Women still losing out to men on top jobs
Women in top management positions such as Polska Kasa Oszczednosci Bank Polski President Henryka Pieronkiewicz are still the exception rather than the norm these days, despite the fact that the number of women running businesses has grown from 5% in 1989 to 10% last year, said Ewa Lisowska, chairwoman of the Polish division of the International Forum for Women (IFW).
"It's much easier for women to reach higher positions in smaller companies than in the big ones," she said.
About 70% of women managers work in medium-sized companies (up to 50 employees). But half of those women manage businesses with fewer than five employees, the Central Statistical Office (GUS) estimated.
According to a Firma 2000 report called "Polish Women Managers 2000," just 11% of women managers have more than 60 direct subordinates.
"This is due to a number of factors, including (women's) historical status under socialism, the need to balance a career and family, and both subtle and overt discrimination in the workplace," the report stated.
"Women have to combine a professional career with taking care of the family," said Joanna Sokolska, office head at the Polish Association of Women Managers (PSWF). Family responsibilities take up a lot of time that could otherwise be devoted to a career, said June Lavelle, the former head of Firma 2000 who supervised the compiling of the report.
The average woman manager in Poland is 45 years old, has two children and works 51 hours a week. The report stated that about 70% of women managers are married and 80% have children.
But beyond the need to find time for both a career and a family, women aspiring to be managers often face a more basic problem: discrimination.
Men are reluctant to yield power to women, said a woman who owns a furniture accessories company in Torun together with her husband. "If a woman owns a company with a man, he won't allow her to make decisions," she said, adding that the situation is worse if the man and woman are married. "The division of positions at home, where a wife is usually subjected to the will of the husband, is extended to the company. My (business) decisions have to be confirmed by my husband," she said.
In addition, women don't help each other get better jobs, according to Lisowska. "Women don't support each other, they don't have a network of acquaintances, contacts that would launch them into managerial positions," she said.
But that could be starting to change. The PSWF, whose "organization exists mainly so that our members will support each other in business," is growing in popularity, Sokolska said. She added that the PSWF organizes negotiation and management training for women that they otherwise wouldn't have access to.
Still, when asked why so few Polish women hold top jobs, Lisowska said many women feel that executive-level management positions are simply not within their reach, and as a result they don't even bother to apply.
