The expression 'it's tough at the top' is one most people are familiar with, but for many women, 'it's tough to get to the top' may be more apt. In 1998, a report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the US, observed that although women were better educated and held more jobs worldwide than ever before, most suffered from occupational segregation in the workplace and rarely had the opportunity to break through the so-called 'glass ceiling' separating them from top-level management and professional positions.

The ILO also reported that in addition to 'most' female managers being barred from the top levels of organizations, whether in the private, public or political sectors, when they did manage to rise to the top, they nearly always earned less than men. Dreary news indeed, but several years into the new millennium, it looks as though opportunities for women seeking fame and fortune in management, are slowly improving.

Girl power hits the FTSE

According to The Institute of Chartered Management (ICM), the 'glass ceiling' is giving way to  'a boardroom greenhouse effect' as UK organizations warm to the idea of women in senior leadership roles.

According to ICM statistics, 31.1% of the management population is now female, compared to 22.1% in 2000 and less than 2% when the survey began in 1974.

Petra Cook, head of policy at ICM, notes that there has also been significant progress in terms of the numbers of women in certain types of management roles.

"Women have now overtaken men in terms of numbers occupying departmental management positions. However, there are still more men than women in directorship positions," Cook notes.

The Cranfield Centre for Developing Women Business Leaders has also been monitoring the number of women on the UK's top corporate boards over the last five years, measuring the annual level of progress to top boardroom appointments. The result is the The Female FTSE Report which looks at the number of executive directors and non-executive directors in FTSE 100 companies.

In addition to providing statistics relating to companies with female directors, the report also examined the presence of women directors in relation to a number of indicators of good corporate governance and high corporate performance.

The 2003 Female FTSE Report revealed that the number of female directors was up 20% on the previous year. AstraZeneca topped the index in joint first place with four female directors; GSK came in 13th with two female directors and Smith & Nephew was 24th with one.

It is perhaps not surprising that AstraZeneca came out on top - the company does, after all, have a number of diversity action plans in operation. Edel McCaffrey, AstraZeneca's media relations manger, points to the company's corporate responsibility summary report for 2003, which states that its senior executive team has responsibility for reviewing the diversity among the top management of the company, including the percentage of women at senior level.

Fairer sex fare well in pharma

The fact that poll position on the Female FTSE report was occupied by a major player in big pharma is obviously good news for women, but what about companies not listed on the FTSE index?

The good news is that women are making their presence felt on the executive boards of other drug giants: Eli Lilly has three female members and in October Wyeth announced it had elected Dr Frances Fergusson to its board of directors; in the same month, Schering AG reported that its supervisory board had appointed Dr Karin Dorrepaal.

While these trends are certainly positive, Dr Val Singh, co-author of the Female FTSE report, believes there is still a long way to go, particularly when comparing the number of women in executive positions to non-executive roles. In the UK the ratio of female executive directors to non-executive directors stands at around 4% to 12%, similar to the US (5% versus 14%).

"AstraZeneca, GSK and Smith & Nephew all have non-executive directors," says Singh. "The non-executive directors are not there all the time which means they aren't there everyday as role models for other women. The real mark of progress will be when we see [more] female executive directors."

Based on this definition, the pharma industry is already making strides in the right direction. Ingelise Saunders joined Celltech Pharmaceuticals in September 2001 as director of European pharmaceutical operations and was promoted to chief executive officer in March 2002.

Prior to joining Celltech, Saunders held a series of senior commercial positions at Novo Nordisk, including vice president of Novo Nordisk Europe.

Opportunity knocks

She may be a relatively rare case, but Saunders is a positive example that women can make it to senior roles, and not just in 'soft' roles such as human resources, often associated with women.

Dr Grant Cohen, recruitment consultant at Astralis Group, is keen to point out that there are a variety of senior management roles available to women.

"There are plenty of opportunities for women to be extremely successful in a number of disciplines," says Cohen. 'These include quality assurance, clinical operations, data management, regulatory affairs and project management amongst others."

Interestingly, the Female FTSE report found that almost half of the female executive directors are finance directors, indicating that this may be the best career path for those aiming for the top - reach the summit in the pharma sector and women can expect to be well paid for their efforts.

ICM conducted a number of surveys to determine trends in female management recruitment in different sectors and discovered that the pharma industry came out as the top sector in terms of salary, with female managers commanding average salaries of £49,777.

Why do some women still miss out?

