5 Reasons For: The Women's Leadership Gap
Women currently hold 20 (or 4.0%) CEO positions at S&P 500 companies. In the U.S 22% of senior roles are occupied by women. Women hold only 12% of the world’s board seats. They are only 6 percent of partners in venture capital firms—down from 10 percent in 1999. Nearly 47 percent of the 150 highest-earning public companies in Silicon Valley have no female executive officers at all.
I mean yes we can be thankful that we don't live in the world our grandmothers lived in, where career choices for women were so limited. I am thankful to be born in a country where women have basic civil rights, and amazingly, that is not a casualness in some places still. But let's put all that aside and look at an existing problem in Germany, in the U.S and anywhere else in the world: Women are not making it to the top of any profession.
This is something I have always wondered about... Why is it that males strongly dominate leadership roles on a global scale and progress on shortening the gap is so slow? Obviously the subject matter is very complex and there are books that go deep into history and the evolution of mankind and there are lots of approaches one could take. I am also not a big fan of generalizing and speaking of ALL women or men, so I'm just looking at the average numbers. I want to take a look at some facts, characteristics that have proven to be more prominent in women and that I believe are an essential part to the answer of this question.
I am very certain that it has nothing to do with capability, talent or ability, but a whole lot with mindset!
I want to give you 5 simple reasons that have to do with the mindset of women (on average) and you will notice they all go hand-in-hand with each other:
1. Perfectionism
Women don't even participate. They hide their ideas, visions, leadership skills and creative talents. Too many women seem to still believe that they should not even try, as long as their work isn't perfect and safe from criticism. Meanwhile an "alright performance" does not keep men from participating at all and I like that quality, it's a huge advantage men have - their absurd self-evaluation, thinking "Well, I am 41% qualified for this job, so give it to me!" Yes, the result might turn out to be ridiculous or catastrophic, but sometimes it does work - a man who actually isn't ready, who doesn't seem qualified, will realize his potential, just because the confidence that gave him trust in the first place.
Women on the other hand tend to do the opposite. There are so many brilliant, talented and creative women who will say "I am 99,8% qualified for this job, but until I reach the last bit, I will withhold, just to be safe."
Now obviously the force of perfection deeply roots within women. The idea that a woman has to be perfect in order to be loved or successful, thanks to society, has existed as long as the human race. As long as we women do not make the decision to break that convention, declare war on the force to be perfect, realize that it does nothing, but harm our lives and eats up our time, accept that we cannot always be perfect at everything and move on, nothing will change.
Women are more likely than men to be perfectionists, holding themselves back from answering a question, applying for a new job, asking for a raise, until they’re absolutely 100 percent sure they can predict the outcome. A study showed, women on average, applied for a promotion only when they met 100 percent of the qualifications. Men applied when they met 50 percent. Women are a quarter as likely as men to negotiate a raise. We doubt our opinions and begin our sentences with “I don’t know if this is right, but...” We overthink and overanalyze which causes worrying, which is the biggest enemy of taking action and keeps you from getting results in any area.
2. Fear of Failure & Criticism
Huge Part of perfectionism: Fear of criticism. Women more afraid of failure than men and they will also take it more personal when something goes wrong, dwell on a mistake instead of moving on. For example, a woman could have completed 4 exercises out of 5, and still feel bad because of that one exercise she didn't manage to do. Women worry more than men, about anything. We tend to be more afraid of failure, than we are excited about the possibility of success. Mostly not because of the failure itself, but judgement from others and the feeling of "not being good enough".
Nothing great ever came without criticism, so it is necessary to face those fears and learn not to fight them, but understand and work around them. It is important for a woman to learn that criticism isn't bad and should not affect you personally, especially if it is negative criticism from so called "haters", people who want to do nothing but put you down. Any successful person in order to stay alive has learned to not let negativity affect them and accept judgement from others, without letting it enter their mind.
