Let me preface my question ”Why aren’t women represented more in the B2B in the senior marketing management ranks,” with my own mea culpa that I don’t have the answer either. But I am just struck by two things:
- Women in marketing appear to make up the majority of employees.
- Women in senior management positions, CMO’s, Vice Presidents seem to be absent or vastly in the minority.
I don’t know how women can occupy so many middle management jobs without ascending to the top slots. True, I haven’t done research on this, but as I review companies in CRM, Marketing Automation, and then the B2B companies they serve, oops, women aren’t there.
Why this is Important
If you aren’t promoting the creators of wealth, regardless of gender in your organization, you are losing the opportunities to grow your company and be competitive. When you promote by measuring performance, women will show up in the C-suites, as they should.
Women seem to be good enough to be in significant demand generation/lead management jobs. They create huge wealth for their employers, but with few exceptions that’s where it ends. How can anyone who creates wealth for a company in such outsized proportions be in a minority? Any way you measure it, the people in marketing create more wealth than anyone in the company and women occupy the majority of these positions.
Can someone venture a guess, excluding an inclination to be politically correct, as to what is causing this? Some years ago the SLMA started the 20 Women to Watch in Sales Lead Management program (look for it again in January). I see terrific biographies and testimonials from those nominating them. There is HUGE talent there.
Maybe the women drop out of corporate life to start their own businesses as they get fed up with corporate nonsense.Certainly some bail for family reasons. Even with this attrition, there should be more than enough talent to rise to a level of 50/50 in the CMO/VP of Marketing, etc., ranks.
Please, will someone set me straight or tell me why these creators of wealth are being overlooked as leaders?
The call to action on this is to look at the creators of wealth in your organization and promote them, coach them, and pay them in proportion to their contributions. When I was in corporate life I was blind to the sex of the applicants, I just wanted the best I could find.
