Laura Duksaitė: There is no gender discrimination in the workplace in Lithuania
In "Verslo žinios," Laura Duksaitė-Iškauskienė spoke with Rusnė Valatkaitė about the golden age of leadership, discrimination, and how to remain relevant throughout one’s career—not just when we are between the ages of 35 and 45.
Discrimination is an important topic in the labor market, especially when it comes to compensation.
You may experience discrimination if you apply for roles and are consistently not selected for certain positions because you are a woman. However, I notice that in Lithuania the situation is somewhat different: women often do not apply for CEO positions in the first place.
For example, we recently announced a public search for a Chief Executive Officer position. Out of 12 applicants, guess how many CVs we received from women?
One.
That suggests the reasons go much deeper than discrimination alone.
A large part of it is linked to women’s lack of confidence in their own abilities. Lack of ambition. Fear of risk.
And the roots of this go much deeper — into childhood and the different ways we raise daughters and sons (a topic I have written about extensively before).
During career consultations, 9 out of 10 men usually say that the peak of their career ambition is becoming a CEO.
Among women, only about 1 out of 10 says the same. More often, women describe the highest point of their career as a department head position.
This may also be connected to extremely high expectations women place on themselves.
For example, women tend to apply for a position only if they can check every requirement listed in the job description.
Men, meanwhile, will often apply if they meet around 70% of the requirements.
Together with Rusnė Valatkaitė in the Verslo žinios podcast, we discussed discrimination, youth culture, the “golden age” of executives, how to remain relevant throughout your entire career, and many other topics.
Read more:
Podcast episode