3. Lack of Confidence
Self esteem is different from confidence. Yes self-esteem and society standards are another huge problem of women, but let's assume that wasn't the issue. You can be a woman with high standards and you value yourself (self-esteem), but you still lack confidence. You think you ARE worthy, but you lack confidence in your ability which limits your actions. I remember Katty Kay defining confidence in an interview as "that stuff that turns thoughts into actions" and I like that perspective. I would add to that, that confidence also means taking action without validation. I mean all humans seek validation, it is in our nature. Actually most people are obsessed with it and will live a life for validation (which is very unhealthy). But any successful person at some point had the courage and confidence to do something. Confidence is as important to professional success as competence.
I read that a set of research on gender has found something across cultures and across ages called the “male hubris, female humility” effect. It concludes that women have lower levels of hubris than men — they systematically underestimate their own abilities and are less likely to be overconfident. Another study showed that in the last two years of people entering the workforce it showed that 57 percent of males are negotiating their first salary, and only seven percent of women do. What a huge difference right? And that doesn't mean you should be cocky, nobody likes people who think they rule the world and know everything better, and I also think a woman should never give up her feminine qualities, such as empathy, care and communication, but at the same time be confident in her own being and work, stop looking for validation and let the world know what you deserve.
Source: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-art-and-science-of-self-assurance/
4. Risk Reluctant
This point again is a result of the above. If you don't believe in yourself, you are afraid of failure and criticism and you won't do something if the outcome is uncertain that means you will do everything you can to avoid risks and stay on the safe side, always. Being afraid of potential risks also means being stuck in your comfort zone, which limits you to exactly where you are at simply because nothing unordinary great ever came from a place of the ordinary.
"Women are less likely to die and they are less likely to succeed".
This presents pretty well the positive and negative aspect of being a risk-taker.
High risks, never result in an average outcome! You might die, you might fly.
Men, because they are less afraid of failure and more excited about the possibility of success, are more likely to take risks and participate, which increases the possibility of success. Also women will rather go the safe road (which can be a good thing) and they would rather think through one action for a year, before taking it to make sure the risk is as low as possible, meanwhile men would in that year make 30 moves, 29 which may fail but they don't give up and try until they get it right. That means, women don't recover as easily from a failure, which is why they rather take their time and not act straight away, which can result in loss of opportunity.
5. SOCIETY'S NEGATIVE IMAGE
In the Ted X Talk of Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook) about why we have too few women leaders, I found one point she raised particularly interesting. The sentence with which she closes her talk is:
There's a famous Harvard Business School study on a woman named Heidi Roizen. She's an operator in a company in Silicon Valley, and she uses her contacts to become a very successful venture capitalist. A professor took that case and made it [Howard] Roizen. He gave the case out, both of them, to two groups of students. He changed exactly one word: "Heidi" to "Howard." But that one word made a really big difference. He then surveyed the students, and the good news was the students, both men and women, thought Heidi and Howard were equally competent, and that's good. The bad news was that everyone liked Howard. He's a great guy. You want to work for him. You want to spend the day fishing with him. But Heidi? Not so sure. She's too aggressive, a little out for herself. She's a little political. You're not sure you'd want to work for her.
Women are expected to be nice, warm, friendly, and nurturing. Thus, if a woman acts rational or competitively, if she pushes her team to perform, if she exhibits decisive and forceful leadership, she detaches from the social script that dictates how she “should” behave and it seems unnatural. By violating beliefs about what women are like, successful women get called out for being insufficiently feminine and too masculine.
If you are an ambitious woman descriptions like “Ice Queen,” and “Ballbuster” are something you can expect to hear quite often. Of course this does not apply to all men, I work with some who are the opposite way, but you will meet some who are deeply uncomfortable with powerful women and don’t really like them.
Stereotypes are holding women back from taking powerful positions!
Let me know what you think about this topic and whether or not it would matter to you if your boss was a woman?
