Do women need to be lucky to enter top management?
_______
This article is part of the 55th issue of LEAP — Voices of Youth e-letter. Subscribe now.
Although the female labor force participation rate has exceeded 50% in Taiwan, it is still difficult for women to advance to high-level positions due to entrenched traditional gender roles in Taiwanese society. Women are generally expected to prioritize family over their career and take up more care responsibilities, which hinders many women from pursuing their careers and affects their promotion. This also causes some women in leadership roles to attribute their success to “good luck.”
“Lucky” Female Leaders
Naomi Lee is one such case. She is the Vice President of Taiwan Mobile, one of the three largest telecommunications companies in Taiwan. In her interview [1], Naomi pointed out that women are often under immense pressure after marriage and childbirth because they have to carry the heavy burden of childcare. The conflict between family and career may therefore affect their performance at work.
But Naomi said she was lucky to have a husband and family who supported her career pursuits. “My husband and parents-in-laws are supportive of my career. I also have a nanny and domestic helper that allow me to spend more time at work. Without these, I don’t think my career could’ve developed so successfully,” Naomi said.
Breaking Gender Stereotypes and choose the law profession
For Naomi, good luck may have begun at an even younger age. In addition to the family’s support after marriage, Naomi also had her mother’s support when she was a student, enabling her to break the traditional gender stereotypes and choose a path different from other girls.
Naomi was born and raised in a relatively conservative society, with deeply rooted gender stereotypes that expected women to only have children and take care of their families. Female students who were lucky enough to get an education and continue their studies were strongly encouraged to pursue an education degree and become a teacher upon graduation.
Naomi said, “My teacher told us, ‘Summer and winter breaks will allow you to take care of your family and kids in the future while providing additional financial support for your husband.’”
However, Naomi wanted more than that. With her mother’s support, she made a choice different from her high school peers and became the only girl in her class who went to law school. “I am thankful for my mother. She encouraged me to have a different life,” Naomi said.
While she was in university, Naomi felt that law school had fewer limitations on women, which prompted her decision to further pursue a legal career. However, contrary to her expectations, Naomi still encountered gender discrimination while looking for jobs after graduation.
When she was interviewing for a legal position at a retail company, she found that her approved salary was about $167 USD lower than what they were willing to give a male candidate interviewing for the same position, for the reason that “men have a family to provide for.” Naomi felt this was extremely unfair.
A Friendly Work Environment is Conducive to Women’s Career Development
Again, Naomi was “fortunate,” as she only experienced workplace gender discrimination at the aforementioned retail company. Looking back on her career, Naomi was glad that she worked for companies that valued gender equality. And now, the company she works for, Taiwan Mobile, is also actively implementing gender equality-related policies and measures to create a friendly work environment, enabling more women to join, stay, and be promoted.
Taiwan Mobile provides diverse training courses to shape a culture of diversity and inclusion to ensure all employees feel accepted and respected. For example, unconscious bias training guides managers and employees to reflect on the stereotypes and biases they may have at work. There are also movie sessions to promote the ideas of gender equality and respecting differences.
In addition to the company culture, flexible work arrangements are crucial for working mothers, as they are more likely to need time off to care for sick children or leave earlier to pick them up. Taiwan Mobile provides as many as six work schedules for employees to choose from and allows every employee to work from home 10 days per month, which has been established as a formal company policy. Naomi believes that this gives female employees more options and is helpful for them as they juggle the balance between family life and career.
Moreover, as many women have to temporarily leave the workforce for childcare reasons, which may influence their opportunities for promotion, Taiwan Mobile stipulates that maternity or parental leave without pay should not affect the performance assessment scores of employees. Their performance should be assessed based solely on outcomes during their period of service.
Women in Leadership Positions Serve as Role Models
“If there are more female leaders, female employees would be motivated to work harder, as they know it is possible to further develop their careers and attain success,” Naomi said.
Concerning the gender ratio, Naomi highlighted the importance of women in high-level positions, because they can serve as an inspiration for more women to be dedicated to work and believe they can also succeed in their careers. By the end of 2022, 49% of all employees in Taiwan Mobile were women. At management levels, women also occupied 49% of the positions.
Currently, Taiwan Mobile continues to work on increasing the proportion of women at management levels. The company has set a goal of reaching 50% women in managerial roles by 2025 and ensuring gender representation on the board of directors in accordance to the Taiwanese government’s latest regulation for all listed companies to have at least one-third of either gender on their board by 2025.
No Need to Rely on Good Luck
As ESG (environment, social, and governance) and DEI (diversity, equality, and inclusion) become buzzwords around the world and many international corporations start actively promoting these ideas, more and more Taiwanese companies, including Taiwan Mobile, have followed the trend to adopt related policies to create a diverse and inclusive workplace that enables different groups of people to fulfill their potential at work.
With their efforts, more and more women may be able to advance their careers. In the future, we hope to see more women serving as c-suite executives, and they will no longer attribute their success to “good luck,” but confidently say this is because of their personal competence and abilities.
[1] The interview with Naomi Lee in this article is adapted from “Listen to Your Heart and Keep Your Option Open” from APEC Promoting Gender Equality in the Telecommunications Industry for the Inclusive Recovery, p.26–29. Accessed at https://www.apec.org/publications/2023/03/promoting-gender-equality-in-the-telecommunications-industry-for-the-inclusive-recovery
Also in This Issue: What has Taiwan done to promote gender-friendly work environments?
What prevents Taiwanese women from getting hired and promoted? Have the government and private sector been active in solving these problems?
