Women don't care about the size of your p...roject

Later this week, I'm hosting an industry event with the Project Management Institute and KPMG on what we can do increase the representation of women in the project management industry.

For those of you not in or around project management, it remains a largely male-dominated profession. Here in Australia, I'd also go further and say that, despite being a diverse society, that the majority of our male project managers are white and quite senior also. That we have challenges today beyond just gender, and that we have to get the broader diversity and inclusion conversation going too.

If you are reading this as a white male project manager the rest of this article is not an attack on you. The reality is that the origin of project management lies in construction and engineering so I'd expect that the demographics of these industries would naturally flow through to project management also. However, project management now forms part of almost every industry, yet we're still not seeing more women follow too. Why is that?

Here are a few harsh reality's.

Reality #1 - Women don't care about the size of your p...roject

Over the last twenty years, I've led many projects. When I ask my male peers about theirs, I typically get something along the lines of:

"It's a three year, $50m upgrade of an enterprise-wide system."

"It's a twenty storey commercial premise, on prime CBD real estate."

"It's $450m oil and gas project."

I get it, the bigger our projects, the better a project manager people think we are. I've delivered some big ones too. However, is size really everything?

Why do we see a $50k community project delivered by a woman as less valuable?

Why should she be made to feel smaller or less significant because we rank ourselves on budget rather than the people we help or the benefits attached?

The simple answer is that she shouldn't.

Reality #2 - Women are more than just good administrators

When I went to university, I majored in Management & Computer Science. I spent my third year of university at IBM in London, working on technology projects, and once I graduated, I went straight onto more projects also.

I have always been interested in tech but, despite being as qualified as my peers, I spent most of my early career as the unofficial team administrator. I got to take minutes and organise things because people perceive women as "good administrators" and this stereotype has to stop.

Women who study fields like construction, engineering, and technology do so because that's what they want to be! Let's not dilute this by stereotyping them as administrators because a lack of meaningful work is the reason why most women leave!

Reality #3 - You don't need to be an engineer to be a project manager

While some project managers come down the construction, engineering or technology path, this is no longer the only way to become a project manager. I talk with many women (and men for that matter) whom our industry like to label as "accidental" project managers.

I personally hate this term.

The reality is that a woman becomes an "accidental" project manager when someone else trusts them enough to give them a project. Sure, they might not be a qualified project manager yet, and they may never deliver a major engineering project, but neither of these makes them less deserving of our help if they are passionate about projects.

We should be welcoming them in and helping them, not belittling them because they are "accidental".

Reality #4 - Women become parents (just like men do)

If we can't create workplaces and projects that support this then this is our problem to solve, not theirs.

Many women have shared stories with me where they were either:

• Not considered for a project because of family commitments.
• Were not given an opportunity to make a project work for them due to lack of flexible arrangements.
• Felt unnecessary stigma when they prioritised family over projects (even if they then worked late as a result)

We need to solve this for all parents leading projects. Full stop.

Reality #5 - Women are not mother figures

A woman in my network recently shared how her sponsor had said that her team "needed a bit of TLC and mothering." At the time we had a laugh about whether there was room in her budget for a nursing room, which now makes me feel kind of "Ewww".

But all jokes aside women are not mother figures. Yes, we might lead our teams in a different way to men, but unless our teams need father figures they don't need mother figures either.

They just need strong leadership figures.

Reality #6 - Women without other women is sh*t

There have been many times over my career where I have been the only woman in the room. It's sh*t!

Last year McKinsey published their annual Women in the Workplace report. It found that more than 80% of women are on the receiving end of microaggression when they are the only one in the room. They are more likely to have their abilities challenged, be subjected to unprofessional or demeaning remarks and feel like they cannot talk about their personal lives at work. Most notably women are almost twice as likely to have been sexually harassed at some point in their careers when they are the only woman in the room.

My message? We don't need to just find a woman for your project, we need to find many. They need to sponsoring projects, need to be our stakeholders and be on steering committees, and they need to be managing and delivering projects too.

This is something we can all do something about.

In Conclusion

Much has been written about gender diversity because there is a lot to do. I share my thoughts here today to start a conversation about what we can do specifically to help women in the project management arena but broader diversity and inclusion matters too.

Like all goals to improve something, it takes hard conversations and conscious effort from all of us. Please take the time to consider the above and ask what you can do about it, in your world, on your project, regardless of your gender identity.

Before someone can step through the door, we're the ones that have to open it.

About the Author

Julia is on a mission to help individuals, teams, and organisations deliver bigger, better!

She has spent over two decades making great strategies a reality, executing change, and delivering benefits to organisations around the world.

Now, as a speaker, trainer, facilitator, and coach, Julia works with leaders, teams, and individuals to deliver better strategy, projects, and change.

Whether you are struggling with traction, are being challenged to do more with less, or need to unite around strategy, big ideas, and transformational goals, Julia knows that if you want to deliver bigger results, you have to be able to deliver better.

Julia is the author of “Buy-in: How to Lead Change, Build Commitment and Inspire People,” is a graduate of Stanford University’s Executive LEAD program and Founder of Jewels, a Women in Project Management program. She is based in Melbourne, Australia and works with leaders and their teams across the Asia-Pacific and US.

Contact her at [email protected] if this article sparked your interest and you're keen to talk more.