Women can balance a family and a career; it’s just knowing how. Cathy Mauzaize, Vice President, EMEA South, ServiceNow, draws on her own experiences as a high-power executive and mother of four, with tips for women looking to excel in the workplace.
For many years, gender parity was the elephant in too many rooms around the globe – a frustrating abundance of platitudes masquerading as progress. But even before COVID-19, lockdowns unlocked our consciousnesses and forced us to talk about parity issues, the Middle East was taking some tentative steps beyond mere talk.
As a case in point, a survey from 2020 found 71% of young, GCC-based Arab women believed they had the same access to education and employment opportunities as men. A year later, in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index 2021 rankings, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was placed 72 out of 156 nations. While the UAE was the only Arab nation to find itself in the top half, it was by far the biggest mover among global peers, having leapt 48 positions from the previous year.
The work must continue
While moves on gender parity – even with respect to remuneration – are proceeding apace, for women who choose to have families, some challenges persist. While some are admittedly self-inflicted, many are societal and need to be addressed as such.
For example, many mothers suffer from guilt for being unable to commit their entire potential to either side of their life — professional or personal — which can lead to a hesitance that undermines their progress. But workplaces still harbour misplaced biases against pregnant women and mothers, suggesting managers have similar doubts about the ability of an employee to commit to a role, given her outside obligations, as she herself is having.
Thankfully, I have managed to navigate the bumpy landscape of being a wife and a mother to four children, while being an executive at some of the world’s largest tech companies. While there is no silver bullet or formal roadmap, it is my hope that mothers in the region who are struggling with these issues can find some personal analogue in my experiences that can help them strike their own balance.
1. Carefully plan your return to work
Many women return to part-time work after having children. And while this is completely understandable, this can work against them. Almost as a matter of tradition, part-time workers miss out on promotion and salary increases, as they are viewed as not being able to keep up with the needs of the business. Companies will look to full-time employees – who in most workplaces tend to be men – to undertake the tasks and projects that part-time workers cannot.
So rather than asking to come back part-time, I suggest that you ask instead for flexibility. The widespread acceptance of remote work means that women – pregnant, with children or without – can blend into new corporate cultures where everyone, regardless of home circumstances, is judged on output rather than input.
2. Accept that there are cycles in life
New mothers and those with younger children will find that their sons and daughters need a lot of attention, not just when they are sick, but as a matter of course. As a consequence, it might mean having to pass on certain opportunities at work. Accept that this is OK and part of the journey. Family will always come first, but as kids get older, making time for your career becomes easier.
The key point to remember is that career growth need not be linear and may instead happen in fits and starts.
3. Make sure you have a supportive partner
Having the right partner is critical. It is close to impossible for both partners to look to advance their career at the same time (particularly if children are involved). But at the same time, women should not always be the one making sacrifices. It goes back to what I discussed about cycles — when you both appreciate the significance of each other’s professional life, you can step back and allow the other’s career to accelerate, at the right time.
4. Find your ideal company
The right employer will be an integral part of your ideal journey. Today, we can already see companies starting to compete on employee experience. They realise that a flexible, diverse, inclusive culture is vital to their business goals because these are the cultures that will attract the best talent. So, it will become easier to find companies that support women in all the phases of their lives, from singlehood to marriage, throughout pregnancy and beyond.
When hunting for this model employer, compare diversity records. How many women are in leadership roles in your prospective employer? Strong female role models are key. How are parents supported and what is the policy on paternity leave? An equality attitude toward parenting bodes well for women.
Keep the faith
I have been fortunate. Technology companies are leaders on these issues. Diversity is vital in innovation and tech players cannot survive without it. But more and more, industries are following the trend. Competitiveness requires innovation and this requires diversity and inclusion.