, circumscribed roles and glacial career advancement. Our findings suggest that these assumptions don’t necessarily hold true.

80Figure 2.8: Women’s desire to work in the public sector 70 60

65% 57%

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32%

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Brazil Brazil

Russia Russia

India India

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UAE UAE

In fact, highly educated professional women find the better work-life balance typical of public sector jobs a definite enticement (see figure 2.8). Especially now that many governments are attempting to move beyond decades of stagnation and corruption, in Brazil, India and China, more than half of our respondents consider the public sector a “very desirable” place to work, citing job security, professional opportunities, benefits and prestige (see figure 2.9). “Most of my female friends prefer to work for the government because the workload is not heavy and they have enough time to spend with their families,” was one focus group participant’s view of the situation in China. Her colleague concurred, “I think for most women in China, a position at a state-owned organization is better.”

Figure 2.9: 100Why is the public sector attractive?

80

Although our Indian respondents acknowledged that government jobs offered lower pay and fewer growth opportunities than multinationals, they were in overall agreement that the better work-life balance afforded by shorter hours was a big advantage. Furthermore, with many multinational and private-sector local companies shedding jobs as a result of the global recession, having a sakari naukri, or government job, is once again becoming attractive.35 In addition to job security and work-life advantages, the public sector in BRIC/UAE also attracts top talent by appealing to their desire to participate in “nation-building” projects as their countries assume a greater role on the global stage. As one Chinese focus group member explained, “Working in the public sector gives you the opportunity to take part in the decisionmaking process for the country.” In the UAE, an Arab woman explained the exhilaration she felt through her work with a municipal authority: “You’re reshaping the country. You’re helping to shape new policies, helping the government perform, helping them to become the top city in the world. You often see articles in the newspaper about things you have worked on. It’s very exciting stuff and the sense of satisfaction you get is different from that in the private sector.”

Although one Brazilian focus group participant went so far as to assert that the public sector “stains résumés,” most view the public sector as newly attractive, particularly for talented women seeking work-life balance. As multinationals try to woo and retain the best and the brightest in these emerging economies, they cannot afford to ignore the very real competition presented by the public sector.

87% 79%

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40 20

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Brazil Job security

Russia Professional opportunities

China Prestige

17

18

3 Chapter 3: Push Factors at Work

I

n the UAE, a single woman is not able to get on a plane or stay in a hotel unless a father or a brother is willing to tag along. As a result, Reem, an analyst in the fixed income division of a bank, was recently forced to decline an invitation to a training session in New York. Adding insult to injury, no video hook-up had been provided to allow her to join in.

In addition to the family-related factors that pull educated women in emerging markets off their career track, a number of work-related factors conspire to push them to abandon their ambitions and either languish in a dead-end job or leave the workforce entirely. While some “push” factors are similar to those that persist in the West, others are highly specific to the cultural context of BRIC/UAE. Combined with external pulls, they constitute a set of tripwires that represent a real risk to the career prospects and success of talented women in these important geographies.

Extreme Jobs Figure 3.1: Percentage of women who work full-time and work more hours than three years ago 50 43%

40 38% 30

32%

29%

31%

20 10

0

Brazil

Russia

India

China

UAE

Additional hours worked compared to 3 years ago Brazil Russia India China UAE 10 8 12 18 10

In our 2007 study Seduction and Risk: The Emergence of Extreme Jobs, we identified a new challenge for top talent. “Extreme jobs” are characterized by extended work weeks, an alwayson 24/7 culture, and intense performance pressure.36 While extreme jobs are very much the norm among highly qualified and ambitious women worldwide, the average workweek for employees of multinational corporations in BRIC/UAE is especially onerous. In Russia and China, the average workweek for multinational employees is well over 60 hours; in India and the UAE, it is over 50 hours. Furthermore, the demands of work have intensified over the last few years—a quarter or more of the women in our sample report working some 7 to 15 hours more per week than three years ago, which amounts to one to two extra workdays (see figure 3.1).

19

A day in the life of Catherine, a Dubaibased executive for a global pharmaceutical firm, demonstrates the marathon typical for many high-echelon women in BRIC/UAE. Catherine gets to the office by 6:45 a.m. and stays there until 6 p.m. She drives home—she counts herself lucky to have only a 30-minute commute—and spends two-and-a-half hours with her husband and two school-aged children, then often returns to the office for a “second shift” between 9 and 11 p.m. to field teleconferences from corporate headquarters in the U.S. where the working day is just getting started.

Figure 3.2: Average number of hours worked: local compared to multinational companies

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holidays, or on weekends (which take place on Friday and Saturday in the Middle East).

One participant in a UAE focus group contrasted the demands on her schedule in the Middle East with her previous experience in North America and Europe, where her bosses displayed greater sensitivity about after-hours calls. “Thursday evenings (the start of the weekend here) are often destroyed by conference calls, as are Fridays,” she sighs. “They say, ‘Sorry, sorry, but it’s really important’—and it often is. But there is no respect for boundaries.”

Exacerbating daily pressures are the protracted commutes endured by many of the women in our research. Traffic jams are the bane of urban life in the metropolises where the women in our study live—Moscow, Mumbai, Shanghai, São Paulo—and daily commutes of two hours each way are commonplace. Women bemoan the hours wasted in these “extreme commutes.” “It’s just time-consuming and stressful…. awful roads and awful traffic,” said men an IT manager in India, adding, “I am so much more productive on work-from-home days. I work women better and longer.”

This was a common refrain and one employers should note: Working from a satellite or home office and avoiding traffic when possible could enhance productivity and improve morale.

Bias and Stereotypes

0 India

China

UAE

Catherine’s day is by no means exceptional.

From Shanghai to São Paulo, we routinely heard accounts of 14- to 15-hour workdays, not to mention additional hours on weekends.

No particular sector or industry stands out in our data as more extreme than others, but there was a marked difference between local companies and multinationals (see figure 3.2).

The factor that has an inordinate impact on their hours: the global span of operations. Women professionals in BRIC/UAE routinely suffer from teleconference schedules that favor U.S. and European time zones. We heard numerous examples of conference calls being scheduled during the middle of their night, on local public

20

Workplace biases faced by professional women in BRIC/UAE are overt and explicit, comprising a triple whammy of gender, ethnicity, and culture. In India, China, and the UAE, over 25 percent of our respondents believe women are treated unfairly in the workplace owing to their gender; in India the number is 45 percent (see figure 3.3). More than half of educated women in India and nearly half of their counterparts in China have encountered bias severe enough to make them consider scaling back their career goals or quitting altogether (see figure 3.4). (Russia is the exception, in part owing to a communist legacy that integrated women into the workplace better than elsewhere in emerging markets.)

60

Figure 3.3: Women treated unfairly because of gender

45

45% 45% 36% 36%

30 26% 15

23%

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18% 13%

0

W

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M

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Women/Men

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Figure 3.4: Countries where bias is strong enough to push women out of the workplace 55%

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48% 40

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Brazil Brazil

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India India

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Figure 3.5: Most commonly experienced biases in the workplace

Brazil

45%

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Communication style

41%

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14%

Cultural dress

14%

China

Accent

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Executive presence

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Female expatriates in the UAE especially deal with a dizzying array of practical obstacles to men working and living as independent professionals: women Visa policies limit their ability to sponsor their husbands and simply obtaining a driver’s license or contracting for services involves navigating a minefield of prejudice.

Deborah moved to Dubai last August to take a senior role at a multinational corporation.

Her position protects her from any bias in the workplace. Outside of the office, though, is another matter. “Dubai is Dubai,” she says.

“You are nothing until your husband’s papers are done and his residency is approved. You can’t sponsor your children until you have your residency approved. You cannot drive until you have your residency. You cannot get a nanny until you get residency. You can’t get the gas and water and telephone hooked up until you get your residency. No matter whether your own papers are in order, if your husband’s things aren’t managed well, it will be a very difficult move. For me, it was a very difficult move and it killed me physically.”