It seems to be one of the facts of professional and managerial life that long working hours are often necessary to gain recognition and eventual promotion. For women with family responsibilities, promotion may be hindered as they juggle their careers and families, but the FTSE report also identified some persistent barriers to the appointment of women directors, several of which relate to age, the long tenure of boards, nomination committees and their chairmen.

The report unearthed that women were significantly younger than men overall, whether executive directors or non-executive directors. The authors of the report note that while this is encouraging for young women, it could suggest that a generation of older women have lost out.

The findings also revealed that there were likely to be more female executive appointments when there were females on the nomination committee, when the chief executive officer was on the nomination committee, and when the average age of the nomination committee was lower.

And, just as for female executive directors, the presence of female non-executive directors was also strongly associated with females being on the nomination committee.

Are companies and their politics entirely to blame for the shortfall in female directors? The answer is 'not entirely': in fact Singh thinks that some women could be thwarting their own progress.

"Women do seem more reluctant to put themselves forward," says Singh.

"Male managers comment that women do a great job but they don't push to get ahead. Very often if they do step forward they will get the job, but very often they hope that by doing a great job they will automatically be noticed and nominated."

Cohen agrees: "The reality is that women seem more considered in their approach to promotion and are often less aggressive and self promoting."

He believes that this is a consequence of their desire to ensure that they master their current job before moving upwards towards the next, thereby always building the foundations and platform for a secure career.

While some women may be hesitant about stepping forward for promotion, the authors of the Female FTSE report point out that many women do want to get to board level, but if there are few female role models, if the barriers are impossible and the culture seems hostile, they may well scale down their ambition.

Government intervention

Having women directors on corporate boards makes good business sense, according to the Female FTSE report. In a comparison of the top 20 and the bottom 20 companies, in terms of market capitalisation, there was a consistent and increasingly high correlation between high market value and the presence of women directors.  

The benefit of a female influence is something that the government has been keen to highlight. Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister for Women, said: "Having more women and people from diverse backgrounds means that companies represent and better understand the customers they want to attract, leading to improved competitiveness and productivity. They also bring different skills and opinions to the board."

With that philosophy in mind, in January 2003, Hewitt and Chancellor Gordon Brown, commissioned a review of the role and effectiveness of non-executive directors on boards.

The report's author, Derek Higgs, recommended that companies adopt a more lateral approach to recruitment. In addition, he suggested that boards consider drawing from groups where women are strongly represented, such as human resources, change management and customer care. Finally, he suggested that boards avoid recruiting people through personal contacts, a point that Hewitt has openely welcomed.

"It's obvious that far too many directors are still recruited by word of mouth, with the result that less than 1% of chairs are women and only 6% of non-executive posts are held by women," said Hewitt.

The government also asked Laura Tyson of the London Business School to look specifically at how greater diversity of directors on boards could be encouraged. Tyson recommended improvements in the selection process including a more rigorous and transparent selection process, more training for board members and more measuring of the diversity of boards.

Self promotion is key

Following the findings of Higgs and Tyson, Hewitt and the Deputy Minister for Women and Equality, Jacqui Smith, met the chairs and chief executives of major UK companies to discuss how to make boardrooms more diverse.

Governmental intervention could have an impact, but the ILO believes that more flexible managerial styles and approaches, coupled with the interest of enterprises in attracting and retaining qualified and talented women in a competitive environment, could also increase women's share of managerial jobs in the future. Of course, women should also be looking for ways to improve their skill set and thus their chances of landing senior positions.

Astralis advises women to develop broad skills beyond a single area of technical expertise and to ensure they gain more 'sharp end' commercial skills and resist operating in comfort zones.

"Be prepared to put yourself forward with confidence and to take calculated risks. Have more self belief and greater persistence and  be prepared to self promote.  It really is possible to succeed within this industry without being political or aggressive," says Cohen.

He believes the commercial world is changing and adopting and supporting a healthy work-life balance, which  historically has been more of an issue for women than men. The authors of the Female FTSE report also believe women need to deal with the prospect of rejection better to get ahead.

"Women seem to take rejection very personally, hence they are sometimes less keen to put themselves forward for positions which they might not get. Men on the other hand seem better at brushing rejection off so are more likely to go for it," says Singh.

Singh also emphasises that talent alone isn't always enough to get to the top.

"Women have to be able to show they have line management skills, experience of budget management and are able to build professional relationships, and all this takes time to achieve," she says.

While it remains true that the pharma industry is still male dominated at senior management level, it seems that the tide of change is slowly creeping in and that she who dares might now really be in with a chance of winning.