Women Execs Shatter Infamous Glass Ceiling

Out of the more than 1 million chief executives in the U.S. last year, only 24 percent were women. And of those women, their salary was 35 percent lower than men in the same position, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It’s no secret that women have faced a glass ceiling in the business world, with studies like the New York-based research and advisory organization Catalyst that studied the experiences of the most senior-level women at Fortune 1,000 companies. The study showed that women are happy in their career roles but still see challenges in their work environment because of their gender.

The Business Journal talked to several women Forty Under 40 honorees from the last 10 years about their experiences with sexism and their thoughts on women in the workplace. Some had no such experiences, while others had some that might not be surprising.

Financial Leaders

The Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 honorees are picked based on nominations from companies and fellow colleagues. Of the 400 total honorees, only 97, or about 24 percent, have been women.

Many were honored because they’re community and industry leaders in their own right. They range from business owners to vice presidents. While 24 percent mirrors the percentage of women executives in the U.S. last year, not all of the Forty Under 40 honorees hold the president and CEO title. Eleven of the 97 Forty Under 40 women are now presidents of their respective companies — roughly 11 percent.

Mary Beth Brooks, president and CEO of The Bank of Fayetteville, is one example of a woman being appointed the highest position usually held by men.

“It’s still rather uncommon in the [banking] industry,” Brooks said about female presidents and CEOs. “It shouldn’t be because about 85 percent of the people who work in banks are women.”

Brooks, a Forty Under 40 honoree in 2003, is the only female bank president and CEO in Northwest Arkansas, and one of only four in the state.

It’s been an interesting ride for Brooks. Back in the ’80s, when she was starting her career as a bank examiner, she ran into a barricade at a River Valley bank.

Brooks met with the bank, was hired and filled out the paperwork but didn’t hear back from them. Finally, she got a call.

“They didn’t think it wasn’t going to work — they needed a male in the position,” she said. And during the interview process she was asked if she planned to get married and have kids — a big HR no-no.

At another bank in southern Arkansas during the same decade, she had a male co-worker tell their boss that he didn’t want to work with a woman, but the boss quickly told him that was too bad.

“Since those days in the mid-’80s, I haven’t felt a time where I didn’t get a promotion” because of gender, Brooks said.

In some instances, she even felt pressured to move up the line because the company wanted a woman in a high-level position.

Kelly Thomas, branch administrator at Stephens Inc. in Fayetteville who was a Forty Under 40 honoree in 2005, said that although she hasn’t experienced any problems in her career because she was a woman, she still feels like there’s a glass ceiling, especially in the financial industry.

“In the financial world, it’s going to be the hardest one to clear out as far as having all those stereotypes,” Thomas said. “In all the other professions, it’s a pretty level playing field.”

But like Brooks, Thomas said she sees the financial industry becoming better about breaking the glass ceilings for women.

“Overall, I think the financial markets are a lot more open and a lot more gender friendly than they used to be,” Thomas said. “I think there are doors still open. I think you may still need to nudge it with your foot, but they’re still open.”

The B Word

Jodie Stafford, CEO of Sweetser Properties in Fayetteville, has a sign in her office that says “Queen Bitch.”

“I bought if for myself,” Stafford said. “Everyone knows my opinion. I’m not bashful.”

Having power and using it can sometimes lead others to think people are heartless, especially when women use less of their emotions during a situation like firing someone.

“There comes a time to cut them, not work it out,” Brooks said.

And that’s where women get a bad name.

Stafford, who was honored in the Business Journal’s 2005 Forty Under 40 class, said her business is primarily male dominated, but that doesn’t keep her from doing everything she can do. She has her real estate license along with her HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) license. So, just in case someone tells her that an air conditioner can’t be fixed, she can make sure she won’t get swindled.

Many believe that women who are assertive get a derogatory label, while men who are assertive are labeled go-getters. There was even a program in California a few years ago called “Bully Broads” to help some women control their “challenging” behavior.

Balanced

So what holds women back?

“I think that it’s also some of our own doing, and I hate to say that,” Brooks said.

She said, in the banking industry, women sometimes don’t place themselves in the position to move up the corporate ladder. When she worked in Benton County, there was one female commercial lender. But as a president, she needs to know all sides of the company, and if she had shied away from any aspect, she wouldn’t have learned it all.

Then there’s the question of having kids and balancing life and work. She said her challenge was to wait to have kids and spend time focusing on her career while she was still young, putting her into a better position.

“Now I’m a 42-year-old with a 4-year-old,” Brooks joked.

She said in the banking industry, there’s a lot of traveling involved for bank examiners. She’s seen a lot of senior-level examiners who do well at their job, but as soon as they have kids, they can’t travel — making them unable to perform their jobs.

“My struggle is balancing my family life with work,” said Stafford, who has four boys. “But work is what keeps me sane. My kids, they know that Mommy needs to work, and that’s Mommy’s time away from them.”

Thomas said she worked for a large investment company when she had her child, and every time she called work to take a personal day to take care of her child, she would get flak from her boss.

But sometimes it’s the women who bring home the bacon, leaving the “Mommy” role to either be split with the husband or the husband is Mr. Mom.

“I know several of my friends where the woman is the larger bread winner and one where the guy is the stay-at-home-dad,” said Kathy Turner, a financial consultant with A.G. Edwards & Sons in Bella Vista and a Forty Under 40 honoree in 1997.

Turner said she hasn’t experienced any sexism in her career because women are no longer seen as the “little lady.”

She said the only sexism trouble she’s experienced is buying a car.

“They want you to go get your husband,” she said.