As a neuropsychiatrist who studies the differences between male and female brains, I’m often asked whether such differences play a role in professional achievement—and particularly, in men’s dominance of the highest ranks of many fields. Male and female brains are more alike than not, and business’s famous glass ceiling has nothing to do with raw intellect. Yet the distinct demands that are put on men’s and women’s brains at key career phases may help explain the gender inequality in top management.

                Many women are sidelined, ultimately, by a timing issue. There’s a certain age, long established by large organizations, at which professionals must decide to make their play for the big promotion—the one that will put them in line for the C-suite—and while it’s a good time for men, it’s not a good time for women. That go-for-it moment typically comes in one’s 40s, when managers have gained the knowledge and perspective needed to take on real stewardship of a business. But at that phase of life, women with children already have a lot on their plates. Not only are they usually expected to handle the lion’s share of responsibility on the home front (even when both members of a couple hold full-time jobs), but their own brain chemistry makes it hard for them to do otherwise. For reasons important to the survival of the species, women in childbearing years undergo changes that intensify their focus on the viability of offspring. It’s a passing phenomenon, but ill-timed for those with career ambitions.

                Women tend to pride themselves on their multitasking capabilities—and rightly so—but as their children grow past grade-school years the demands on women’s brains reach their maximum levels. This may seem counterintuitive, given that younger children are less independent. It’s not the quantity of care required that taxes the brain, however, so much as the unpredictable need for care.

                When any decision maker’s brain function is overburdened, the result is stress, and nothing taxes the brain more than unpredictability. We know this from numerous scientific studies. Moreover, the typical woman in her 40s deals with at least two sources of heightened unpredictability not shared by her male colleagues. The first is preadolescent and teenage children, who no longer require basic care and nurturing. Effective parenting is vital at their ages but can’t be achieved on a schedule; mothers must be on the lookout for moments of need and quick to respond when they arise. Second, women in their 40s are also beginning to experience the normal hormonal changes leading up to menopause. For some, this has unpredictable effects on sense of well-being.

                People coping with heightened levels of unpredictability rarely go looking for even more ways to mix it up. To expect the typical woman to make her play for a newly demanding role at this particular life stage is unrealistic. Yet this expectation is implicit in most organizations. Top management starts looking seriously at a cohort as it enters its 40s. But the high-potential women may be opting out—temporarily, they hope—because the timing is wrong to introduce yet another source of high-stress unpredictability into their lives.

                If the same call came a few years later, many women would seize the opportunity. The very woman who could not find the capacity to green-light her own promotion in her 40s can be, in her 50s, ready to take on the world. How unfortunate if, by then, top management has shifted its focus to the next cohort and her candidacy is off the table.

                The model of the brilliant career we’ve all internalized was established over decades by men—which isn’t to imply any prejudicial intent. It’s merely a pattern that worked for them. Organizations, however, have it within their power to create new patterns that work for both sexes. If a business is serious about bringing more women into top management, here’s an idea: Open that window of promotability wider. When you dangle the brass ring of advancement and someone qualified fails to grab for it, don’t write that person off for good—especially if the candidate is a woman.                                 

Louann Brizendine, MD, is the director of the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco, and the author of The Female Brain (Broadway Books, 2006) and The Male Brain (Broadway Books, forthcoming in 2009).

How to close the talent gap

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the number of available US jobs will increase by more than 22 million by 2010, but the civilian labor force is projected to increase by only 17 million.

ONE REASON WOMEN DON’T MAKE IT TO THE C-SUITE

As a neuropsychiatrist who studies the differences between male and female brains, I’m often asked whether such differences play a role in professional achievement—and particularly, in men’s dominance of the highest ranks of many fields.

Who’s watching our kids?

DOCTORS tried to save Rose’s life in vain. Her death was caused by an infection she got from a foreign object that was inserted through her sensitive body part by a foreign pedophile. Her sexual abuser was set free because of a technicality—her relatives could not establish whether Rose was 11 or 12 years old.

The wind beneath their wings

PHILIPPINE Airlines’ (PAL) steady progress to profitability has kept in step with its commitment to CSR (corporate social responsibility).  But in 1998, that fateful year when PAL was plunged into receivership, the very survival of the PAL Foundation, its CSR arm, was also at stake.

Manila: heartland of Bangsamoro

MARAWI is not the heartland of the Bangsamoro. Neither is Jolo, nor Cotabato. Definitely not the Basilan capital. Liguasan Marsh is a far-off choice.

‘Paradise drowning’

WHILE the rest of the world continues to debate the implications of climate change, amid stark warnings from scientists of the increase in the earth’s temperature by 1.8°C to 4°C by the end of this century, people living on small Pacific islands live with the risk that their villages could be rendered uninhabitable within a decade due to rising sea levels.

