Women in the workplace - 6 Minute English

Hello.

This is 6 Minute

English from BBC Learning

English.

I'm Neil.

And I'm Sam.

Sam, does this situation

sound familiar?

It's a

colleague's birthday next

week.

A male boss says to

a female employee - "You're

great at organising things -

would you buy a card and get

everyone in the office to

sign it?

Oh, and we'll need

to order a cake too -

thanks, you're amazing!"

Yes, I have seen that.

A male boss asks a woman

to do all the jobs that

keep the office running

but do nothing to

advance her career or

improve her chances of

promotion - that's when

someone moves up into

a higher, better paid

position in a company.

Sadly, this happens

a lot.

In many workplaces

around the world, it's

the men who are

considered 'born leaders'

and promoted up the

corporate career ladder,

while the women are

given less important

roles.

Even today, many

working women find

themselves at a point

in their career beyond

which they cannot progress,

an invisible barrier to

succeed referred to as

the glass ceiling.

But in this programme,

we'll be meeting the

members of The No Club,

a group of women saying

'No' to the glass ceiling

by publicly questioning

the kinds of jobs men

and women are asked to

do in the workplace.

And, of course, we'll

be learning some useful

new vocabulary as well.

But first, I have a

question for you, Sam.

Despite the glass ceiling,

women do make it to the

top jobs in many areas

of work and business,

even in the male-dominated

world of politics.

So,

who was the first woman

to become British Prime

Minister?

Was it

a) Theresa May,

b) Nicola Sturgeon or

c) Margaret Thatcher?

I know the answer to this

one, Neil.

It's

c) Margaret Thatcher.

OK.

Well, we'll find out

later if you're right.

Professor Lise Vesterlund

is one of the four

academics who co-wrote

The No Club, a book

discussing how females

disproportionately take

on the unimportant,

less visible

tasks at work.

Professor Vesterlund

calls these non-promotable

tasks, jobs like taking

notes, organising social

events or chairing meetings -

jobs that take time and

effort but do little to

increase company profits

or to boost your career.

Research shows that most

of these tasks are done

by women.

Here's

Lise Vesterlund explaining

more to BBC World Service

programme, Business Daily.

We've been noticing gender

differences in wages,

in advancement,

in negotiation.

Burn-out

for women is much greater

than it is for men.

Their

dissatisfaction with their

work is much greater.

And we've been trying to

sort of address all these

objectives with lots of

different methods and

techniques, and what is

interesting about the

non-promotable work is

that it, in a very

structural sense,

contributes to all of

those differences.

Professor Vesterlund lists

some workplace gender

imbalances, including job

dissatisfaction and

burn-out - that's tiredness

and exhaustion caused

by working too hard.

Many of these issues

are made worse by

non-promotable tasks.

Natalie Quail agrees.

Natalie started her

successful dental cosmetics

company, SmileTime, after

winning a business

competition on the

TV show, Dragon's Den.

Here she tells BBC World

Service's Business Daily

about her experience of

being asked to take on

non-promotable tasks

in her work as a

trainee solicitor.

As a trainee solicitor

pretty much every task

that you take on is

a non-promotable task.

Note-taking is one of

them, in meetings, when

you kind of are told

that you can't really

speak or say anything.

I was tasked with being

the team party organiser,

so that was my role.

It does definitely

occur that the women

in the team, the level

of multitasking they're

doing is just... far outstrips

the men in a lot of

cases, for example,

you know, a lot of

women in the team

would also be juggling

having kids at home,

being a working mum.

Natalie found herself

doing non-promotable

tasks.

She thinks many

women in the workplace

are expected to be

good at multitasking -

doing more than one

thing at the same time.

For working mums, who

are raising a family

as well as developing

careers at work, this

involves some juggling -

trying to manage your

life when you are

involved in many

different activities

which all demand

your time.

In the forty years since

the term 'glass ceiling'

was invented, it seems

not much has change

for working women.

But

there is some good news.

The number of female

managers and women

working in jobs

traditionally seen as

male has increased

dramatically, and those

companies where getting

promotion is based on

ability not gender, have

benefitted from talented,

hard-working female leaders.

And speaking of female leaders,

Neil, what was the answer

to your question?

You

asked me who was the

first female British Prime

Minister, and I said

Margaret Thatcher.

Was I right?

You were right!

Mrs Thatcher,

nicknamed The Iron Lady,

became Prime Minister in

May 1979, the first woman

to break the political

glass ceiling in the UK -

an invisible barrier to

advancing in your career.

OK, let's recap the other

vocabulary we’ve learnt,

starting with promotion -

moving up into a higher, more

important position

in your company.

The term non-promotable tasks

describes those unimportant

jobs which help your

organisation but do nothing

to advance your career.

They are often

given to women.

If you have burn-out, you're

exhausted from working

too hard.

'Multitasking' is the ability

to do several things

at the same time.

And finally, 'juggling' involves

managing many different

activities which all demand

your time.

We’ve managed

our time pretty well so far

but now our six minutes

are up!

Bye for now!

Bye!