Over 40 percent of the women in our study have faced bias associated with executive presence and communication style (see figure 3.5). This can take a number of forms, from comments from male colleagues and clients about appearance or competency, to assumptions about women’s ability to be effective in a business setting. Ayesha, an Emirati woman who holds a doctorate in psychology, recalls, “In one job, I had to assess pilots. One man in his 50s looked at me and said, ‘You will give me my assessment?’” She believes these comments stem from the discomfort some Middle Eastern men have in dealing with intelligent and highly competent women. “My work is felt as an ego challenge and they respond by undermining me, knocking down my ideas, saying, ‘You’re not objective,’ or if I start a sentence with ‘I feel we should…’ saying, ‘What does emotion have to do with it?’”

Women also contend with conflicting social and professional expectations. Indian and Chinese traditions place great value on women’s submissiveness and reticence, attributes which serve high-performing women

21

poorly at work. Many women in our research felt crippled by this cultural bind, struggling to achieve self-confidence and the ability to demonstrate authority. “As a woman brought up in India, you have to be likeable, you have to be liked. You have to be soft, you have to be polite, you have to listen to other people, you have to hold back a little,” observed Padma, an Indian finance professional. “And none of this works in the corporate world.” Others in the focus group agreed, with one woman noting, “We may be a square peg but we still have to fit into that round hole.”

Women in China reported similar challenges.

According to a Chinese accounting professional, “There’s still a perception that women don’t want to be aggressive, and if clients have to choose between a man and a woman, they choose the man.” Several of her peers in the focus group agreed, adding that many felt a lack of confidence in their ability to be as convincing or have as much impact as their male colleagues.

Although equally qualified, these women were responding in part to the biases against female managers that run deep in Chinese culture, as epitomized by a Chinese aphorism about women in leadership positions being “like a donkey taking the place of a horse, which can only lead to trouble.”37 Workplace biases across BRIC/UAE escalate alarmingly with motherhood, with working mothers finding their commitment and potential under constant scrutiny. In India, women told us of returning from maternity leave to lesschallenging projects or roles, or being given a lower performance rating. A Brazilian woman recounted the case of a colleague who was fired upon returning from maternity leave when she was overheard mentioning that she planned to have another child. Although in violation of company policy, these explicitly discriminatory behaviors continue unchecked.

Not being able “to be yourself at work” is, of course, deeply alienating. Compounded by the fact that promotions are seen as based on “an ability to fit in” rather than “an ability to produce results,” many talented women feel unwelcome in the workplace.

This sense is further reinforced by the absence of senior female role models, 22

mentors, sponsors and access to leadership training. Time and again, the women in our study mentioned how hungry they are for more support from their employers and how much they would benefit from programs that would help them “break out of their shells.” Because this is the first generation of women to move into management roles in force, the networks of successful senior women, now common in the U.S. and becoming more so in Western Europe, are still nascent in emerging economies.

However, global companies know how to pony up this kind of support; they’ve done it for female and minority talent in the U.S. and Europe. The challenge is to translate cuttingedge diversity initiatives to fit the contours of the culture of each different country.

It’s a challenge that can’t be dismissed. These “soft” sentiments pose hard repercussions for employers. Our previous studies of highly qualified minority women in the United States found that over 40 percent of Asians and AfricanAmericans and nearly 50 percent of Latinas in their prime child-bearing and child-rearing years felt demoralized by workplace discrimination and seriously considered quitting.38 In emerging markets, where cultural and gender prejudices pulling women out of professional careers are far more pronounced, companies are at risk of losing some of the best prospects in their talent pipeline.

Travel Troubles Contrary to the almost-universal assumption that female professionals in emerging markets don’t want to travel—and are willing to curtail their prospects of advancement in order to stay home—a majority of women in our sample have a strong interest in an international assignment (see figure 3.6). Although the BRIC/ UAE women in our study are delighted that the economies they live and work in are becoming increasingly important to multinational organizations, they remain keenly aware of the need to gain international experience to advance professionally. In China and India, in fact, nearly 80 percent of the women in our sample believe that international assignments are critical to their career progression, and there was no discernible difference in the

preference for either short-term or long-term assignments (see figure 3.7). Furthermore, when we asked married women in our sample about their spouse’s openness to relocating, a majority responded that their spouses are open to such a move.

countries, with more than half the survey respondents in India and China citing difficulties.

This places industries and corporate functions requiring significant travel at a disadvantage in attracting and retaining talented women. The pharmaceutical sector in India, for instance, struggles to attract women into sales roles which involve frequent trips to semi-urban and rural locations where women are uncomfortable venturing alone. The same applies for industrial and infrastructure sectors, and women more often than not gravitate towards sectors such as finance or media based in urban, modern environs and requiring minimal travel.

Figure 3.6: Women’s interest in international assignments

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The actual ability to land such assignments, however, can be difficult for even the most highly credentialed women in emerging markets.

Nationals of many developing countries are unable to travel outside their home countries without visas, especially to Europe or the United States. In our sample, 62 percent of Indians, 66 percent of Chinese and 54 percent of Emirati respondents report difficulty in obtaining visas for international travel, due in great part to cumbersome post-9/11 application procedures (see figure 3.8).

There is strong social disapproval of women traveling alone within many emerging market

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Family and societal disapproval of women traveling alone for business India

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Even urban contexts, though, can present challenges for women in emerging markets.

In India, “Ladies’ Special” single-sex cars on designated commuter trains in four of the largest cities in India—New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta—were introduced in 2009 to provide a safe haven from taunting and harassment women risk when using public transportation.39 As the Indian case shows, tectonic economic shifts aside, mass culture can remain tradition-bound and male-dominated.

The number of Chinese women reporting social disapproval of their traveling alone is unexpected, given the egalitarian legacy of communism. Further analysis suggests that

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and its fatal assaults by 44 percent.40 São Paulo and Rio are notorious for the high incidence of crime; according to a recent U.S. State Department report “assaults and burglaries continue to be a part of normal everyday life.”41 Between 2003 and 2007, rape cases in India rose more than 30 percent and kidnapping or abduction cases rose more than 50 percent.42 “You cannot work late hours in India if you don’t have your own transport,” said an Indian executive.

Several Brazilian women in our study have had first-hand experience of these daily dangers. One focus group participant had her cell-phone stolen at gunpoint when she stopped her car at a traffic light; another, while traveling in a car with a friend from a wealthy family who was a kidnapping target, was followed and fired at on a major highway.

White-collar professionals need to exercise constant vigilance, one woman explained: “In a small city, they break your window and steal your radio. In São Paulo, they put a gun to your head and say, ‘Let’s go to the ATM.’ ” These safety concerns strongly influence preferences about where to work, what role to take and what type of career to pursue. And women—as mothers and caregivers, and more vulnerable to a broader range of crime— factor in safety considerations in their work-life decisions to a far greater degree than do men.

“I could make more money and have a more comfortable life in São Paulo,” said Carolina, a Brazilian national and mid-level manager at a global financial services company, now based in corporate headquarters in the United States.

“I would have a comfortable life, have great professional opportunities, but frankly, the violence is too much.”

concerns around travel are driven by the pressure on women to stay close to home and fulfill their familial responsibilities, whether as a daughter, wife or mother. Day-to-day work may be compatible with these values, but travel away from home—and given the vast scale of China, trips can be several days in duration—is considerably more difficult to integrate.

Women—expatriates and locals alike—have worked around these restrictions by concentrating in careers whose responsibilities are, by and large, local, e.g., medicine, law, hotel administration, advertising, public relations, nursing, and education. But with women representing the majority of university graduates in emerging markets, multinational organizations that adhere to conventional career models demanding mobility and frequent international travel will remain at a disadvantage in attracting top talent.

