While men hold most senior management jobs, studies show women are making a dent

It’s been said that women are natural-born leaders because of the soft skills they develop – like empathy, communication and listening. These traits are widely considered to be keys to successful and effective leadership.

And yet, a recent S&P study shows that 75% of senior management positions are held by men. Still, women are making inroads in the business sector.

Tamara Fields is a veteran in the world of business. She is office managing director at Accenture in Austin and president of the board for the Texas Conference for Women. She spoke with Texas Standard on the roadblocks women have to navigate in order to find a successful career path, and her own experiences on such a road. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: For you, as a woman in the business world for decades, could you tell us a little bit about the roadblocks that women have had to face on such a career path?

Tamara Fields: Absolutely. I think one of the interesting things for women in business is that they are always dealing with unconscious bias, right?

So there is perspectives out there in terms of how we operate, how we execute, how we should move forward. And I think as a result, as women, it makes it harder for us to move forward and up the chain.

We don’t have the same level of networks. We don’t have the same level of sponsorship. We’re not automatically included in the lunches or the golf tournaments that are happening in the business world. So we have to find other avenues for entry and access so that we can create a network to be promoted.

Tara, can you think of a time when you, yourself, encountered such a roadblock?

I’ve had so many roadblocks like this in my career, but what I would tell you is specifically when I was seeking to make managing director, which would be equivalent to a partnership if we were still privately owned, I had a lot of struggle in terms of getting my story known by other people. I didn’t have a natural sponsor or advocate at the time, and I recognized when I was going through that first pass promotion cycle, I was so disappointed when I didn’t get it. And one of the feedback points that I received is people don’t know you and they don’t know your story.

And I recognize as a woman I have to lean in further. I have to expand my network on my own. And I really took a year of what I call campaigning to share the work that I’ve been doing. I found a person who was willing to introduce me to others in our leadership world and really expand my exposure.

What I recognize out of that is network is key. Having relationships are key, and just doing good work is not enough. And so it took me a couple of years to finally hit that milestone as senior manager and managing director. But I did that intentionally by expanding my story and my sponsorship network.

How have you seen the business world or have you seen the business world change for women in recent years? And I’m curious about what you think is happening to drive any change that you may have noticed.

Absolutely it changed. And, you know, I think one of the key things is when I first started in my world, I was the only one that looked like me. And not only am I a female myself, but an African-American, right?

And so the more you expand women into the workplace, the more opportunity for us to grow and expand. So what that requires is a commitment at the top of the leadership to true inclusion, diversity goals.

And if I think about my own company right now, we’re fortunate that our global CEO is a female, right? But she was also our North America CEO before she became our global. She made it part of her mission to make us a diverse company. And she made it part of our scorecard.

And so I think what’s happening is there is a push around recognizing that there are bottom line results for women, for businesses, and prove when you have diversity of talent, both at the board level and in leadership. And so that’s driven an actual focus around expanding women into leadership and making it a scorecard shared success requirement. So it starts with leadership.

I know that Accenture, and this maybe goes to the point you’re making, there’s a goal to get 50/50 gender balance by next year.

That is correct. 2025.

So how have you seen the business world react to gender disparity and how are things going with that goal?

I mean, I think that what you have to focus on is not just the gender disparity, but you have to focus on the benefits and the value that it brings to teams, right? And so I think we have found that women are good managers. I think that we are just as passionate about driving the business and people see bottom line results improve when you have diversity of talent. And so that allows people to lean in.

We’ve been doing well against our goal, right? We’ve been making year over year improvement in expanding women, both at all levels of our business – from manager to managing director. But it requires focus, it requires diverse slate recruiting, it requires intentionality from the leadership. And I think people have gotten behind that because they’ve seen the best results of that action.

So I’m thinking that you will be heard by a lot of folks in the business world right now and maybe people who aspire to be part of that world themselves. What do you think is important for women to know if they’re looking themselves toward a successful career in management?

I think that they have to put themselves in the mix.

The reason why I appreciate Texas Conference for Women is it’s an opportunity for women to network with other women who are already in the business world. And so if that’s something that you want to do, you’ve got to go into the forums, in the areas and organizations where women in business and in leadership and men in business and leadership who are advocates and allies show up, which means you’ve got to be participating in the chambers, you have to go to events, and that allows you to gain access and network.

I think in addition to that, you’ve got to make sure that you’re not operating within these self-limiting beliefs and you’ve got to believe that you deserve to have a seat at the table.

Yeah, you’ve got to get people talking about you, I guess.

You do. I mean, I think we underestimate the power of network.

And I will tell you that for most companies, especially in business, people hire off of referrals. They hire off of network, because we’ve seen success with that.

It’s much easier than you just submitting a resume into a blind box of thousands of other resumes. The way you stand out is because people know your name.