According to LinkedIn’s ‘What Women Want @ Work’ study, released in celebration & support of International Women’s Day on March 8th

Friday 1st March, 2013, Toronto, ON – The majority of women (63%) worldwide define professional success as having the right balance between work and personal life and nearly three quarters of women (74%) believe they can ‘have it all’, according to the What Women Want @ Work study* released today by LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network.

The study found Canadian women feel confident about their careers and upbeat about their ability to have a fulfilling work and family life. A massive 85 per cent of respondents in Canada consider their careers ‘successful’, while 83 per cent of those over 35 believe they can ‘have it all’. On the issue of how children will affect career ambitions, however, women are split. The study found 66 per cent of Canadian female professionals currently without children believe they will not slow down their careers, while the remaining 34 per cent feel they will.

Success - Then and Now

The survey found the meaning of professional success has changed dramatically over the past decade. While today most (60%) professional women in Canada define success as having the right balance between work and personal life, only 35 per cent of them prioritized this five to ten years ago.
Over the same period, the importance placed on salary when defining professional accomplishments decreased from 64 per cent to 50 per cent, while ‘having an interesting job’ came out ahead as a measurement for success at 68 per cent.

The Flexibility Factor

Almost two thirds (64%) of Canadian working women would like greater flexibility within the workplace. A flexible work environment was trumpeted as the most important factor in determining the ‘success of the next generation of professional women’ according to 79 per cent of Canadian respondents, who deemed it more important than having a ‘greater representation of women at senior levels’ (74%).

“As women progress in their careers, their definition of success seems to have transformed. Modern working women are not just striving for positions of power or a higher salary – today’s professional women are far more likely to define success as having an interesting and fulfilling job and being able to successfully balance their work and home lives,” said Danielle Restivo, spokesperson for LinkedIn Canada.

Career Challenges

Professional women in Canada still face significant career barriers in the workplace. Forty-two percent of professional women in Canada identified pay inequality as a major challenge. In addition, the lack of a career path (55%) and the lack of investment in professional development (51%) were perceived to be major inhibitors of professional success. Women in Sweden (67%), Brazil (65%) and the Netherlands (61%) felt particularly challenged by the lack of a clear career path.

Issues such as the persistence of the ‘glass ceiling’ (22%) and sexism in the workplace (18%) were not perceived as widespread concerns for Canadian female professionals. A few countries bucked this trend however; 45 per cent of respondents in Germany and 39 per cent in Spain considered the ‘glass ceiling’ to be a major career challenge, while in India more than one in three (35%) women claim to have experienced sexism in the workplace.

Only a small group of professional women felt their appearance played a major part in their careers today, with 71 per cent saying it is irrelevant or has no major impact on their career. That said, women in several countries, maintained it still has a major impact on their careers, including Germany (26%), the US (21%), and Singapore (20%).

“Finding the right balance between work and life is a priority for modern working women,” said Pamela Jeffery, Founder, Women’s Executive Network (WXN). “At WXN we inspire smart women to lead. We do this by encouraging our Canadian members to strike a balance that matches their career ambitions with their personal and family responsibilities. LinkedIn is a valuable tool in helping women connect with like-minded professionals to share ideas, advise on career paths and stay current on industry developments. As employers offer more flexibility and mentoring opportunities, women truly can have it all.”

Top Tips: redefine success and take control of your career

• Don’t wait for your employer to give you guidance on your career path
o Choose someone you admire at your company or elsewhere and look at the career steps they made to be successful – how long did they stay in their role? How often did they move to a new company? Check out the LinkedIn profiles of the professional women you admire most
• Seek out women who can act as your mentor - a third of respondents cited not having a mentor as a major challenge in their career
o Join LinkedIn groups for professional women in your industry or region and make new connections
o Ask questions about what you should look for in a mentor
• If you don’t ask, you don’t get
o If flexibility is an issue where you work, connect with other women on LinkedIn and gain advice on how to ask for flexible work hours and create a plan to present to your manager
o Research positions similar to your own on LinkedIn to understand skills involved and pay scales so you can have regular informed conversations about your remuneration
• Save time and effort by using online networks to meet like-minded women professionals, mentors and key business contacts
o Discuss with your peers how best to handle the pressures of juggling work and family, provide support and learn from each other
o Can’t find the time to attend networking events? Take a bit of time each day online to reach out to one key contact through LinkedIn

###

*About ‘What Women Want @ Work’ Study by LinkedIn and Cross Tab Research

In February 2013 LinkedIn partnered with Cross-Tab to survey more than 5,000 working women across 13 countries in celebration and support of International Women’s Day on March 8th. Over 400 respondents between the ages of 18-65 were surveyed in each market to better understand the challenges that women face in their careers, how women have viewed success in the past and what success means now, if professional women worldwide believe they can balance work and family and how online networks can help them with their careers.

About LinkedIn
Founded in 2003, LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. With more than 200 million members worldwide, including executives from every Fortune 500 company, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the Internet. The company has a diversified business model with revenues coming from its talent solutions, marketing solutions and premium subscriptions businesses. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, LinkedIn has offices across the globe.

Contacts: press@linkedin.com