Daily Danger and Safety Concerns The combination of workplace “pushes” covered so far—extreme jobs, bias and stereotypes, and travel limitations—can derail even the most ambitious women anywhere. Our research, however, reveals a push factor entirely unique to emerging markets: safety.

Safety concerns are a harsh reality for professional women in emerging markets: Nearly a third or more feel unsafe getting to and from work; that number rises to over 50 percent in countries with vast class disparities, such as Brazil and India (see figure 3.9). In Russia, hardest hit among the BRIC economies by the global downturn, crime is escalating; in one month in 2009 Moscow’s murder rate rose by 16 percent 80 Figure 3.9: Experience safety concerns on a regular basis 70

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4 Chapter 4: The Leapfrog Opportunity: Action Agenda

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rom the earliest days of her career, Heather Wang of China was highly ambitious; one of her key goals was “to learn and run the operational side of a business.” After starting in international trade at a large Chinese company, she moved to the local operations where she found human capital management so compelling that she changed her career to human resources.

Wang then joined a multinational telecommunications firm to learn advanced HR ideas and competencies and was subsequently recruited by her current employer, GE, one of the world’s largest infrastructure and financial services conglomerates.

After successfully completing the Global Human Resources Leadership Program, including a job rotation to the United States, Wang was identified as someone with talent and a great deal of “runway,” and soon gained access to an expanding range of career acceleration opportunities. Her postings have taken her to the U.S. back to her native China and then to Europe. Today, she holds a senior executive position, heading up international human resources supporting Latin America, Asia and EMEA regions. One of the hallmarks of her career has been her fearlessness in taking on complex challenges; she has always wanted “to challenge myself with diverse experiences,” she explains, and credits her employer with having given her the chance “to grow and position myself as a global talent.”

Highly credentialed women in the BRICs and the UAE are fundamentally altering the talent equation in emerging markets. Quite simply, they represent the future, even as they are shaping the very world in which they live. But at the same time, they confront deeply ingrained cultural and social limitations that can derail their careers—and deprive employers of the talent they need to grow.

Multinational companies have an unprecedented opportunity to “leapfrog” these barriers. As companies build their presence in emerging markets, getting their talent models right the first time around will ensure that they attract and retain the most talented women available. By creating the processes and practices that enable these qualified and ambitious women to flourish, forward-thinking companies will gain lasting competitive advantage.

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What Should Companies Do? Laying the foundations for the full realization of female talent in emerging markets involves implementing an agenda comprising three essential action steps.

They are: Becoming a talent magnet As multinationals expand and solidify their presence in emerging markets, they have a rare opportunity to gain a powerful advantage in the cut-throat competition for top talent. Being known as a standout employer has an enduring impact on a company’s image and reputation, enabling it to attract and retain the brightest and best right from the start and over the long haul.

Companies can create the conditions that allow talented women to flourish, that keep them motivated and feeling valued, by paying attention. Our data makes it emphatically clear what educated and ambitious women want from their employers: intellectually stimulating work, plentiful opportunities to learn and develop, smart colleagues and a supportive work environment, fair compensation and reliable job security. When employers satisfy this side of the value proposition, they will be repaid in above-average levels of engagement, commitment and loyalty.

Examples: • Ernst & Young: Inclusive Recruiting Strategy • Google India: Women in Engineering Award Program • Goldman Sachs: New Markets Mobility Exchange • Bloomberg: Women Moving Markets Claiming and sustaining female ambition Confounded by the escalating pressures of extreme jobs, the dissonance between conflicting social and professional expectations, and confusion about where they stand in a cultural tug-of-war, many talented women downsize their ambitions for themselves. This is a huge and significant issue. An employer cannot promote a woman if she is not enormously vested in this endeavor.

How can ambition be rekindled and nurtured? How can a woman gain the confidence and skills to feel comfortable—and excel—in a leadership role?

Ensuring that talented women in emerging markets feel valued is of fundamental importance in multinational organizations, particularly those headquartered in the U.S. or Western Europe. Networking and relationship building, essential to strengthening engagement and commitment, help women develop the ties, visibility and organizational know-how essential to their professional success.

Examples: • Boehringer Ingleheim: Extended Business Trip • General Electric: Mid-East myConnections • Intel: Women at Intel Network • Siemens: Global Leadership Organization of Women

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Dealing with pulls and pushes Women in BRIC/UAE face unique family-rooted pulls and societal and work-related pushes that conspire to derail their career ambitions and cause them either to settle for a dead-end job or leave the workforce entirely. These factors are highly specific to the emerging markets context, reflecting entrenched cultural perspectives and modern global complexities.

Responding to these challenges with imagination, sensitivity and flexibility can be a tall order. What solves the problem in one country may have little impact in another. Training mostly male senior managers to become aware of the difficulties and to respond appropriately takes time and dedication. Finding solutions involves a delicate balance of a global mindset and local knowledge.

Examples: • Booz & Company: Middle East Flexibility • Cisco: Extended Flex Program • Deutsche Bank: India Diversity Council • Pfizer India: Creating a High-Performance Community

Becoming a Talent Magnet Ernst & Young: Inclusive Recruiting Strategy It’s not an easy task to grow a business from scratch, especially where the competition for talent is as fierce as in India. In 2001, Ernst & Young coordinating tax partner Sharda Cherwoo and her team did it through an “Inclusive Recruiting Strategy.”

The challenge: Launch a global shared services center in India. Cherwoo, a New York-based native of India, was asked to lead all aspects of management for the Ernst & Young facility in Bangalore, including recruiting more than 500 associates over a three-year period.

Ernst & Young is well-known in the U.S. for its progressive people-focused workplace policies. Cherwoo brought that same focus and philosophy to the facility in India. With knowledge of the local culture, her team began implementing people practices such as transportation services (a significant issue in India) as well as onsite healthcare services. Given the cultural significance of caring for aging family members and children, Cherwoo and her team expanded the group healthcare policy to include child and eldercare assistance. Her team also implemented an innovative loan policy that helped staff and their family members with housing and education expenses. To this day, there has been a 100 percent payback rate on the loans.

Cherwoo notes that her experience in recruiting for the global shared services center highlighted a unique opportunity to build a diverse and inclusive workplace culture from the ground up. She personally interviewed all candidates and insisted her recruiters use unbiased questions when interviewing candidates, despite the fact that there are no laws in India prohibiting employers from asking discriminatory questions. “Talent comes from all places and we worked hard

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to focus on a candidate’s potential rather than their pedigree or the school they attended,” noted Cherwoo.

With 18,000 internet applicants on the first day for the first 100 jobs, a strong recruitment strategy was essential. Cherwoo credits recruiting the right kind of staff members as the key to the facility’s success. She and her team deliberately recruited local rather than ex-pat talent and targeted applicants with a broad range of educational and professional backgrounds, not just those from the top schools. They also looked for people with the right attitude who were teamoriented, innovative thinkers, and willing to learn and grow. “You’re making more of an impact that way,” Cherwoo says. “For me and the leadership team, it became a matter of getting great people and creating an environment of empowerment that benefitted everyone—our people, clients, and the community.”

In addition to recruiting efforts, Cherwoo and her team placed tremendous emphasis on soft-skills training and innovation (there was a specific quarterly award for innovation). She also brought in top name local CEOs and leaders to give inspirational presentations. Everyone—from the mailroom workers to top managers—received the soft skills training, which were geared toward creating an environment of leadership, empowerment and innovation.

Using these and other policies designed to create an equitable workforce, Ernst & Young India managed to attract a staff that was 55 to 60 percent female. Nearly 10 years later, the core leadership team and HR processes that Cherwoo put into place back in 2001 still remain, and Ernst & Young India’s global shared services center is recognized as an award-winning inclusive work environment. Equally important, the strategy has helped the company maintain an extraordinarily high retention rate. In an industry with typically high staff turnover, that’s a crucial competitive advantage.

