Methodology
Working Mother Media conducted The PAR Initiative survey by mail and via telephone interviews from April 2008 through August 2008. The Women in Cable Telecommunications Foundation, with input from its members and human resources professionals in cable, compiled the list of companies that received the survey via mail. Companies that completed the 2007 survey received customized invitations to again participate. The effort yielded 40 useable responses.
Status of Women as a Determining Factor
It is the philosophy of Working Mother Media that actual results — i.e., the proportion of women in a company — must outweigh programs, which may or may not have the intended effect for women employees. Consequently, the statistical portion of the survey is weighted more heavily than the program portion. The “status of women” statistics are a demographic profile of the status of women at all levels of responsibility in a company and in the industry.
It is possible for a company to have a high proportion of women in management at every level, resulting in a very high “status of women” quantitative score, yet for the same company to receive lower scores on the qualitative P, A, R sections. This can result in a company appearing as a Best Programmer or Operator, but not appearing among the top five companies in any of the P, A, R sublists.
Collecting and Scoring Quantitative Data
The survey consists of two sections: 1) the statistical representation of women within the company and 2) the company’s programs and policies regarding Pay equity, Advancement opportunities, and Resources for work/life support.
Working Mother Media compiled, reviewed and proofed all data at each stage of collection, analysis and entry into the database. Reported figures are rounded to the nearest tenth of a point.
Scoring Qualitative Data
The survey asked participating companies a wide variety of questions relating to pay policies (P); leadership and advancement opportunities (A); and resources for work/life support (R) to gain the full picture of participant’s cultures, policies and practices that directly affect the upward mobility of women employed by them. Extensive follow up, via e-mail and telephone interviews, supplemented the submitted information.
The e-mail and telephone interviews gathered more in-depth information, especially regarding components of company culture that are hard to designate as a “program” or “official” policy in response to a survey question.
Working Mother Media scored qualitative data using a point system for most questions, with the lowest scores for little or no development on the point in question and the highest scores for fully developed, thoughtful programs or cultures accompanied by measurement.
Change in Methodology
The 2008 PAR Initiative survey reflects a change in methodology that affected some statistics, invalidating comparisons with prior year’s results for those categories.
This year, WICT collaborated with National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) to create common definitions for core demographic questions asked in both organizations’ industry surveys. The goal was to make it more efficient for employers to collect internal statistics and report them in each survey. For PAR, material changes in statistical definitions most affected the categories of management (which now includes professionals) and mid-level managers (which now includes professionals). Professionals are lawyers, certified public accountants, and other highly skilled staffers who have little or no management responsibilities and no operating responsibilities. Comparisons between 2008 and prior years’ results are not valid for these categories. In addition, the PAR Initiative collects data on full-time domestic cable employees only.
Definitions for line managers (those at the first level of supervisory capacity); senior managers (CEOs, CFOs, COOs, etc. and those who run major divisions or regions); women
in technology; and women in call centers were affected minimally or not at all. Comparisons between 2008 and prior years’ results are generally valid for these categories, though a few companies did change their reporting to reflect the new definitions and their own reorganizations.