NEW YORK & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citi and LinkedIn today released results from their fifth Today’s Professional Woman Report, a national survey of more than 1,000 men and women LinkedIn members that explores professionals’ biggest career and financial concerns.
78% of women surveyed reported that they have never heard a successful man talk about the difficulty of having a career and a family. Yet results of the study revealed that both men and women rank “finding the right balance between work and family life” as their top career concern. Over half of men say that they have heard other men engage in conversations about work-life balance, indicating that men may not be opening up about these challenges to women.
The survey was inspired by conversations on Connect: Professional Women’s Network, powered by Citi, the largest and fastest-growing group of women on LinkedIn. The survey also explored the influence that various factors – including conversations about work-life balance – have on the way that career paths take shape. For example, most men and women over 35 say they feel “relieved” to hear a successful woman talking about the challenges of balancing a career and parenthood. At the same time, the majority of millennial women reported feeling angry, disillusioned or motivated to make a change, with 16% reporting that this type of dialogue makes them not want to pursue a leadership role for themselves.
“This study has given us a wealth of information about the factors that influence our career paths – and the different ways men and women talk about important issues in the workplace, like the intersection of career and family life,” said Linda Descano, CFA®, Head of Content and Social, North America Marketing at Citi, and President and CEO of Women & Co., Citi’s personal finance resource for women. “It’s clear from the findings that men need to be a bigger part of the work-life balance conversation – and that we could all benefit from more communication about a variety of career issues, from the way we promote our work to how much we think we’re worth.”
What are Professionals Willing to Give Up to Achieve Work-Life Balance?
- The balance/salary tipping point: When asked if they would rather receive a salary increase or flexibility/benefits that allow them to achieve a better sense of work-life balance, most professionals would choose the perks – until the raise offered exceeds 20%. Above 20%, most men and women would take the money over work-life benefits.
- Gen X men and women report having the lowest levels of work-life balance vs. any other generation. When asked about the benefits that would help them achieve better work-life balance, men and women’s top requests included: 1) the ability to work from home and 2) non-traditional work hours.
- Help at home vs. help at work? Women were more likely to think that the ability to hire more help at home would help them achieve better work-life balance; but men were more likely to think that the ability to hire more help at the office would help them achieve better balance.
Professionals Want More Money, But Are They Promoting Their Accomplishments at Work?
- Women are more likely than men to share news of professional accomplishments at work. 30% of women regularly call attention to their own or their team’s accomplishments, while only 26% of men reported that they do so.
- However, women are more likely to say they don’t promote their accomplishments enough. Only 40% of women feel they are adequately promoting their work to senior members of their organizations, compared to 50% of men who feel that they’re doing a good job of self-promotion.
- Women are more likely than men to view sharing news of professional accomplishments at work as a necessary part of self-promotion. Men are more likely to view behavior like forwarding complimentary emails about their work to their boss, nominating themselves for industry awards, or posting about work accomplishments via social media as “bragging.”
- Regardless of what they’re doing to promote themselves, nearly 3 out of 4 professionals feel that they’re not getting paid enough. Men, on average, feel that they should be making 29% more than their current salary; women feel that they’re worth 27% more.
Who Was the Biggest Influence on Our Career Paths: Mom or Dad?
- Regardless of their generation, men were most likely to say that their fathers had the biggest role in shaping their career paths. For women, however, their parents’ influence has varied from one generation to the next – millennial women were most influenced by their mothers, Gen X women by their fathers, and baby boomers by a teacher, coach or guidance counselor.
- Education tops the list of childhood dream jobs for women; high-tech tops the list for men. Women were most likely to dream of working in the educational (23%) or medical (22%) fields as children, while men were most likely to think they would end up in technology (16%) or medicine (12%). Only 2% of women dreamed of entering the technology field as a child.
- Men are more likely than women to have followed their childhood dreams. 54% of men feel that their profession is related to what they wanted to do as a child, vs. 47% of women.
- Professionals’ biggest career regrets? Not having spent more time learning new or different skills or building their networks. When it comes to the things that they wish they could have done differently, 28% of men and 25% of women say they would have spent more time trying to expand their skills earlier in their career. 22% of men wish they had focused more on building their professional networks, while 23% of women feel the same.
“The results of the survey provide a fascinating look into the people and circumstances that shape our careers,” said Jacky Carter, LinkedIn Community Manager for Connect: Professional Women’s Network. “It’s particularly interesting that even though women are more likely to share professional successes at work, they still feel like they aren’t doing a good job of self-promotion. This challenge of communicating your achievements is exactly what we see women talking about in the Connect group.”
For more detailed results on the Today’s Professional Woman Report, visit Citi’s Women & Co. web site at www.womenandco.com. To become a member of the Connect: Professional Women’s Network, visit www.linkedin.com/womenconnect and join for free.
Survey Methodology:
The Q3 2014 Today’s Professional Woman Report survey was conducted by LinkedIn in July 2014 among a nationally representative sample of 1,043 Professional male and female LinkedIn members.
About Citi
Citi, the leading global bank, has approximately 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 160 countries and jurisdictions. Citi provides consumers, corporations, governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services, including consumer banking and credit, corporate and investment banking, securities brokerage, transaction services, and wealth management.
About Connect
Connect: Professional Women’s Network, a LinkedIn group powered by Citi, is an online community of over 370,000 members where women come together for resources, support and discussion related to their careers. To join the community for free, visit www.linkedin.com/womenconnect.