Climate change threatens humanity

CLIMATE change is one of the most critical global challenges of our time: that’s an understatement.  World scientists acknowledge it’s a serious challenge, big business is calling for government action and the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds that billions of people are at risk from hunger, disease increases, drastic loss of biodiversity, retreating glaciers, expanding deserts, among other sobering reports.

Boost growth & profitability–at the same time

Getting the top line headed north without sending the bottom line south is the ideal, but it’s difficult to realize.  According to Dominic Dodd and Ken Favaro, authors of The Three Tensions: Winning the Struggle to Perform Without Compromise (Jossey-Bass, 2007), there’s only a 40-percent probability that a company’s revenue or market-share growth will be profitable.

CTO BOB IANNUCCI on the ‘deep future’ of NOKIA

Bob Iannucci, Nokia’s chief technology officer, is betting that the mobile-phone industry will soon make the same sharp turn that the mainframe, minicomputer and PC industries took in past years: Platforms will become standardized, manufacturers will stop making incompatible hardware and the value of software and services will soar.

The business of Belo

Before joining the health and wellness industry, Belo Medical Group Inc. (BMG) chief executive officer Enrique Soriano III was making waves in marketing and was considered one of the most dynamic management executives in the country.

Winning: A moment in the sun for European business

Q: What are your thoughts about European business right now? Oliver Stoldt, Interlaken, Switzerland

INSIDE HAITI

PORT-AU-PRINCE—Haiti is a beautiful Caribbean island with the best beaches and temperatures in the world. It is, however, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, plagued by violence, hunger, extreme poverty, disease, high unemployment rates, low life-expectancy averages and crumbling health and educational systems.  Haiti’s history is filled with turmoil and unrest.

Health work-force exodus

GENEVA, Switzerland—The exodus of doctors, nurses and other health workers from many developing countries to higher-paying jobs abroad has created a health work force crisis taking its toll on the poorest and most vulnerable populations. 

Health fund helps poor manage emergency health situations

TAMPAKAN,  South Cotabato—A health-care fund in the barrios? There’s one in some remote barrios in eastern Mindanao, and the poor villagers are showing through their years of practice that health-care financing can actually work even in the remote areas.

Do your stars see a reason to stay?

Recruiters want your top people. And they know how to win them over. They invite your best and brightest to break free of their current positions and conjure up visions of the work they’d love to be doing.

SUPPLY CHAIN: SUBSIDIES AND THE CHINA PRICE

Many assume that China’s cost advantage in manufacturing comes from cheap labor. But in China’s burgeoning steel industry, our research suggests, massive government energy subsidies, not other factors, keep prices down. These subsidies have broad implications for how companies compete and collaborate with Chinese businesses.

Father & Son & Co.: The Claudios

Roberto Claudio Sr. and Roberto “Toby” Claudio Jr. are more than just father and son. They are also partners in business.

Under the elder Claudio’s guidance, Toby’s Sport’s has become the leading sports store in the country. And when the time came for junior to help in the family venture, his son eagerly and enthusiastically joined the business.

Father & Son & Co.: The Uys

JACINTO Uy believes he’s luckier than most family-centric businessmen: all his children chose to work for him.

“The greatest thing about it is enjoying working under him,” Uy’s son Michael, the eldest of three children helping to steer Moldex Group of Companies in a high oil price environment and ride a booming real-estate sector.

Winning: Worldwide leadership

Q: How will the Internet change leadership? Octavian Pantis, Bucharest, Romania

A: Profoundly—but not entirely. Indeed, not in one aspect that matters a lot.

The future in a grain

THE Primer Farm School (PFS) will open on June 15 in San Jose City,  Nueva Ecija, with a simple aim: Let us export rice in three years. If this appears to be too ambitious, let us make it in four.

As carriers fight in the skies, Pinoy OFWs suffer on earth

WHEN Rexz Maranan came home from London via the Middle East to bury his 80-year-old mother in January, he expected to be away from his work for about two weeks before returning to his job at the Heathrow Airport as a security officer. 

Getting sound advice on social initiatives

Companies today face a common challenge: how to develop workable programs that will help them move forward strategically on corporate social responsibility, or CSR, initiatives that matter to customers and employees. 

Use role-play to drive front-line change

Leading change is never easy, but in some contexts it’s especially difficult. Ask Elaine Weinstein. A former HR executive at KeySpan, she encountered strong resistance to change when management at the unionized utility decided to implement some new HR and workflow processes that would eliminate redundancy.