Google India: Women in Engineering Award Program Diversity is a core value at Google worldwide. But a few years ago, the human resources team responsible for engineering in India wanted to find an exciting new way to translate this commitment into action. The result is a pioneering awards program that promotes diversity both within the company and across an emerging market. Now in its third year, the Google India “Women in Engineering Award” celebrates young women in college or graduate school who have chosen to pursue a career in engineering or computer science. Sixteen women won the $2,000 award in 2008 and nine in 2009, for their academic excellence and demonstrated leadership skills.

Originally, Google managers thought about helping to encourage young Indian girls to study math and science. But they soon opted for a more specific, targeted goal: Celebrating the dedicated young women who are pursuing a career in these male-dominated fields. “We asked, ‘What could we do to create some kind of immediate impact?’” says Jayashri Ramamurti, head of human resources for engineering at Google India and a creator of the program. “It made sense to start in a small way, as a first step.”

Surprisingly, there was initial resistance from some of the women whom Google was trying to laud. When Google representatives toured 15 to 20 campuses to promote the nascent program in 2007, many would-be applicants said, “Don’t single us out.” Like many females in science or tech fields, the young engineers did not want to call attention to their gender. But after learning about the broad, long28

term goals of the initiative, more than 270 applicants stepped forward in 2008, the first year of the program. “It was crucial that we talk to the girls, to let them know why we’re doing this,” says Ramamurti. Her team also worked hard to get buyin from senior management and from the many Google engineers who serve as judges for the competition.

The awards are given out at an all-expenses paid professional retreat, at first held for one day in Bangalore and then expanded to include a day as well in Hyderabad, the other base for the company’s engineering operations in India.

Winners and finalists alike attend presentations by Google engineers and outside experts, and participate in fun and games. While the program is in its infancy, the reaction within Google, from the press and from award-winners alike, has been highly positive. Anjali Sardana, a 2009 winner and Ph.D. candidate at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, says that the award inspired her to keep pursuing her dreams. “Not only did the award encourage me to stay in my field, it has made me confident and given me the spark to mentor” other younger women engineers, says Sardana, who notes that she’s had to work harder and faster than many male students to prove herself. “Patience and perseverance have worked for me.”

Goldman Sachs: New Markets Mobility Exchange Early into his career at Goldman Sachs, Robin Vince, then based in London, was asked to pack a bag and spend six months in New York. “It was a great experience to see the business from a slightly different angle, to form new relationships, to see the technology and tools and market practices in this new location, and then have the benefit of importing some of the best practices back to my home location.”

Four years later, Vince was asked to move to New York permanently to run the very business he had sampled earlier. “I know my career would not have turned out the same way had I not spent those six months” in New York, says Vince, now Goldman Sachs’ head of operations. “It was an invaluable part of the foundation that ultimately helped me build a successful career.”

So invaluable, in fact, that the investment bank hopes to replicate the experience through the “New Markets Mobility Exchange.” The program, to be launched in the late summer of 2010, will choose 50 to 60 individuals in this year’s graduating class of the firm’s Operations Analyst program to spend up to six months working in Goldman Sachs offices including Brazil, Russia, India, China and other key hub locations.

“Countries like the BRICs and other growth markets are central to our strategy over the medium and long-term,” explains Vince. “We need to reduce the barriers and improve the comfort people have interacting with people from different cultures.” His view is that if people get accustomed to mobility early in their career, they will be more open to mobility later in their career. By offering this opportunity to people in their early 20s, who are still young enough to be unencumbered by spouses, children and career expectations, Vince hopes they will gain “the experience and sensitivity to doing business in places they are less familiar with, bring the value of their own experience to bear on those situations, and re-import the experience back to their home location.”

The firm operates its analyst academies, a three-year training program for recent college graduates across Goldman Sachs’ global offices including Salt Lake City, New York, Jersey City, Bangalore, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London. The New

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Markets Mobility Exchange is an aspirational program, targeted at people who are successful at what they already do and are familiar enough with Goldman Sachs’ culture to be able to leverage their skills in different locations. Participants were nominated based on who might benefit most from the experience, who had the curiosity and appetite for adventure, and who had the foreign language skills.

Managers nominated 120 applicants from a pool of 500 trainees. They selected a Korean national presently working in Tokyo who will be transferred to Seoul, an American fluent in Portuguese who will spend time in São Paulo, and an analyst of Russian origin who will go to Moscow. Close to 60 percent of the program participants are women.

“One of the factors is building a pipeline of returning nationals,” notes Meriel Ward, vice president and co-head of the operations HR generalist team. “Growing the future leadership pipeline in smaller local offices is a big part of this program.”

To ensure that none of the participating offices suffer headcount shortages, all managers who send someone in the program also receive someone. All participants are assigned a “buddy” to help them integrate into their destination office, as well as a mentor; senior-level sponsors are responsible for ensuring that host managers know what to expect and for the program’s success in their region.

Both home and host managers will team up on feedback and performance reviews, so the participant won’t “get lost” during the duration of the program.

The most complicated part of the program was matching participants and destinations, said Tami Rosen, managing director and divisional HR head for operations. The actual relocation process is similar to setting up a short-term assignment: Each person is assigned a corporate apartment, gets a round-trip ticket plus one home-leave trip, and receives immigration assistance and a per diem based on the location.

Rosen expects the program to be a major selling point in attracting new recruits. Although the program had not yet launched, it was already included in the marketing material on college campuses and, she says, “was well received.” In fact, the program is already changing the focus of the recruitment effort for the analysts’ program. “Now we aim to hire people in every one of our offices with diverse language skills,” she says, noting that 80 percent of the trainees in the Salt Lake City office speak at least one language other than English. “It will make it easier down the road for them to go to different locations.”

“We’re a human capital company, so investing in our people is our version of research and development,” concludes Vince. “It’s particularly appropriate to have this type of investment, crossing borders and cultures, in those markets that are growing. And there’s an enormous amount of commercial value by making a big firm feel just a little bit smaller and more connected.”

Bloomberg: Women Moving Markets In 2010, Bloomberg made a formal commitment to increase its overall coverage of women, both in individual profiles, feature articles about women-related topics and columns that are written by and addressed to women.

In retrospect, says Amanda Bennett, executive editor/projects and investigations, “Women Moving Markets,” the rubric for the shift in emphasis, is an idea whose time had come. “We do profiles of women in the news anyway, so why not increase the number of profiles of women of significance to all of our clients? Everybody

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in the Bloomberg universe should know of Sheryl Sandberg, who is the COO of Facebook, or Irene Rosenfeld, the CEO of Kraft, who faced down Warren Buffett, her largest shareholder, to make an acquisition she wanted. There are lots of women to focus on, not just because they’re women but because they’re worthy of coverage.

The new lens will be directed to all aspects of newsgathering, including: • Polling. “We never broke out the results by gender before, but we do now,” says Bennett.

• Demographic coverage. Bennett envisions broad investigations into such topics as China’s one-child policy and its effects on the country’s growth, how women’s increased access to capital in developing markets will affect GNP growth, and how the increased educational ambitions of women in Arab countries will change the workforce and local economy. “We’re looking at women’s issues that will be of interest to all readers, men and women,” says Bennett.

• Columns. In addition to opinion columns written by Margaret Carlson and Amity Shlaes, there will be more contributions from women analysts who are experts in their own field and whose comments move markets.

In addition, all stories will be coded so that a simple search for “new information and women” on the Bloomberg site will produce all women-oriented stories.

“There’s no opposition,” says Bennett. “It’s not even controversial. When we asked the people who do the polling to split the results by gender, they said, ‘Sure.’ When we said, “There are 10 women in Brazil and eight women in India whom everyone ought to know about, everyone said, ‘Sure.’ This is not rocket science. It just requires someone who notices in the first place and says, ‘I’m really interested in this. Let’s get it done.’”

