Rise of GM’s Mary Barra a wake-up call for macho industries

It is hard to exaggerate the significance of Mary Barra’s appointment as chief executive of General Motors, becoming the first woman to head a major automotive corporation. This industry is notoriously male-dominated and senior female executives are even rarer than the two-stroke engines that once powered cars. I spent much of my earlier career reporting about the car industry and not once did I see a female executive in any operation on the three continents I visited. The whole atmosphere of the business was heavily macho. It was, for example, not unusual to see pornographic pictures of women adorning the production lines. And up in the corporate offices, women were mainly tasked to serve drinks or work as secretaries. In my naivety, I once asked a German car executive why his company did not have any female executives. He smirked and gave a reply that is best not repeated here. When I persisted, he donned a serious look and came out with a string reasons that even back then sounded hollow – things such as “women wouldn’t fit in” and that old canard about women having “special problems”. This kind of talk was widespread in those days. Barra came from this background, yet she managed to rise to the top. She does not, apparently, like to dwell on the obstacles but is content to focus on her 33-year track record in the industry. She could also add that she comes from a family of car enthusiasts and holds electrical engineering qualifications. This sort of thing counted for little in the past, so we should celebrate the progress of even the most backward of industries. But we must also examine the enormous human resources they have been wasting. Depressing figures Barra is not alone in breaking through glass ceiling. There are similar success stories at DuPont, Lockheed Martin and IBM. Yet progress has been agonisingly slow. I once asked a German car executive why his company did not have any female executives. He smirked and gave a reply that is best not repeated here In the United States, women still only occupy 17 per cent of the boardroom seats of Fortune 500 companies and hold an unimpressive 14.6 per cent of executive positions. The British government has set a target of having women occupy 25 per cent of the board by the end of 2015, although goodness knows how this is going to be achieved. According to the 30 Percent Club in Hong Kong, no more than 10 per cent of listed company boards are filled by female directors, while some 40 per cent of companies have no women directors at all. The overall figures for Asia are even more depressing: a McKinsey survey that found only 6 per cent of board seats were occupied by women. Interestingly, while Hong Kong business has been slow to recognise the waste of talent caused by excluding females, the government – backward in most other things – is something of a pioneer here. Even though a woman has never led the administration, a female is once again filling the No 2 position. Moreover, as women have moved into senior government positions, the amount of resistance has largely dissolved. Nevertheless, the kind of Neanderthal talk I used to hear from car industry guys still litters the dialogue in certain Hong Kong industries. Any way you slice it Embarrassingly, my own industry, the food and beverage sector, is notable. This is most vividly seen in kitchens where resistance to female chefs is strong and, as I have found to my cost, very hard to break down. Yet my company has a conscious policy of employing female managers, not out of altruism, but on the basis of their performance. I should add that middle-aged women have proved to be stand-outs for reliability and diligence. In all other spheres of business life, decisions about personnel and the deployment of resources are made on a more or less rational basis – but this resistance to female managers is tenacious. However, like other irrational taboos, this one can be broken. Let me offer an example from my own field. When self-service cafeterias were introduced at the end of the 19th century, primarily in the United States, they were denounced as ridiculous and reminiscent of prison food service. However the demand for convenient, cheap meals grew and critics were quickly silenced. Today self-service can be found in the swankiest places. Practically everyone has forgotten why there was ever a problem with this concept in the first place.

Rise of GM’s Mary Barra a wake-up call for macho industries

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Male-dominated businesses should quicken pace of increasing boardroom diversity – and confront just how much talent has been wasted over the years

Male-dominated businesses should quicken pace of increasing boardroom diversity – and confront just how much talent has been wasted over the years