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By Benita Fitzgerald Mosley
A key element of WICT's vision statement is "Making It." This means that women are being hired and promoted at rates and with salaries at least equal to men. The women featured in CableWORLD's Top 50 list provide further evidence that women are making it in the cable industry. But the numbers show that there is still room for growth.
Being named one of the 50 most influential women in cable is an achievement. The contributions these women have made to this industry are a testament to their fabulous reputations and the length of dedicated service they have given our industry. It is also an achievement that these women, and many others not named here, have raised their profile to the level that gets them noticed. The great presence of these women in the industry sometimes makes them seem larger than life. It also makes them seem larger in number.
The 2004 PAR Initiative found that the representation of women at the senior level of management is 26.6%, or about one in four. Women in cable represent 38.5% of the employee population, so there's a gap in the pipeline that is not being filled.
What happens as the women on this list retire or are wooed away to other industries or countries? The departure of Kathy Dore to head a Canadian corporation is a loss that will not be easily absorbed by the industry. That's because the Kathy Dores and Maggie Bellvilles have been around as cable has grown to the highly competitive industry it is today. They, and the women on this list, know cable. And they know what it takes to succeed. But a time will come when they aren't around anymore. What are we doing to fill their shoes?
To ensure that we have a competitive group of women vying for spots on this list in the years to come, the industry must cultivate its pipeline. The 2004 WICT Foundation PAR Initiative found that women represent 38.4% of all managers, 33.4% of middle managers and 26.6% of senior managers. Women in management reflect their presence in the employment pool at large. But as we climb the ladder, female managers decrease in number.
Advancement opportunities are more available to women already at the top of the ladder. Leadership training is available for 75% of high-ranking women and 65.6% of entry-level women. Formal mentoring is available companywide for 43.8% of women; however, 18.8% offer mentoring only at company headquarters, and only 50% of the companies responding to the PAR Initiative Survey offer career planning and retention for mid-level managers. These programs have proved to be extremely valuable in recruiting and retaining women in the pipeline.
Providing advancement opportunities to women is also good business. Catalyst's 2004 study found that companies that have higher women's representation on their top management teams financially outperformed those companies with lower women's representation. Women purchase 83% of all household products and services, according to Marketing to Women by Marty Barletta. And women control $5.2 trillion in spending annually, according to Competitive Edge magazine. According to the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, cable ratings among working women accounted for 42.3% of prime-time cable viewers for the 2002-2003 season.
The best way for a company to meet the needs of its customers is to look like them and reflect their values. If our industry wants to "make it," it should take a good look at the women on this list because this is what our customers look like. The future success of our industry depends on them.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley is president and CEO of Women in Cable and Telecommunications.
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