BAlAnCE - Malaysian Institute of Accountants

Balance
By Anis Ramli
PowertoFly founder Katharine Zaleski, opened up a
Pandora’s box when she expressed her regret publicly
about discriminating against working mothers in a
recent Fortune op-ed. Her essay brought attention to
a long entrenched and seemingly endemic form of
workplace prejudice: bias against working mothers.
The
Mommy
Bias
Battling maternal
profiling at the
workplace.
While subtle and maybe an
unconscious part of the global
corporate and business psyche,
this particular workplace bias
against women and ovaries occurs
everywhere.
In Corporate America, many
states still consider it okay to ask an
applicant’s marital or familial status
at job interviews. That in itself opens
the door for many negative biases to
follow should the applicant succeed in
the interview process. If they are not
56
accountants today | Mar / Apr 2015
shown the door immediately, that is.
Legal recourse has not borne
fruit. When single mother Kiki
Peppard questioned the legality
of such prejudicial practices in
Pennsylvania, it is doubtful that
she anticipated her long drawn-out
battle. Almost 20 years on, she is still
waiting for an appeal to President
Obama, through the White House
Council on Women and Girls, to
make such employer practices illegal
at the federal level.
A Neverending
Story
Women generally have always had
to battle gender stereotypes at work.
According to a Harvard Business
Review report, a woman who has a
child has only a 21 per cent chance of
being hired. Meanwhile, a mother who
responds to an advertised job has zero
per cent of employer call-back. Adding
insult to injury, she is likely to be offered
an annual salary that is an average
The Mommy Bias
of US$11,000 less than childless
women. Elsewhere, the mere
mention of a child often leads
the employer to see the mother
as less competent to perform
in her duties and to question
her ability to focus on the job
and not the responsibilities at
home.
Just a few months ago,
Lisa Tan* (names have been
changed) went for a job
interview as an editor for a
a woman who
has a child has
only a 21 per cent
chance of being
hired. Meanwhile,
a mother who
responds to an
advertised job
has zero per cent
of employer callback.
gadget review online portal. She had just
quit her job as Communications Director
of a Malaysian hotel chain, and was four
months pregnant. She said she gave
honest answers about her pregnancy
and was refused the post, with the
interviewer clearly citing her pregnancy
as a mismatch of employment skills for
the company.
Other horror stories of prejudice by
employers towards working mothers are
so petty that they border on incredulity.
Suriani Ariff* resigned from her high-
Mar / Apr 2015 | accountants today
57
The Mommy Bias
powered job in Kuala Lumpur to focus more
on being a caregiver. She made this choice
after her employers repeatedly questioned
her work performance post maternity leave.
Imagine her surprise when, upon tendering
her resignation, she was told that her last
salary would include deduction of the hours
she spent pumping breastmilk during office
hours!
Evidently, workplaces that are friendly
towards working mothers are still scarce and
wide. This, noted Johan Mahmood Merican,
CEO of Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad
in our profile on him this issue, is a key
challenge in retaining more women in the
workforce.
Even though companies may provide
the option of flexible working hours and,
telecommuting, such benefits are accorded as
occasional privileges that must be requested
rather than a specific and consistent policy
accommodating the needs of working
58
accountants today | Mar / Apr 2015
The challenge
for women to
achieve worklife balance
is further
heightened
when women
themselves
do not get
encouragement
or empathy in
the workplace
from their own
gender.
parents.
At one local government agency, the
female manager at the Marketing and
Communications unit and a working mother
revealed that her superior does allow
occasional permission to clock-in to work
late, particularly when she has to respond to a
family emergency, such as attending to a sick
child, or bringing her child to a pediatrician’s
appointment. She says she usually replaces
the number of hours missed by working
longer and is prepared to do so if only the
office could offer a permanent flexi-work
approach.
Women Aren’t Helping
The challenge for women to achieve
work-life balance is further heightened when
women themselves do not get encouragement
or empathy in the workplace from their own
gender. As Zaleski narrated in her Fortune
The Mommy Bias
op-ed, she once questioned a working
mother’s commitment when she could
not ‘socialise’ after hours. Ratcheting
up the stakes for women further were
Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer and
former France Justice Minister Rachel
Dati, who both famously went back
to work just weeks (in Dati’s case,
days) after giving birth. The central
message appears to be that for women
to be on the C-Suite track, they need to
overperform – and be superhuman – in
a way that is never expected of males.
Maternal
profiling
happens
because society remains fixated on the
traditional gender role of the woman as
the caregiver. When a childless mother
is not at her desk, it is assumed that
she’s away attending to business. When
a working mother is absent from the
office, the general assumption is she
is attending to a sick child or other
domestic or familial duties.
Compounding maternal profiling is
employer benevolence. In other words,
employers might mistakenly downplay
working mothers’ responsibilities and
lighten their load out of a misguided
sense of goodwill. Corporate lawyer
Yasmine Wong* related an incident
where she was passed up on an
overseas assignment by her superiors
who assumed she would be reluctant
to be separated from her newborn child
of four months. She marched up to the
boss’ office and with a polite thank you
for their consideration, requested they
put her on the assignment as she rightly
deserved.
Building a
Supportive
Environment
Following the World Bank’s
“Malaysia
Economic
Monitor
November 2012” report that cited a
60
accountants today | Mar / Apr 2015
42% participation rate of women in the
labour force, several policies have been
put in place to encourage, retain and
increase women in the workforce by
55% in future, a target announced by
the Prime Minister.
While companies such as Citibank,
Standard Chartered and PwC should
be commended for their Career
Comeback programmes which target
qualified mothers, more intensive and
active employer participation is highly
necessary to overcome discrimination
against mothers at the workplace.
Employer and people practices have
to evolve to accommodate women’s
desire for a better work-life balance.
Other wise, the desired higher
participation of women in the workforce
will remain a pipe dream.
Although it is difficult, employers
should be more proactive at steering
clear of biases. Have a dialogue with
working mothers to ask what they want
from their jobs; refrain from assuming a
benefactor role and withholding career
advancements, travel opportunities
or other challenges for the perceived
good of mothers.
Employers can also create
family-friendly policies and support
employees’ caregiving needs. At
Zaluvida Corporate Sdn Bhd, working
mothers are provided with a dedicated
room to pump breastmilk. Many
leading Malaysian companies now have
crèches set up for the convenience and
peace of mind of their employees – and
this is also a strategy to recruit and
retain scarce female talent.
Importantly,
mindsets
must
change. Employers need to think out
of the box to formulate a bias-free
workplace that accommodates the
special needs of working mothers.
Rethink policies that foster persisting
biases against motherhood and/or
family responsibilities. It is said that
women hold up half the sky. For the
country’s economy to succeed and
make the transition to developed nation
status, our mothers and women need
to first succeed. Only by nurturing,
supporting and respecting wives and
mothers can the battle for development
be won. n