The FINANCIAL — Women have very little chance to be promoted to executive positions in Georgia according to research of gender balance at leading companies based in Tbilisi. The research shows that about 1 out of 100 executives in Georgia are female.
Georgian HR specialists, who are mainly female, say that the ‘glass ceiling’ effect is a result of the traditional stereotype that men can do the job better. Another reason is that Georgian society is largely not prepared to support a woman’s decision to choose work over domesticity, so believes the only female CEO banker in Georgia.
“I think the main reason for women not raising to the top is the lack of support from the society,” believes Maya Meredova, General Director of ProCredit Bank Georgia. She is one of the rare exceptions of a female executive in Georgia.
Maya Meredova, of Turkmen origin, holds Masters in International Relations and Development studies from SAIS, Johns Hopkins University, and BA in Business Economics from University of Durham. Since February 2007 she worked as a Director of ProCredit Bank Georgia. Prior to joining the Georgia team, she worked in ProCredit Bank Serbia and in ProCredit Bank Moldova. She had previously worked as a bank adviser in EBRD’s Micro and Small Enterprise Facility in Kyrgyzstan and for the World Bank as a consultant specializing in private and financial sector development in Europe and Central Asia regions.
Maya is married to Irakli Burdiladze, Deputy CEO at Bank of Georgia
“Despite all the progress and emancipation Georgia still remains a traditional, male dominated society, where there are predefined prejudice about the role of a man and a woman. The role of a woman is still largely seen as raising children and taking care of the family while the role of a man is seen as to earn money and provide the financial support. The burden of taking care of kids and home is largely on women, men usually don’t participate in the household chores. In such situation there is no room for woman to build her career. Growing up in such society, where there is no support, women themselves end up believing that their primary role is to be a wife and a mother and career is not so important. It’s harder for a woman to be a top executive because in addition to running her job she needs to take care of her family and kids and without the support and understanding from her husband and relatives this is almost impossible.” Meredova said.
“I would tell women in Georgia to first of all believe in themselves. I think that women have a lot to offer this country; they are talented, strong and hardworking and they deserve to succeed. I think they shouldn’t be afraid of wanting to succeed in their careers and be confident that they are as good if not better than their male colleagues,” Meredova stated.
Meredova said that she does not know whether her male counterparts are troubled by her being a woman, at least she has never felt that they are. “Although I have to mention that I had a case when a macho client demanded to see a male director, but eventually had no choice but accept a female. I don’t think I need to give in to any prejudice,” she added.
“Corporate Georgia will develop when it comes to advancing women to positions of leadership,” Eka Machavariani, Director of the Human Resources Department at Caucasus University, CU, told The FINANCIAL.
“We clearly witnessed during the ‘90s how many women started to become the main breadwinners of their households. After that, the time came when all youngsters were presented the equal opportunity to get qualified education at local and foreign universities. As a result we presently see women in all departments of companies, even IT departments,” Machavariani said.
Machavariani said that men are more likely to take risks than women. She added that ambition is a personal characteristic; it depends on the individual rather than one’s gender. “After passing several career stages both males and females express equal levels of ambition.”
“During my twelve years of experience in the HR field I have never encountered a practice of not promoting an employee outright because of their gender. There is a tendency however that newlywed females may be passed over by HR. Professional HR managers however will not make a final decision according to a candidate’s social status,” Machavariano said.
Eka Barbakadze, HR Manager at Georgian American University, agrees that nowadays we do not have many females in leading positions in Georgia, but it’s extremely obvious that women have come a long way in terms of being successful professionals. The female task force has expanded and is of great value in the professional world.
“There is a continuous process of feminization in almost every field. It was believed that the only jobs that they could handle were those of teachers or office managers, but today’s woman can hold leading positions in any company” Barbakadze stated.
“The majority of women used to be much more quiet and passive in the workplace. They traditionally did not show as much ambition as men. It is a common misconception that many professional females got to their top position based on the power of their looks, but the reality is that the majority of women have worked hard (and in some cases harder because of the disadvantage their gender presents) to achieve their success,” she added.
Barbakadze said that women have developed dual personas. One for the home and one for the workplace, and that this might be the reason why men are more risky than women.
“There are of course some cases of women being denied promotion or employment because of their gender. Men sometimes don’t give them the proper respect and trust they deserve, perhaps because of the stereotype that the female sex is weak, or if a woman is pretty she therefore can’t also be intelligent.”
Barbakadze confirms that HR Managers give the advantage to single women over those who are married. “Single women tend to be more concentrated in the workplace.”
Nana Darsania, Head of the HR Department at Lukoil-Georgia, thinks that that mentality is the main reason why the majority of companies are run by men in Georgia.
Meredova said that at ProCredit Bank there are a lot of women in key positions. The corporate culture of the Bank promotes women, they always had women in the management board therefore the environment at work was favourable towards Meredova’s career development.
“In addition, hard work, commitment and desire to succeed in what I do played an important role as well. Most importantly I am very lucky to have a husband that supports my career development. As any women I also believe that family and children are important and I want to be a good mother and wife, but that is not everything, I also want to succeed in my job, be self-fulfilled and achieve something in life. I think that self-fulfilled and successful women make interesting wives and happy mothers. I don’t think that one thing should come at the expense of the other, with support from one’s family it is possible to combine both, and I am lucky to be able to do that,” she said.
“It is true that there are more women in the service sector, because I think jobs in the service sector are seen more as jobs for females. I don’t think that there are mental differences between genders. I just think women are much more pleasant, patient and better mannered and therefore they are more service oriented.”
While judging from their clients, Meredova said that women are better at repaying their loans, as they are much better at saving money and not investing in risky projects, while men tend to be more willing to take risks. I personally think that in general women are more risk-averse; this is somehow in their nature, while men are more reckless.
“We look for smart, talented, hard working employees who would share our corporate values and will be able to offer high quality service to our customers. Whether they are married or not doesn’t make any difference. However once they start progressing on their career, and in case if their husbands don’t support them it does cause problems, we have cases where our female employees are not allowed by their husbands to travel for extensive business trips or training courses and are expected to be home on time. Unfortunately such artificial limitations imposed by family stalls their professional growth,” Meredova told The FINANCIAL.
Out of the total staff working at ProCredit Bank 63% are female and 37% male, while in managerial positions they have a 50-50 balance.
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