Women Aren’t Ambitious? | Best Practice by Dow
Ten years ago, Herminia Ibarra, Professor at the London Business School, with her co-authors stated in an HBR article that women are over-mentored and under-sponsored**. Recent studies show that this is still the case in many multinational organizations, despite the widespread mentorship programs targeted to female employees. Dow created and is into its second wave of a unique Sponsorship program for women which holds the Sponsors accountable for getting more women into leadership roles.
This best practice was first published in the Gender Intelligence Report 2021.
The key to this problem lies in understanding the difference between a Mentor and a Sponsor. Sponsors are equipped to directly impact the career of their protégés compared to Mentors. Sponsors are also better placed to connect and defend female employees in different forums; as well as create roles for them to fill successfully. To advance the careers of their female employees, organizations need to create a pipeline of Sponsors, hold them accountable and empower them to initiate and sustain changes.
Dow is committed to increasing the representation of women at different levels of the organization and, in partnership with relevant stakeholders like WIN (Women’s Inclusion Network) and the Advance association, has established initiatives and programs to achieve its ambition. Some recent examples are the introduction of company-wide inclusive hiring guidelines, revamping of mentorship programs, skill building trainings, specific recognition programs and awareness campaigns for inspiring female role modeling.
However, while Dow is succeeding in attracting and recruiting a gender balanced pipeline, we observe, like many other companies, an opportunity to improve the representation of women in leadership positions.
For this reason, the EMEAI (Europe Middle East Africa India) regional leadership team introduced additional targeted programs to support the achievement of Dow’s ambition in gender representation.
In summer 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dow announced the second wave of the EMEAI Female Sponsorship Program. The program is designed to increase the number of females in management and senior level positions in the EMEAI region. The first cohort (2016-2018) proved that matching females with sponsors that were supportive of their protegee’s career advancement enabled participants to take ownership of their career, to move out of their comfort zone and successfully pursue more senior positions.
Inclusion, Diversity & Employee Experience EMEAI Leader at Dow
Commercial Excellence Leader at Dow, EMEAI WIN (Women Inclusion Network) Chair
Senior Talent and Learning Specialist at Dow
Leveraging the learning from the first wave, Dow introduced new components to the second edition to further enhance the program.
The biggest difference was that in the second wave, prospective participants and sponsors were invited to self-nominate themselves by clearly explaining their motivation and commitment for joining the program. This approach increased the size of the talent pool, secured participants’ commitment and helped to reduce some of the biases that come with a “selected by the leaders” approach. Leaders were advised to select participants based on their potential and not only performance – a now recognized barrier to women climbing the career ladder.
Another enhancement to the program was a training and alignment program for the selected Sponsors. This program, conducted in collaboration with INSEAD, a top business school, was aimed to ensure the Sponsors were clear about their role and our expectations.
“As Sponsor, going deeper and understanding better the individual experiences of some sponsees has given me a different perspective and, in some cases, this has been an eye-opening experience. I have learned about real challenges that people have that I was not fully aware of before. This has increased my conviction that, even if some people may think we are doing well, there is still a lot to do.”
Kepa Diaz de Mendibil, EMEAI Operations Vice president and Sponsor in the EMEAI Female Sponsorship Program
Overall, more than 250 female employees across the EMEAI region self-nominated. The number of self-nominations received was much higher than expected. It was a clear indication of the motivation of female talents in the region to progress in their careers.
“I think up to now the best thing in the EMEAI Female Sponsorship Program is that it enabled me to meet with one of the most inspiring leaders at Dow, my Sponsor.”
Guliz Talay, Terneuzen-NL Senior Operations Leader, Sponsee in the EMEAI Female Sponsorship Program
Eventually, 43 participants from across the region were blindly selected by a diverse Selection committee composed by regional functional and business leaders. The main criterium for selection was an essay submitted by each nominee. The selected participants were then invited to attend a week-long immersive virtual program at INSEAD.
Since the nominations received were much higher than the INSEAD program capacity, the design team considered alternatives for extending the program to a broader audience. As a result, different program streams were created to address the different development needs. An impactful addition to the design of the program was the creation of a development community to share relevant knowledge and create a peer-to-peer support system within the entire group. In the community, managed by a dedicated Program Manager, participants share learning, attend dedicated events and webinars with relevant content and discuss books and articles. The underlying principle is Women supporting Women.
“Being part of the EMEAI Female Sponsorship Program has allowed me the unique opportunity to connect with and learn from my sponsor as well as build a learning and support network with other talented and experienced women”
Kala Garnier-Keith, Barry-UK Turnaround Manager, Sponsee in the EMEAI Female Sponsorship Program
The Dow EMEAI Leadership Team played a fundamental role by endorsing the program and encouraging women across the businesses and functions to join. Despite all the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Leadership Team continues to support the roll out of the program, demonstrating its true commitment to advance gender representation within the EMEAI region.
Gender parity is and will remain a critical business imperative for Dow in the future: It’s a win-win: Both the morally right thing to do and the best course of action for business. When we create an environment where every employee is equally respected, represented and given a fair opportunity we move towards becoming an even better organization.
“As a sponsor, my role is to step in and stand-up for these talented women and help them speak-up and gain confidence. It is about making their potential visible to senior leaders and ensuring they are being offered an equal opportunity to those who are more vocal. There is an urgency to act and to be intentional if we wish to succeed on our gender parity journey and capitalize further on what diversity has to offer!”
Stephanie Sandrock-Beunat, EMEAI Commercial Director and Sponsor in the EMEAI Female Sponsorship Program
The Female Sponsorship Program will continue to support women in Dow with their professional development goals by offering mentoring and networking opportunities and providing access to professional development tailored to the unique needs of women at critical career stages.
Find more information about Diversity at Dow here.
We would be delighted to share more with you on our Female Sponsorship Program. Please do not hesitate to contact Dow’s EMEAI Office of Inclusion at fhgidex@Dow.com or Catalina Estrada Restrepo, cestrada2@dow.com.
**HBR article: Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women, Herminia Ibarra, Nancy M. Carter, and Christine Silva. September 2010.
This Best Practice was first published in the Gender Intelligence Report 2021.
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