New study suggests part-timers finally break through glass ceiling

According to today's Guardian, the glass ceiling preventing flexible working for people in senior managerial jobs is beginning to crack as City banks, law firms and other top companies allow key staff to balance work and life.

The "Hours to suit" report undertaken by the campaign group Working Families and sponsored by Lehman Brothers, suggests flexible working policies, such as compressed hours, home working and - sometimes - part-time working or job sharing are beginning to extend from low-level posts to managerial roles for the first time in the UK.

The study focuses on 23 senior managers working reduced hours or flexibly, in organisations ranging from Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse and JP Morgan to Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Shell, BT and City legal firms.

However, despite highlighting a number of senior managers with flexible working patterns, the report warns that the myth that senior jobs can only be done full-time in an office persists in many organisations.

For more details see Bosses make room at the top for flexible working by Lucy Ward.

(There doesn't seem to a web-link to the actual report, but one will probably be available soon).

Diversity mismanagement?

In the words of a newly released survey, "...38% of [worldwide] businesses do not have any women in senior management roles, a figure which has remained unchanged since 2004."

The proportion of businesses with women in senior management varies from as much as 97 per cent in the Philippines, to as low as 25 per cent in Japan.

The UK comes in at 62 per cent (similar to Eire on 60 per cent), but marginally lower than in the USA which reported a figure of 69 per cent.

A separate study released at the same time indicates the number of women in senior management positions in the 350 biggest companies listed on the stock market shows a dramatic fall in the last five years.

However, all is far from doom and gloom, as it has been suggested the increasing cost of childcare and a new-found entrepreneurial streak in women may be among the factors for a 40 per cent fall in women holding senior management positions.

Articles on the matter can be viewed here (The Guardian) and here (BBC News: Business).