#GIRLBOSS is not just a trend but a need. According to the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Nichols College“women hold just 24% of senior leadership positions.” Recognizing this reality, it is necessary to understand the importance of having women in leadership and business and to acknowledge the barriers that inhibit women from reaching these roles. Having women in leadership roles is not only crucial for representation but also helps businesses and society’s welfare as a whole.
In the United States, women make up nearly half of the workforce and are the primary breadwinner in around 40% of families. This emphasizes how important women are to the economy, yet a study by The Mom Project on the importance of women in leadership found that only 1 in 4 organizations rank advancing women into leadership roles among their top 10 priorities. Women leaders have been found to be better mentors, listen more to needs and concerns, are more of a role model, build more respect, and create a better team atmosphere where everyone participates.
Businesses that challenge gender and leadership diversity, that give more roles to women can help differentiate their business within the marketplace. Organizational performance directly correlates with the diversity of behavior, thus, it is important to have gender diversity in the workplace. A research paper written in The Journal of Business Research that discussed gender diversity within firms that proved that firms with a higher proportion of women in leadership roles perform better, enhance monitoring processes and have mechanisms for stronger corporate governance control. Additionally, one study shows companies with more women on their boards also have higher innovation and invest more in innovative technologies.
Having women leaders not only improves financial performance metrics, but it also increases a firm’s performance by reducing lawsuits, scandals, and corporate crimes. Women help to improve corporate social responsibility by decreasing the chance of environmental infringements. According to a study listed in The Journal of Business Ethics by conducted by Canadian firms, businesses with women on their senior boards are more likely to disclose their greenhouse emissions which subsequently reduces their carbon footprint.
Seeing all of these statistics and mountains of evidence frustrated, and somewhat angered me. It is continuously proven that having women in leadership roles benefits businesses, the marketplace, the environment, and even society as a whole. So why is the system structured in a way that makes it so difficult for women to rise to these leadership roles?
There are unfortunately a variety of reasons. One of which is the harmful stereotype that limits women to certain job industries. Women make up less than half of most, if not all, of the highest paying positions and even workplaces where women seem to be the most common. The fields with the highest concentration of women workers reinforce the idea that women only perform well in “soft, feminine” job fields, as the lobs with the highest percentage of women workers are jobs like health care, media and communication, and education.
Historically, there has been a belief that women are only suited for domestic duties and this notion has evolved into a belief that, even though women are allowed to work, they should be confined to certain industries that are seen as more traditionally feminine. This belief also extends to the idea that women are not suited for fields such as finance or technology. There is a clear structural injustice placed against women, through daily interactions of harmful stereotypes and assumptions, thus women are portrayed in ways that make society believe they are unfit to be leaders.
It is even more difficult for women of color to be accepted into places of high leadership. It has been so normalized for women of color to be taught they must sacrifice more or face more challenges to be viewed equally. By perpetuating this belief, we are teaching these women to accept a broken system and to adapt to it, rather than to go against it. In 2019, women held 43.3% of management positions based on the research by The Mom Project, mentioned above, but once this statistic was broken down into race, women of color only made up to approximately 10.3%. As an Asian woman, I was in disbelief that Asian women only held 2.5% of all management positions. Having women of color in leadership roles brings in different perspectives that are important for leading and guidance. More and more research is being conducted as well as companies themselves are stepping forward proving that the more racially and ethnically diverse a company is, the more likely they are to have higher than average financial returns.
Social pressures to increase gender equality have effectively merged morality and business requirements to hire more women leaders to higher up positions. However, it is important to acknowledge true female empowerment; to not view women as merely a profit-making tool, but to help dismantle obstacles and barriers that limit them from leadership opportunities.
It is clear that unlocking gender diversity and having more female leaders is not only beneficial to companies, but to society as a whole. I believe that within the neo-liberal capitalistic society we are currently a part of, it should be an incentive for companies to promote, hire, and create more roles for women.