Because the initiative is still in the development phase, Bennett and her deputy, Lisa Kessenar, chose to engage Bloomberg’s women reporters first.

To their surprise, at the first meeting, the women moved to include their male colleagues, too. That’s fine with Bennett, who looks forward to the time when female-focused news coverage will no longer be “a 100-percent women-driven issue” and will occur “as much by osmosis as by fiat.” Pragmatism also has a part: “Since we have more men reporters than women, more men will have the opportunity to do these stories.”

Bennett and Kessenar meet weekly to approve stories and suggest new assignments. They’re in the process of setting specific numerical goals to measure coverage, based on the number of female-focused stories that ran in 2009 and the number they’d like to achieve in 2010. “Once we get our baseline down, we’ll see that the amount of coverage we currently offer is pretty feeble,” Bennett says. “It will be easy to double or triple what we’re doing pretty quickly.”

Bennett anticipates a lot of impact, thanks to the wide spread of Bloomberg outlets, including the Bloomberg terminal to the website, television, radio, news feeds to local affiliates, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “We can’t guarantee where a story will end up, but if we double our output of profiles on women or increase our female focus in small but meaningful ways or do more stories on gender-related global issues, those will begin to seep out everywhere.”

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Claiming and Sustaining Female Ambition Boehringer Ingelheim: Extended Business Trips Gaining international experience and visibility can be a challenge to both men and women in multinational corporations. Knowing this, Boehringer Ingelheim created a short-term assignment program to augment its long-term offerings and allow its less-mobile employees to gain international exposure.

Boehringer offers two different types of international assignments. The first requires employees to spend one to eight years on assignment. Families are expected to come along on these traditional longer-term postings. Within the last few years, Boehringer has also implemented a short-term assignment program called the “Extended Business Trip.”

Extended Business Trips are regulated by tax laws, which limit employees’ time in the country to 183 days (6 months). These “trips” range between three and six months. In addition to providing development opportunities, Extended Business Trips allow for knowledge transfer on a short-term basis. In one case, a woman from Germany was brought into the U.S. to provide coverage for a U.S.based employee who was out on maternity leave. Extended Business Trips are offered around the globe, with the focus currently on the Americas. Participants are all high-potentials ranging in level from director to senior manager. Boehringer provides participants with housing and transportation in the host country.

In 2008 Boehringer refined the guidelines for the program in order to better accommodate participants with family obligations. “We’ve become much more flexible in terms of how we address family issues, both with the Extended Business Trips and with our long-term assignments,” says Gwendolyn Doden, recently retired corporate vice president of Human Resources for the Americas.

To that end, the company now provides support for the family members of participants on Extended Business Trips. In the case of dual-career couples, the partner usually stays home; however, the company provides for monthly visits between the home and host countries. Visits may last for up to 90 days, although they are generally for a much shorter period. “Separation is difficult, but it’s a lot less stressful than having to uproot your entire family, especially if you’re only going for a year,” Doden says.

In some cases, participants’ family members may join them on Extended Business Trips. A woman’s stay-at-home husband came with her on assignment in Latin America. Childcare and eldercare may also be provided. When a woman from Venezuela went on an assignment to Ecuador, Boehringer brought her mother along with her. When a German woman on assignment at Boehringer’s U.S. headquarters in Ridgefield, Connecticut, brought her two-and-a-half year-old with her, the child was able to use the on-site childcare center.

The flexibility of the Extended Business Trip has made it extremely appealing to employees who have traditionally been less mobile, such as women with childcare and eldercare responsibilities. The program benefits both men and women, with about a quarter of participants in the United States and Canada being female and a nearly equal gender breakdown in South America.

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General Electric: Mid-East myConnections Connections are the cornerstone of the business world—from sales to innovation and career advancement. And in more than a dozen years of helping the 100,000 women of GE advance, the company’s Women’s Network has always recognized the power of the right relationship. That’s why the group—now grown to 150 hubs in 43 countries—started “myConnections,” a small group mentoring program, in January 2008, and began expanding the initiative to emerging markets in 2009.

To help female talent advance, groups of 20 high-potential women are matched with a “champion”— a GE senior leader— for six to eight group mentoring meetings a year. “The relationships established in myConnections groups makes reaching out to an experienced senior leader for advice and coaching easier,” says Pam Bellamy, GE Energy’s senior human resources manager.

In June 2009, a pilot myConnections program was launched in the United Arab Emirates, where most of GEs female employees in the region are based. Out of 350 women staff in the Middle East and Africa, 150 are working in the UAE. Unlike in the United States, the new program is not limited to high-potential women, but to all female employees, says Rania Rostom, communications manager for Africa and the Middle East, and the champion for the initial groups.

To kick off the program, Rostom held two presentations in order to introduce the idea to employees, then invited interested women to fill out a survey so they could be sorted into 10- to 12-member myConnections groups, or “pods.” “It’s new and people are always asking, ‘How is this going to work and what is this going to mean to me?’” says Rostom. Some 70 women came to the first meetings, and within a month, she had created three Dubai-based groups, launching them quickly to build momentum and nurture buzz. By the end of the year, 51 women were participating in four groups.

To begin, each new group determines the future agenda for the membership.

Although Rostom appoints a group coach, the group’s success or failure depends upon the commitment of its members. Each meeting is organized and led by a member, who finds a space and time, invites a speaker, and generally ensures the meeting’s success. “Because there is a person who owns the event and other team members are relying on this person, there is a personal drive for success in the group,” says Rostom.

Is the myConnections pilot working in the Middle East? To illustrate the success of the initiative, Rostom tells a story. At the kick-off meeting of one group, a woman raised her hand. She worked in finance, yet was based across town from most of her colleagues and felt she was missing out. “I can help you,” said another new participant, the executive assistant to the region’s chief finance officer. As a result, the frustrated finance employee met a senior female finance leader, and began making closer ties with her department.

After the two connected, Rostom took note of the event to others in their myConnections pod. “It’s these kinds of connections that allow you to reach out to each other and seek each others’ support,” Rostom told the fledgling group.

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Intel: Women at Intel Network The goal of Intel’s global women’s initiative is to ensure that Intel is a great place to work for women—worldwide. But making this happen is a highly local process, says Kim Warren, manager of women’s initiatives for the department of global diversity and inclusion. Intel seeks to understand how the challenges facing women in China may differ from those confronting female employees in Russia or Europe.

That’s why the company’s 13-year-old “Women at Intel Network” (WIN) is going global—in a grassroots way.

Since 2007, the employee networking group, which is open to all employees, regardless of gender, has added 14 international chapters. China was the first to initiate a chapter outside the United States, with a group in Chengdu. Offshoots in Shanghai and Dalian soon followed. In spring 2008, nearly 300 participants from across the country attended the first Chinese WIN Leadership Development Conference in Shanghai Zizhu science-based industrial park, attending sessions on work-life balance, stress and growing technical skills. As well, women in Russia and Brazil are working to start local branches of the global networking group.

In practice, WIN chapters endeavor to strike a balance between global aims and local needs. Chapter chairs from around the world hold virtual meetings each quarter to establish global goals in areas ranging from membership to professional development, which are then adopted according to local priorities and cultural contexts. “Each site implements what’s best for them,” says Warren. Each time a new chapter is started abroad, in-country representatives work with U.S.-based managers to establish rules and guidelines that fit local needs. New WIN chapters are paired for about a year with established U.S. “sister” branches so that the newcomers can learn best practices.

In the long run, the company hopes to offer women in emerging markets the kind of careers that they may not easily obtain in male-centric cultures, says Rosalind L. Hudnell, director of global diversity and inclusion. “Companies such as Intel are leading the way to achieve, inside of our organizations, what the world has yet to accomplish,” says Hudnell. “In the end, the more successful we are within our walls, the more positive change we will see in society as a whole.”

