HELPING WOMEN REACH THE TOP IN GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

According to a research carried out by AALEP, there are less than 100 women who occupy leadership positions in the field of Government Relations and Public Affairs in Brussels-based consultancies. A leadership position equates with executives who are charged with determining the strategic direction of the company. The research considered the 17 largest PA consultancies and those firms with annual revenues of € 3 million or more. Positions that were below the ‘Director’s level’ i.e. middle and low level positions where women are predominant were not taken into consideration. They may bear the following titles: PA Specialist, PA Counsel, Associate Director, Senior Associate, Executive Associate, Associate, Client Executive, Account Executive, Account Manager, Senior Consultant, Consultant, Junior Consultant.

Women in middle management are responsible for carrying out the strategic visions of the executives by working closely with a team of low-level managers such as assistant managers. Middle management positions have developed a reputation as difficult jobs because these managers must convince lower level managers and rank and file employees to carry out what may not be popular orders from executives. Furthermore, middle management is often considered to be a dead end, as relatively few women middle managers make it to the executive ranks, and middle managers are typically the first to be laid off in a downturn.

Although 85% of mid-level women have a strong desire to move up to a higher level in their companies, their chances of landing a senior executive job are 60% those of men. Middle-management women get promoted on performance, while middle-management men get promoted on potential. That means that some women may have to work even harder than their male counterparts to get promoted.

Without role models, sponsors and mentors in top management, it is hard for women to imagine themselves in those jobs. Hopefully, AALEP's 'Women in Government Relations' initiative which is gaining the support of distinguished women MEPs will serve to change the mindset of PA consultancies and enable women to reach the top of their chosen profession.

Statistics:

Women are proving themselves to be increasingly smarter than men – but still failing to break the glass ceiling of gaining the best jobs. The European percentage average  of women employed in senior management at the end of 2012 was 33 per cent. In the U.K. the percentage of women working in the upper middle tier in 2013 accounted for 18 per cent of the total compared with 37 per cent of men. Nearly half the female workforce – 46.5 per cent – are in the “lower middle” category of employment. That compares with 24.2 per cent of men.