This article has been posted on 14 déc, 09. It is filed under Advance your career category.

This article was written by Shaun Rein.

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Why Men Don’t Promote Women More

Because women aren’t pushy enough.

Women often complain about the glass ceiling. Friends of mine tell me their bosses only promote from within the old-boy network. Studies show that women in the U.S. still get just 77 cents for every dollar men are paid, even with increasing gender parity in higher education.

And how many of the people running the biggest 500 companies are women? In 2009 only 15 were, among them Carol Bartz at Yahoo!, Indra Nooyi at PepsiCo and Ursula Burns at Xerox. They are exceptions in the male-dominated ranks of C-level executives.

I will be honest. In my career, I have tended to promote more men than women. I have even generally given men higher salaries. Why? Am I sexist? Do men do a better job? The answer is a resounding no to both.

Actually, it is mostly women’s fault. They simply don’t ask for raises or promotions as often as men do.

My organization conducted interviews with hundreds of American, European and Chinese women, and most said they felt that if they worked hard and showed they were valuable to the company, they would get promoted. They also said they feared they could be fired if they appeared too pushy, especially in a downturn.

But the reality is that promotions rarely happen just because you’re there and you’re good. You need to tell people how good you are. This is especially true at more junior levels, where it can be harder to get noticed and there is more competition for plum positions.