Siemens: Global Leadership Organization of Women “Too white, too German and too male”—that was the blunt critique offered by Siemens CEO Peter Loescher in mid-2008 on the state of the global engineering giant. At the time, nearly two-thirds of its labor force worked outside Germany, yet international executives made up only 30 percent of the company’s senior managers. The percentage of women in management had nearly doubled since 2002, but hovered at a low 14 percent.

As the global economic crisis unfolded, Loescher acted boldly, announcing a more systematic approach to diversity as an urgent business imperative for the 163-year-old company. The goal? Siemens leaders sought to tap the company’s rich talent pool of 405,000 employees across 190 countries, ensuring that every position, high and low, was filled with the most qualified person, irrespective of race, age, gender, background or religion. Cultivating a rich diversity would further bolster the company’s bottom line by inspiring a workforce that is both innovative and reflective of a customer base that is diversifying worldwide.

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“We have a huge talent pool all around the world and intend to rigorously develop this competitive advantage,” said Loescher.

Less than a year after Loescher’s initial announcement, the company held a Diversity Day in March 2009, timed to the launch of the company’s first global diversity initiative: “Global Leadership Organization of Women” (GLOW). While many of Siemen’s regional locations already had local women’s groups, Siemens previously had not established a network for top women at the corporate level—a global umbrella for women’s advancement.

That said, GLOW is not designed to benefit only women. Rather than a means of receiving special support, GLOW is a vehicle for women to give support to help the organization meet its larger goals. “We want women to be the first catalysts of our diversity initiatives, to work on topics that will be helpful for others in the company,” says Jill Lee, the company’s first diversity officer.

Within a year, GLOW chapters were started in South Africa, France, Russia, Pakistan, Japan, the United States and Germany.

Today, GLOW comprises four pillars of work: mentoring, on-ramping, flexwork and external relations. First, GLOW members are creating enthusiasm for mentoring throughout the company for men and women at all career stages. In Germany, 20 GLOW members met in 2009 with a like number of women from the powerful Christian Social Union party to exchange best mentoring practices. Each organization brought 20 mentees to the landmark event, which included a panel discussion, guest speakers and a lively networking dinner. In Russia, a new GLOW chapter is working to help women network with peers across the country.

Second, GLOW is supporting Siemens’ efforts to provide more support for women as well as men who return to Siemens after parental leaves. By creating dedicated resources to help “on-ramping” employees reintegrate, Siemens is responding to external social changes affecting work styles. Across the globe, more fathers are taking paternity leave, and younger generations want to spend more time with their families. By thoughtfully addressing leave-takers’ needs, GLOW will support the company in creating a more productive work environment for all Siemens employees.

Third, GLOW members will research and help facilitate flexible work conditions.

By researching best practices and showcasing how flexible arrangements can succeed, women will lead the way in helping Siemens give its workforce a range of effective flex options, making the company more attractive to top talent. A new GLOW chapter is helping increase flex options in Japan, where a tradition of long work hours is stressful for talented working mothers.

GLOW’s fourth goal is to increase interaction with other organizations in order to promote Siemens and increase its visibility on local levels and in industries it services.

The company invited about 150 of its highest-performing women to inaugurate GLOW’s work, then expanded its leadership pool to 400. In each of the network’s four work areas, two leaders initially led teams that focused on realizing a series of “quick-wins.” From the start, GLOW’s activities have been publicized throughout the company, especially through highly visible virtual articles and announcements.

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Dealing with Pulls and Pushes Booz & Company: Middle East Flexibility The calculus of work-life balance is especially challenging for consultants at Booz & Company, whose clients demand their attention 24/7. It’s even more so in emerging markets and the Middle East, where family-rooted forces that can derail talented women from their career tracks have unexpected pull.

Booz doesn’t have a formal flexible work practice for the region, but that doesn’t mean the company isn’t aware of and sympathetic to the difficulties confronting some of its high-performing women employees, many of whom would otherwise leave the workforce. Instead, the firm takes a flexible approach to flex-time, leaving it up to the manager to customize a plan for each employee and have the two of them work out the details together. Although nebulous in concept, this approach has had tremendous success in practice.

As a consultant, Joanne Alam traveled five days a week. “Our projects take us anywhere across the region, from Jordan to Dubai, to Syria. That’s the nature of the job,” she explains. But when she became pregnant with her first child in 2006, “I knew I couldn’t keep traveling if I wanted to be there for my children. I love the firm, I love the people and the nature of the work, but that’s my priority.” Regretfully, she tendered her resignation.

Her project manager, vice president Karim Sabbagh, had another idea. Rather than lose one of his top talents, he suggested she apply her brainpower to a new and different opportunity: starting up a marketing communications department in the region. She could put in a 60 percent schedule and have the flexibility to work out of her home.

Having already forged relationships with the partners when she was doing client-facing work made it easy for Alam to slip into this new role. “Booz by nature is very virtual, so partners often don’t see each other for months. We build the relationships by productivity. We don’t always have to see each other in meetings.”

Three years later, the marketing communications department has tripled in size and Alam has been promoted twice, most recently to senior manager. The projects she oversees have expanded from a regional to a global reach. Rather than feeling marginalized for working part-time, she feels her career has plenty of room to grow. “I can see myself in two or three years becoming director of marketing communications.”

Arine Hadidian, too, was ready to resign when a close family member became ill and the Oman-based consultant wanted to stay close by in Beirut. She was unaware of the possibility of flextime until her manager suggested it. Now based in Beirut as a global business operations manager, she feels she has built many of the same skills and relationships she would have developed as a consultant while traveling only once every four to six months. “I don’t see flextime as an obstacle to career advancement,” she says. “Just because you’re there only half the time doesn’t mean you can’t come up with something of value, and my manager understood that.”

Being flexible about flextime has been a win/win, enabling Booz to attract and retain talented women and giving women new opportunities to nurture their ambition and continue to build their careers. That translates into the kind of loyalty and commitment money can’t buy. “It really made a difference for me to be able to take care of my personal life without having to drastically change my professional

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life,” says Hadidian. “It helped me get through those hard times—and it meant the world to my family that I could be with them. I’m very proud to be a Booz & Company employee.”

Cisco: Extended Flex Program Flexible work arrangements are a standard part of the vocabulary for employees at Cisco offices in North America and Europe. But when the global telecommunications giant, whose workforce numbers 65,000 worldwide, decided to extend flex options to Asia, it encountered challenges with translation.

“In Asian regions, there is still a high value on face time and the number of hours worked,” explains Tracy Ann Curtis, senior manager, inclusion and diversity, Asia-Pacific and Japan. “With these policies, we’re pushing a cultural expectation that’s very different. We are not just adopting a policy but a complete mindshift.”

Nonetheless, it was a fundamental change the company realized would be necessary if it wanted to remain an employer of choice. “A third of our new hires come from India and China,” says Curtis. “These are Gen Ys—‘freshers,’ as we call them in India—and expect to work in new and different ways based on their natural rhythms, not confined to an office for 8, 10 or 12 hours a day.”

A readiness assessment revealed surprisingly little pushback from senior leaders. Bangalore’s notoriously congested roads had already turned many of them into fans of telecommuting. The challenge was in breaking through the permafrost of middle managers—the level where the cultural values linking hard work, face time and relationship orientation were most entrenched. The company created a website, scheduled Q&A sessions, and brought in APAC senior leaders to explain why flexible work should be seen “as an opportunity to push a new leadership mindset,” Curtis says. In Asia’s traditionally hierarchical environment, having senior role models “is one card that’s really important to play in this part of the world,” notes Curtis.

With momentum established, the next step was to create a roadmap to implement flex. Training programs were set up—for employees to make them understand the responsibilities involved in taking up flexible work practices and for managers to help them learn how to manage a flexible workforce. “It’s the manager’s discretion as to whether the job profile supports flexible working,” says Radhika Muthukumaran, project manager for global inclusion and diversity.

