Problem

• Exemption of women from interesting assignments
  
• Lack of training

Solution

• Offer job opportunities

What can be done

• Provide women same challenge opportunities and developmental job experiences as men to prepare for executive jobs, in forms of
  
• Riskier assignments (success and failure both possible)‏
  
• More visible assignments (to others)‏
  
• Projects requiring pro-activity, initiative taking, aggressive individual, take-charge leadership
  
• Start-ups, entrepreneurial
  
• Turnaround and fix-its
  
• Coaching/ supervisory assignments
  
• Personnel management (including hiring, firing)‏
  
• International or expatriate assignments, field trips
  
• Assignments requiring working with a new technology or develop a new skill
  
• Pay attention to increase variety and frequency of these assignments as much as possible
  
• Plan sequence of assignments with continued challenge
  
• Change and rotate jobs every year or two

How to make it work / tips & tricks

• Provide positive role models, constructive support/ mentors to women for on-the-job learning and develop feedback mechanism
  
• Tip: Ask "What will she have to learn quickly? What will she have to unlearn, stop doing, or change?“. Assign her the job offering the most change
  
• Tip: "Think small". There are limited high-challenge jobs, thus provide also mini-opportunities
  
• organizing an off-site meeting, developing a new training programme (mini-start-ups), working with a problem subordinate (a mini-turnaround or fix-it), confronting morale problems, cutting costs, streamlining operations, a stretch project assignment…
  
• Tip: Plan assignments case-by-case considering individual needs (motherhood, career path…)