Senior women managers I have known in the UK, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium all have prospered in environments that allowed home and mobile working and flexi-time.
Now, that's an important advance (especially for some who were single parents) because it creates the flexibility needed to manage non-work events.
But, they all worked long hours many evenings on the laptop. Sometimes this was because they were responsible for events across a longer set of time zones or operating hours. (Hence "availability.")
Other times, it was the sheer volume of things they had to keep on top of. Part of that is just employers skimping on labour costs, but some of it seems to be a conceptual block in dividing up higher positions across more than one person.
How do things operate in other areas? Some countries have a better record on this, have they got better answers to this problem?
....and it actually works!
The law is strict...companies who do not comply face the threat of being closed down.
Quotas for women on the board: do they work? - Times Online
All across Europe companies have been told to put more women in the driving seat, or be penalised. The ruling has been a huge success -- but what does it say about sexual equality?