Phase I—telecommuting, flexible time, and part time—was rolled out in India, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore in October 2009. (Because each country in the Asia-Pacific region has different government guidelines regarding flex, Cisco has to conduct a legal review for each of the 14 countries in which it operates in that region. Consequently, the road map for China, Korea and Hong Kong has a longer timeline.)

Phase II aims to introduce the concept of Off/On Ramps and remote work that had already been successfully implemented in North America and Europe in 2009.

Building on the insight that people have different needs at different points in their lives, Cisco’s Off/On-Ramp Program allows workers to take unpaid breaks of between 12 and 24 months. When ready to return, they have 90 days to find a job within the company. “If no job is available, they have to leave. That’s the risk the employee takes,” Muthukumaran says. Once an opening is identified, employees go through an on-ramp training program to get up to speed on their business function.

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When “Extended Flex” was introduced in the U.S., about a dozen people applied for and were approved for extended leave in the first round. With no upper limit on the number of program participants, Cisco expects that figure to increase, especially in Asia. “We expect two to four percent of the workforce at any given time to take any of the work options,” says Muthukumaran.

Although the program will undoubtedly appeal most to women who want to stop working temporarily after their children are born, the company plans to make the program available across all populations—allowing employees to take time off to resolve eldercare issues, pursue a graduate degree, or refocus their careers as they see fit. “It’s all about the employee value proposition—what are we offering employees to stay engaged,” says Curtis.

Deutsche Bank: India Diversity Council When Deutsche Bank human resources leaders set up a high-level “Diversity Council” in India, some senior managers had little or no understanding of the concept. “In a lot of emerging markets, the whole agenda is new,” says Anu Sarkar, the regional manager of diversity in Asia-Pacific. For many, diversity “is a buzzword coming from the U.S. and the UK.” But starting fresh has a plus side, notes Sarkar, one of the organizers of the council when it was created in March 2008. “We didn’t have any legacy. It was like a green field for us to get launched on this journey,” she says, adding, “we don’t mind going slow.”

The 10-member, cross-divisional Council may be proceeding cautiously, but its early impact has been widely felt. With the help of the human resources team, the Council increased maternity leaves in India by one month to a total of four months, and added an optional extra phase-back program for new mothers. As a result, mothers can work a variety of half-time schedules, such as three full days or five half-days weekly, for two months after their main maternity leave ends.

With the Council’s help, HR and diversity leaders also introduced a maternity coaching program for new mothers and their managers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Before, during and after their leaves, mothers get four to five hours of careeroriented telephone coaching on handling the transition, including an hour with their spouse if they wish. Separately, managers are offered two hours of coaching.

The Council has been active in helping create the bank’s first mentoring program for senior women leaders in India, as well. As of fall 2009, the fledgling program had paired 15 senior Indian women with an equal number of managing directors, both male and female. A similar program launched in Japan in autumn 2009, and others are planned for Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. To retain senior management and promote generational diversity, the company also boosted the workforce retirement age in India to 60 from 58.

For now, the Diversity Council is focusing on issues related to female advancement and gender. But going forward, diversity will be broadly defined and the Council may explore policies related to disability and generational diversity, says Sarkar. In a country with a tight labor market and a young workforce, diversity is a crucial way for the Bank to remain an employer of choice. By 2020, 35 percent of Indians will be ages 15 to 24, and the country will be well on its way to overtaking China as the most populous nation on the globe. In coming decades, employers in India must address the needs and concerns of talented young Indian women, or they will fall behind in a crucial global market.

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Pfizer India: Creating a High-Performance Community India’s rich talent pool of high-performing professional women are a key element in almost every organization’s plans to succeed in this enormous, dynamic and rapidly expanding economy. Yet despite their advanced education and soaring ambitions, many of India’s high-potential women struggle with work-life balance issues that choke their capabilities, thwart their careers and, in too many cases, cause them to drop out of the workforce.

With the world’s 12th-largest economy targeted as a top growth market, Pfizer initiated a special effort to recognize and engage its high-potential female talent in India. The program has three goals, explained Amy Schulman, senior vice president and general counsel, and executive sponsor of the company’s Global Women’s Council: • Help Pfizer develop and retain top female talent by ensuring that they feel valued and supported.

• Strengthen the connections among and between Pfizer’s high-performing women and their women customers, creating a virtuous circle of support and loyalty.

• Put together a pilot program that can be used in both developed and other emerging markets.

In a pioneering integration of two sets of needs, Pfizer India identified 10 of its top women in sales and marketing, as well as 10 of their most important female customers: Physicians in private practices, high-profile hospitals, medical technology and other fields running the gamut of Pfizer’s markets. Each was interviewed individually as well as invited to participate in a focus group in which the women discussed their career goals and the challenges and opportunities they face in fulfilling them.

There was a common narrative of blazing ambition often blocked by cultural barriers. In addition to the usual issues of work-life balance, professional Indian women have to perform a complicated balancing act that pits their career aspirations against societal expectations. While an extended family network usually nullifies the childcare issues facing so many of their counterparts in developed economies, Indian women are disproportionately responsible for eldercare. The demands of sales jobs are often not understood by family members, so women come under a lot of pressure to give up their careers to take care of aging relatives.

Safety and security issues that hamper women’s ability to travel or work at night also make it difficult for them to do their jobs.

By providing the opportunity to share their experiences, the debut discussion group encouraged Pfizer’s rising stars and their customers to connect, celebrate each others’ successes and discuss difficulties, with the underlying recognition that they aren’t toiling on their own but are part of a larger community, one whose efforts are valuable and worth supporting.

Pfizer’s next step was a one-day workshop in April 2010 to address these cultural issues, as well as to teach both career women and their customers the leadership skills that will help them raise their careers to the next level. The workshop was supported by Kewal Handa, managing director of Pfizer India, as well as Pfizer board members and senior women in India. Workshops were held in Mumbai and Delhi. “It’s not about Pfizer,” says Schulman, “It’s about leadership.”

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Methodology The research consists of a series of surveys in six geographies. Qualitative data was collected through focus groups, our Virtual Strategy SessionSM tool and numerous one-on-one interviews.

The surveys were conducted online in Brazil, Russia, India, China and the UAE in October 2009 reaching a total of 4,350 women and men (a minimum of 1,000 people in each of four countries—Brazil, Russia, India and China—and 200 in the UAE). Qualified respondents were country residents with at least a bachelor’s degree equivalent. The surveys were translated into the local languages.

The sixth national survey, which included selected emerging markets questions, was conducted in the U.S. in February 2010 of 2,952 currently employed men and women in certain white collar occupations with at least a bachelor’s degree. Data in this survey were weighted to be representative of the U.S. population of college graduates on key demographic characteristics (age, sex, race/ethnicity, household internet access, metro status, and region).

The base used for statistical testing was the effective base.

The national surveys were conducted by Knowledge Networks under the auspices of the Center for Work-Life Policy, a nonprofit research organization.

Knowledge Networks was responsible for the data collection, while the Center for Work-Life Policy conducted the analysis. The company surveys were conducted entirely by the Center for Work-Life Policy.

In the charts, percentages may not always add up to 100 because of computer rounding or the acceptance of multiple response answers from respondents.

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The Hidden Brain Drain Task Force Founded in 2004 by Sylvia Ann Hewlett (Center for Work-Life Policy and Columbia University), Carolyn Buck Luce (Ernst & Young) and Cornel West (Princeton University), the mission of this private sector task force is to identify, develop, and promote a second generation of corporate policies and practices that support the ambition, work and life needs of highly qualified women and minorities. The 56 global companies that comprise the task force—representing four million employees and operating in 190 countries around the world—are united by an understanding that the full utilization of the talent pool is at the heart of competitive advantage and economic success.

