Where have all the senior women gone? - Ines C. Wichert

Essential career guidance for corporate women with talent and ambition and advice for HR leaders on managing a diverse workforce; it sets out nine job assignments that every woman should have on her CV in order to lay the way for promotion and progression and insights into the lessons learned by the top senior women (and men) in business.

Ines Wichert is a chartered psychologist with a special interest in talent management and female leadership development. She has a PhD in Organizational Psychology from the University of Cambridge in the UK and has been working as a management
consultant advising global organizations on their talent issues for many years. Ines brings a very personal interest and passion to the area of female leadership progression. This book is inspired by numerous conversations she has had over the years with women at middlemanagement level who were uncertain about their next career move. Brought up in the belief that she and her peers could 'have it all', career and a family, her realization of increasing barriers to career progression for many of the women she has worked with has made her embark on a journey of discovery to find out what accelerates and slows down women's progression in the world of business. Since writing this book, Ines has joined Kenexa's High Performance Institute as a Senior Psychologist, where she continues her research into the advancement of women leaders worldwide.
Follow the author on Twitter @InesWichert

'An excellent and insightful book. Ines has provided a highly strategic and practical text full of invaluable career advice. A must read for those seeking to recruit and retain the largely under-utilized talents of 50 per cent of the world's workforce. Mandatory for women who rightfully expect to have a fulfilling career and a family.' Claire Braund, Executive Director, Women on Boards, Australia

'Ines Wichert has written a very important book: yes indeed, where are all the senior women? In facing up to the gritty realities for women competing in organizations and drawing on the experiences of senior female executives, she offers immensely practical, step-by-step advice on ways for women to rethink their careers and enhance progression. Men also need to understand how to encourage and promote female leaders. They also need to read this book.' Dr George Olcott, Non-Executive Director at Nippon Sheet Glass and NKSJ Holdings, Inc. (Japan), and Professor at Tokyo University, Japan

'Dr Wichert has distilled the critical roles and experience required to get to the top echelons in business. The result is a clearly defined check-list for women who want to hone their career plan and a must for businesses who are serious about enabling the 'right' career progression and development to get women to the top.' Charlotte Sweeney, Head of Diversity and Inclusion, EMEA, Nomura International, Tokyo, Japan

'A useful and structured guide for women who want to get ahead in their careers on their own terms but within the current corporate structures. This book shows that if your ambitions are clear there are practical steps you can take to retain your 'promotional material' status within the company. The book has a number of tough messages for women to step up and ASK but above all shows by examples that having a career as a senior executive can be exciting, fun, stretching and rewarding and

you should not give up too soon.' Elin Hurvenes, Founder and Chair, Professional Boards Forum, Norway

'This book fills a real gap and provides well-supported advice to help women build their careers. Intrapreuneurial activity, vital to any large organization, features rightly as one of the three leadership brands which women may adopt in their attempt to break through the glass ceiling.' Doug Richard, Founder, School for Startups, UK, and Dragons' Den Entrepreneur

'In my role as the Co-Chair of the London European Professional Women's Network, I have often asked myself, 'where are all the senior women?' This is a must-read book for any professional woman who wants to 'control the controllable' and take charge of her career. By searching out these career critical assignments, Ines shows how talented women can gain the confidence they need early in their career, accelerate their career after having children and contribute authentically to their organizations as they crash through the glass ceiling.' Michelle Brailsford, Co-President, European Professional Women's Network, London

'This book succeeds brilliantly for a number of reasons: it pitches at the mid-ground between simpler clich-ridden self-help books and weighty academic tomes; and the senior managers Ines interviews are well-chosen to have a range of experiences that make their narratives invaluable sources of information for the reader. This book is strongly recommended for ambitious women setting out, or at the early stages of, a career in management. Their male counterparts will learn a lot from it too! Dr Wichert should be congratulated on a very important contribution to help women climb to the top of their profession, avoiding the buffers and sidings that have held back so many of their predecessors.' Dr Brendan Burchell, Director of Graduate Education, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, UK