Some women felt they had struggled against outdated attitudes about the role of women.

We asked about the use of certain strategies and approaches to help career development, such as having a mentor, networking and seeking international experience. In the West men deployed certain techniques much more than women—notably external networking, volunteering for special projects, and the more life-disrupting ones such as seeking international experience and changing employer. However, in Asia there are very few differences between the career strategies used by men and women (see graph below).

Cima’s male members in Malaysia earn on average 51 percent more than Cima female members.—Cima global survey, 2010

When comparing women from the East with those in the West, our survey shows that Asian women were more likely to have sought international experience (83 percent) compared with women in the West (43 percent). And 84 percent have regularly sought to change their employer to gain promotion or experience, compared with 60 percent in the West.

 

The barriers to success

The women we spoke to had faced two main challenges throughout their careers, the problem of achieving a satisfying work-life balance, and the difficulty of being taken seriously in a male-dominated business.

 

Balancing work and family demands

“Sometimes I feel like I’m doing two to three full-time jobs.”—Theresa Chan

All the women we spoke to who had children said it was a constant struggle to ensure that they devoted enough time to both their family and their job. This is what a study from McKinsey identifies as women’s “double burden”—the combination of work and domestic responsibilities.

Maintaining a home life while also meeting the demands of their careers required huge dedication and organization from the women we spoke to. “Sometimes I feel like I’m doing two to three full-time jobs,” Theresa Chan told us. “You need to have very good time management, and good family support.”

For some women, the challenges are extreme, as Garris Chen describes. “I was a weekend mother for two years,” she explains. “Every Friday I took a plane home, and every Sunday I flew off to my work. During that time I also took on a part-time MBA program. Juggling all the commitments and being a good wife and a mother to two kids was my biggest challenge.”

“It’s difficult to find a job with good career prospects that doesn’t involve traveling.”—Theresa Chan, ACMA, corporate finance director, Warner Bros, Hong Kong

For women in cultures where traditional female stereotypes are more ingrained, the challenges can be even greater, as Sandhya Rajapakse explains, “In Sri Lanka the responsibility to earn is shared among both partners, but the responsibility of taking care of the home, family and children still rests on the shoulders of the woman.

“Unless she has a good support system, the woman is left with no choice other than to compromise her career to tend to family needs.”

Lakmali Nanayakkara, also from Sri Lanka, describes a common scenario, “Lots of women in their mid-career face conflicting responsibilities. They may have children and family dependents and the balancing act becomes stressful.”

On the other hand, some other Asian women told us they benefited from very close and extended family support networks, which enabled them to focus on their careers and take advantage of placements away from home. Jenny To from Hong Kong explains how family support helped her when she took a job in Shanghai. “My mother-in-law lives with us and this helped me get further in my career and feel comfortable when I was away from the children. I also needed to be very dedicated—to find time to talk to the children at night, and give them lots of attention at the weekends when I was home.”

Many other working mothers find it hard to pursue career opportunities that involve travel. “Mobility is an issue,” Theresa Chan believes. “Traveling is a barrier for women especially in Asia; it’s difficult to find a job with good career prospects that doesn’t involve traveling.” Boonsiri Somchit-Ong from Malaysia also sees lack of mobility as limiting, “A lot of good jobs are international and you have to make the decision about whether or not to go for them. Often I think, ‘If I was single I’d do this.”’

 

This regular weekly column from the UK-based, 90-year-old Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, or Cima, is meant to expand and enhance the diversity of views on current issues in the financial world, which has been facing some of its toughest challenges the past few years. Cima officers and members will take turns writing the Monday column. Cima is the organization behind the Global Business Challenge, meant to test the strategic business skills of students globally, part of Cima’s vision to develop future talent, and targeting university undergraduates.