The Battle for Female Talent in Emerging Markets is the sixth piece of research completed by the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force. The first cycle of research, “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success,” was published by the Harvard Business Review in the form of an article and report in March 2005. The second cycle of research culminated in “Leadership in Your Midst: Tapping the Hidden Strength of Minority Executives,” published by the Harvard Business Review in November 2005. A companion report, Global Multicultural Executives and the Talent Pipeline, was released in April 2006. A followup study of Latinas, Sin Fronteras: Celebrating and Capitalizing on the Strengths of Latina Executives, was published in October 2007. A third cycle of research, “Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek,” was published in the Harvard Business Review in December 2006. A companion report, Seduction and Risk: The Emergence of Extreme Jobs, was released in February 2007. The fourth cycle of research, “Stopping the Exodus of Women in Science,” was published by the Harvard Business Review in June 2008. A companion report, The Athena Factor: Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering and Technology, was also published by the Harvard Business Review at the same time. A sequel to The Athena Factor, focusing on women in tech in the financial sector, was released in December 2008. Bookend Generations: Leveraging Talent and Finding Common Ground, the fifth research study, was published in June 2009. A companion article

by Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Laura Sherbin and Karen Sumberg, “How Gen Y and Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda” was published in the July/August 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review. The seventh Hidden Brain Drain Task Force study, “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps Revisited” was published by the Harvard Business Review in June 2010 and the eighth, “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps Germany,” was published as an article “Letzte Ausfahrt Babypause” in Harvard Business Manager in April 2010.

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ENDNOTES 1

J im O’Neill and Anna Stupnytska, “The Long-Term Outlook for the BRICs and N-11s Post Crisis,” Goldman Sachs Global Economics Paper No: 192, December 4, 2009, 6, 8.

2

O p. cit, 8.

3

B ased on 2009 figures, data from Goldman Sachs, most recent available as of May 17, 2010.

4

P rojection data from Goldman Sachs, most recent available as of May 17, 2010.

5

J im O’Neill, “We need Brics to build the world economy,” The Times (London), June 23, 2009.

6

“ The Long-Term Outlook for the BRICs and N-11s Post Crisis,” 3.

7

P rojection data from Goldman Sachs, most recent available as of May 17, 2010.

8

D ouglas A. Ready, Linda A. Hill, Jay A. Conger, “Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets,” Harvard Business Review, November 2008, 63-70.

9

M cKinsey Global Institute, “The Emerging Global Labor Market,” June 2005, 32

10

Ben Hirschler and Georgina Prodhan, “Firms Bet on Emerging Markets in Economic Downturn,” Reuters, September 28, 2008.

11

UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Number derived from enrollment figures.

12

Global talent pool is defined as all individuals around the world who have at least tertiary education (college/university level). Source: Sylvia Ann Hewlett et. al, The Athena Factor (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review, June 2008); Booz & Company analysis; OECD & UNESCO 2000–2006 (based on availability) Education database, Tertiary Completion Levels: India, Pakistan and Peru, 2002 UNESCO Education Database, Tertiary Enrollment reduced, assuming 33% completion rate.

13

U NESCO Institute for Statistics, Table 14 Tertiary Indicators. Statistics from 2007, most recent available, accessed May 12, 2010.

14

“ Women in Emerging Markets,” Catalyst Quick Takes. Women make up 43 percent of workers in Brazil, 49 percent in Russia, 28 percent in India and 44 percent in China.

15

A ccording to Michael Paul Sacks and Kerry G. Pankhurst, eds., Understanding Soviet Society (London: Routledge, 2002), in 1988 nine out of 10 women, aged 20 to 49, were employed—a figure higher than any other industrialized nation.

16

S ee, for instance, Nishchae Suri and Stella Hou, “The War for Talent in India and China,” Hewitt Quarterly Asia-Pacific, Vol. 5, 1, 2006; Achieving High Performance in a Multi-Polar World (Accenture, 2008); Douglas A. Ready, Linda A. Hill, and Jay A. Conger, “Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets,” (Harvard Business Review, November 2008).

17

U NESCO Institute for Statistics.

18

I bid.

19

P hil Baty, “Rankings 09: Asia advances,” World University Rankings 2009, The Times Higher Education, October 8, 2009.

20

F inancial Times Global MBA Rankings 2010, Financial Times.

21

Ibid.

22

China data from Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China, “Gender Equality and Women’s Development in China,” August 2005, Beijing.

23

42

“Women in Emerging Markets,” Catalyst Quick Takes, 2009.

24

International Labor Organization, LABORSTATA, data for 2007 or most recent available; Grant Thornton, “International Business Report 2007;” “Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling: Women in Management, Update 2004” (Geneva: International Labour Office), 2004, 14.

See also, Irene Chang, “Blazing Trails in Brazil,” Working Mother, June 1, 2008.

25

Grant Thornton, “Global survey: Women still hold less than a quarter of senior management positions in privately held businesses,” March 5, 2009.

26

“Women CEOs who broke the glass ceiling in India,” Rediff Business Desk, December 2009.

27

International Labor Organization, LABORSTATA. Data for 2008; Heba Saleh, “Education: Lesson to be Learnt From the Gender Gap,” Financial Times, June 20, 2008.

28

Mercer, “Worldwide Cost of Living Survey, 2009–City Ranking,” London, July 7, 2009.

29

Towers Perrin, Global Workforce Study, 2007-2008, “Closing the Engagement Gap: A Roadmap for Driving Superior Business Performance,” 4.

30

Ben Hirschler, “Firms Bet on Emerging Markets,” Reuters, September 23, 2009.

31

Some names and affiliations have been changed. When only first names are used, they are pseudonyms.

32

Lisa Belkin, “The Opt-Out Revolution,” New York Times Magazine, October 26, 2003.

33

opulation Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United P Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision. In fact, eldercare pressures are so extreme in India that in the face of rapid economic development and the breakdown of tradition, a 2007 ruling by parliament made it punishable by law.

34

Richard Jackson, Keisuke Nakashima and Neil Howe, China’s Long March to Retirement Reform (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International Studies), 2009, 2.

35

S.C. Mishra, “Is Sarkari Naukri recession-free?,” Article Alley, February 24, 2009.

36

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Carolyn Buck Luce, Sandra Southwell, Linda Bernstein, Seduction and Risk: The Emergence of Extreme Jobs (New York: Center for Work-Life Policy, 2007).

37

Nancy J. Adler, “Pacific Basin managers: A ‘gaijin,’ not a woman.” Human Resource Management, 26, 1987, 169-191; Karen Korabik, “Managerial women in the People’s Republic of China,” International Studies of Management and Organization, 23, 1993, 47-64; Sandra S. Liu, Lucette B. Comer, and Alan J. Dubinsky, “Gender differences in attitudes toward women as sales managers in the People’s Republic of China,” The Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 21, No. 4, 2001, 303-11.

38

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Carolyn Buck Luce, Cornel West, Helen Chernikoff, Danielle Samalin, Peggy Shiller, Invisible Lives: Celebrating and Leveraging Diversity in the Executive Suite (New York: Center for Work-Life Policy, November 2005), 35.

39

Jim Yardley, “Indian Women Find New Peace in Rail Commute,” New York Times, September 15, 2009.

40

“Russian crisis sparks Moscow crime wave–prosecutor,” Reuters, February 16, 2009.

41

Overseas Security Advisory Council, Brazil 2009 Crime and Safety Report: São Paulo, April 27, 2009.

42

“Indian Women Find New Peace in Rail Commute,” New York Times, op.cit.

43

44

45

The Center for Work-Life Policy is a nonprofit think tank based in New York City. CWLP’s flagship project is the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force—a private sector task force focused on realizing female and multicultural talent.

The 56 global corporations and organizations that constitute the Task Force—representing four million employees and operating in 190 countries around the world—are united by an understanding that the full utilization of the talent pool is at the heart of competitive advantage and economic success.

Center for Work-Life Policy 1841 Broadway, Suite 400 New York, NY 10023 USA worklifepolicy.org isbn 978-0-9774829-7-9