October 7, 2016 11:54 AM
Women Will Get It Done
Going forward, the Washington Watch will be including short sections from a project that I have been working on called, “Women Will Get it Done.”Women in Business
Women make up 47% of the total U.S. labor force. They own nearly 9.1 million businesses which generate over $1.4 trillion in sales and employ nearly 7.9 million people. Globally, women control close to $28 trillion in spending and generally control their home’s purse strings. So why aren’t more women at the top of U.S. businesses?Women make up only 4.8% of CEOs of S&P 500 companies, only 4.6% of Fortune 1000 CEOs and only 20% of board members for companies in the S&P 500. While these numbers are an improvement over years past, they are not growing at a rate equal to the rate of women working in business, many of whom are capable of being industry leaders.
The reasons for this lack of female leadership in business are multifaceted, but the research seems to bring two to the top: first, the idea that there aren’t enough women in the “pipeline” being trained and groomed for leadership positions and second, that gender bias continues to be pervasive in American business. Women exit the pipeline for a myriad of reasons, but a common reason is work-family balance struggles.
There is little incentive for businesses to offer greater flexibility for women with families so, more often than not, women are forced to decide between the two. One of the unintended consequences of women exiting the pipeline is that there are then fewer women to act as mentors to and advocates for up-and-coming female employees. Valuable guidance on how to best navigate the politics and competition of promotions disappears. It then becomes a bit of a chicken and egg situation; if women need greater female mentorship to get to higher positions but there aren’t any women to mentor them, how can they rise through the ranks to then become mentors themselves?
Another reason we see fewer women at the top, and one that seems to be a root problem, is gender biases. Bias continues to permeate the business world and act as stumbling block for women pursuing business leadership. A 2012 study found that “despite identical personal qualifications and firm financials, female CEOs were perceived as less capable than their male counterparts.”
Another recent study found that, “a female CEO who talked disproportionately longer than others in an organization setting was rated as significantly less competent and less suitable for leadership than a male CEO who talked for an equivalent amount of time.” Expectations for men and women in the workplace are different when they shouldn’t be.
Women have to prove themselves in ways that their male counterparts do not and this puts women at a disadvantage when it comes to moving up the ladder towards those leadership positions that so many of both strive and deserve to attain. If business and society overcome gender bias and promote women who are qualified and capable to perform in top positions, the “pipeline” problem will disappear and women will be found in high numbers at every level of business, providing their talents and expertise to an essential American industry. It is not a competency issue, it is an opportunity issue.
Men are 30% more likely than women to see a promotion from entry-level ranks to manager. [WP, 10/2/16]
