Spanish Women: Breaking the Glass Ceiling

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"There is a perception on the part of management," says a senior female investment manager at a major bank based in Madrid who prefers to remain anonymous, "that if a woman's personal life calls her, she will respond to that call." Once that choice is made, the manager continues, "she loses it all and is relegated to the back office."

A study carried out among 150 successful professional women in Spain by research institute Círculo de Progreso in 2005 confirms the dilemma. Of the top women interviewed, 60% had never interrupted or changed career paths even once during their working lives. Nearly three-quarters said they felt as if they were doing double duty with both career and family.

Keeping the Work-Home Balance

The only real solution is a workplace environment that accommodates both. Perhaps nobody has done more to advance that model than Amparo Moraleda. One of Spain's youngest rising executives, she is president of IBM for Spain, Portugal, Greece, Israel, and Turkey while at the same time married and raising two children.

An industrial engineer with IBM (IBM) since 1988, Moraleda has an MBA from IESE and worked alongside legendary turnaround CEO Louis Gerstner when he transformed IBM in the 1990s. Today, she is also known for shutting off her computer and going home at 7:30 p.m. in a country where many executives are still at the office past 9 p.m. Far from holding her back, Moraleda's example underscores IBM's position as one of Spain's most flexible companies in balancing work and family life.

No question, there's still work to be done. In a country where wages still lag behind the eurozone average, women earn only about 75% as much as men. And many Spanish workers, not just women, continue to contend with a traditional schedule that includes a two-hour lunch break followed by office hours often stretching past 8 p.m. Young and single people can handle the classic Spanish workday, but it's tough for women with children.

Breaking the glass ceiling is a long process, and the toughest part is changing attitudes. "At the corporate level, preparation, discipline, and commitment aren't enough," says Hispasat's Mateos. "The mentality has to change." Fortunately for Spanish women, the evolution is finally under way.

Tarzian is a correspondent for BusinessWeek in Madrid.