Women Making Slow, Unsteady Progress in Federation Leadership, Study Shows

Women are making slow, unsteady progress through the ranks of federation leadership-progress that has stalled in the larger federations-according to a recent study conducted by the Council of Jewish Federations.

Women have found the most success as both lay leaders and staff members in smaller federations, according to the survey.

Relatively few are reaching the top offices in the large communities, despite the fact that women count for a majority- 61 percent- of all federation staff members.

The report, “The Status of Women in Lay and Professional Leadership Positions of Federations”, analyzes the progress of women in lay leadership, and, to a lesser extent, in professional positions within the federation system.

The study, conducted in 1993 and released in December 1994, is the fourth such report conducted by CJF since 1975.

The findings are “to be taken very seriously”, said Martin/kraar, executive vice president of CJF. “It is now incumbent upon us in the federation system to take advantage of the great talent available to us among women”.

The proportion of women as presidents of federations has grown almost four-fold since 1975, the report found. But the greatest increase was achieved between 1975 and 1979, when the number of female presidents almost tripled, from 6 percent to 17 percent.

Since then, growth has climbed slowly at about 3 percent from study to study.

Women currently comprise 23 percent of all federation presidents. In volunteer- directed federations, which are typically the smallest, 36 percent had women at the helm in 1993, the year in which the data was gathered.

In large cities, however, the percentage has actually dropped since 1986, from II percent to 7 percent.

“I don’t know whether that’s the glass ceiling phenomenon and that’s as far as they can get, or whether there’s a certain amount of self-selection”, said Judy Adler Sheer, an author of the report.

“I want to do more research on that”, said Sheer, CJF assistant executive director and director of the CJF Women’s Advocacy Department. Sheer also serves as director of human resources development and of the Women’s Division. The women’s advocacy portfolio was created by CJF in early 1993.

The study surveyed the numbers of women in various positions of lay and professional management, as well as some of the attitudes and perceptions of women’s abilities to climb the federation career ladder.

More female than male respondents (48 percent vs. 35 percent) said they believe that obstacles prevent women from attaining the highest levels of lay leadership in federations.

Female respondents cited as some of the obstacles to women’s advancement in lay positions:

“There is a run-of-th-mill sexism and a very subtle lack of confidence in women by some (not all) men.

“There are some pockets of federation lay leadership who believe women many not be as effective (lack power, financial resources, political savvy) or believe women are too busy (family, career, pregnancy)

Male respondents, by and large, said they felt conditions for women in the federation system were fine overall and that there was little sexism.

Frequent comments included: “Women are judged on their skills – as are the men. All options are available to each”.

Half the respondents also said they believe that there are obstacles keeping women from attaining the highest levels of professional leadership. The report did not break down the percentages by gender on that question.

Female respondents cited as some of the obstacles to women’s professional advancement:

“Lay leaders and search committees do not always see women on equal footing with men. They cannot see a female candidate beyond wife and mother”.

“Women are not seen as fund-raising professionals. They are usually relegated to program development”.

Male respondents cited:

“Male chauvinism-traditional view of roles. Lack of ability for women to get necessary training and experience”.

“Bias for men in leadership position as to women. This is reflected in pay and benefits”.

In assessing the current climate for women’s participation in federation lay leadership, “many respondents said that it has improved greatly in recent years, and many claimed that today women are currently ‘equal’ to men in federations”, according to the CJF study.

“But others felt that the ‘old boys’ network is still a major obstacle to the advancement of women in federation. Still others expressed the assumption that women do not, or often are not able to, give gifts as large as those of their male counterparts, and that therefore their advancement in federations is inhibited”, he said.

Federation committees described in the report as “prestigious”, like campaign, allocations and community relations committees, have seen a steady increase in the percentage of women working on them

But women are represented on those committees in significantly lower proportions than on all other general committees.

On many of these less prestigious committees, nearly equal numbers of men and women are on board, according to the report. Fifty-two percent of lay leaders on human resources development committees and 46 percent of those on educational committees are women. On committees on aging, women dominate, with 62 percent of the members. Women also comprise more than half the members of youth and singles committees.

On the professional side of federations, women comprise more than half of all campaign directors – 52 percent – but they are concentrated in the small federations.

In “large city” federations – which are defined in the report as having a population of over 45,000 Jews and raising at least $7 million in their annual campaigns- 39 percent of campaign directors are female.

Men working as campaign directors have often gone on to lead their federations as executive directors, but the position does not seem to work as the same stepping stone for women, according to the report.

Lay and professional leadership of a federation’s Women’s Division also proves not to be a path leading to the top federation positions.

Of those who have been Women’s Division presidents or chairs since 1985, just 10 percent have become presidents of their federations, according to the study.

On the professional side many women who have worked as director of a federation’s Women’s Division apparently leave the federation after leaving the post.

When asked what position is currently held by former Women’s Division directors, survey respondents indicated they do not know what 51 percent of the women are now doing because they left the organization, left town, or the information was otherwise unknown.

But, cautioned Sheer, that could be because about 40 percent of those who become staff directors of women’s Divisions come to the role directly from being volunteers and only expect to serve in that role

There is unique crossover from the lay to the professional side for this position, and the women who take the staff position often then revert back to volunteer position, since they have no interest in working their way up the career ladder as federation processionals.

More work needs to be done to assess the federation world’s attitudes and goals, said Sheer. She plans to form a CJF committee of lay leaders and professionals to develop the next steps. However, she said, the real work must be done on the local level. “We’re really challenging local federations to buy into and deal with these issues on a local basis. We want them to put it on their federation agenda and make it an issue which is addressed”, said Sheer.