People
Issue No. 8 - December/ 2002/january
The Secret Lives of Women Executives
Many women in senior executive positions lied at interviews about having children for fear of risking their careers, a University of South Australia study shows.
The women made this choice because they could see that in some organisations having children was not rewarded, according to Dr Margaret Peters from UniSA’s School of Communication, Information and New Media; and recent Hawke Institute post doctoral research fellow, who is researching the level of change in management practices as more women enter senior executive ranks.
More than 280 senior executive women and men were interviewed from 19 organisations across five Australian states in highflying roles such as Chief Executive; Executive Director or Deputy; Vice Chancellor, Pro Vice Chancellor, Deputy Chancellor, Executive Dean and Director. Many were women on salaries of between $300,000-$500,000.
“Women who wanted to be at the top, even in organisations that had substantial maternity and family friendly policies, found that taking time off for children was not seen as advantageous to their careers.
“I interviewed one woman who said flatly, ‘No one in this organisation knows that I have children. They don’t even know that I am married. It’s not an aspect of my life that I care to share with anyone because it immediately places me in a vulnerable position.’
“Another woman said that there was no way that she would have children, even though her employer had won national awards for being family friendly. ‘It would be very, very difficult for me to progress … I would regard that as being the death of my career here,’ she said.
“Many women chose not to have children or to delay it for a long time, hoping that they would be very secure when they come back,” Dr Peters said.
According to one senior executive who took maternity leave, ‘every time I’ve come back my desk is gone. It hap...