_________
Much love,
- Mrs.Steemit
Interesting article, as a woman who worked in Corporate America, I had mentors who were both male and female who supported me.
Much less often there were a few people both genders who struggled with the woman in authority situation. I felt it was my responsibility to help them get used to it. After all, if you are a leader you should act like one. :)
I really liked this picture, and it's message.
![](https://img1.steemit.com/0x0/https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cq7vKZBXYAAn73n.jpg)
I agree with you and it's good to hear that you had such a positive experience. Also great that you help those who still feel uncomfortable, getting used to it (they better, because I have hope that the situation will change in the next few years)
My bot upvoted this and now I'm just getting to read it. It is a very interesting topic that I have thought a lot about myself.
Don't take any of this as sexist or anything like that. I love women. :-) These are just observations I have made over time. I have played a lot of sports and you see it a lot on a basketball court. Guys are more likely to get into a fight. They are always fighting for their position and anyone in their way needs to get out of the way. Women often times play more passive. They aren't as aggressive most of the time when they play and they aren't as argumentative. Also guys often times practice very hard outside of organized practice and in the off season. Girls rarely do this. Usually they just go to practice when it is organized. You also see this when it comes to post collegiate athletes who graduated from college and are trying to make a spot on the Olympic team or for professional baseball, basketball, football....etc. A lot of guys keep going and trying to make it. Women are more likely to just stop trying to make a team. I see this recreationally as well. Just as many girls played high school basketball as boys but when you see pickup games at the YMCA or LA Fitness or wherever it is almost always all guys. Once in awhile we will get a girl who comes out and plays. Now one might ask what this has to do with women in business getting equal pay and holding high positions. Well I feel like it has to do with aggressive drive and willingness to put up with some of the hardship that comes along with not having everything laid out for a person.
In an entrepreneurial endeavor I feel that women have had a harder time here because it is all about disruption. Business is brutal and you are disrupting your competitors. Either you are offering a better price or a better service or making a competing product. In the United States if you are running a business you are very likely to get sued. This is very scary and I feel like women can't handle all this disruption and conflict as easily. Going back to the basketball example. Guys play in a manner that if someone is going to get in our way we are still going to take the ball to the hoop and either score or get fouled. On defense we are always going to try to block the other guys shot. Successful players don't back down.
I think in a corporate environment women are oftentimes scared to take charge and just do something that isn't spelled out. I have worked for a couple large corporations that had very specific standard operation procedures in place. Myself and other guys wouldn't be completely afraid to just take charge and do something a little different.
I have also never seen a woman jump off a cliff higher than 35 foot. Anything higher would be too risky. While they are probably smart for not jumping off the higher cliffs they are also afraid to take a risk. A guy looks at it and knows it is stupid and is scared but knows that if he survives he will feel like a badass and everyone else will know who the boss is.
I don't know if it is social conditioning or testosterone or a combination of the two. Guys are just more prone to conflict and taking on risk.
I think women can succeed in business and being entrepreneurs but I feel like most would possibly take a different approach than guys would. Possibly a more thought out more reserved approach.
Again none of what I said should be taken as if I believe that women can't be successful. I like strong women and the women I hang out with don't need a man. If that makes sense.
Very interesting observation and analysis. I totally agree with your points that women tend to approach situations differently then men, are more risk reluctant and as a result on average less likely to be successful in a competitive field such as entrepreneurship in comparison to men. I also like your example with sports, where you can clearly see evidence for your observation and I believe there are plenty more examples. Thanks for giving your p.o.v! :)
@mrs.steemit In a classical management position of a top company you have to work between 12 and 18 hours a day. Until our society doesn't stop this madness the management positions will be male dominated. Of course there are exceptions to the rule and hopefully this will change.
A big reason why women have difficulties in the workplace is children. A female colleague of mine who worked in a top companys' HR department said that their "hidden" policy was NO WOMEN BETWEEN 25 AND 35.
Would you be happy working those hours and not have time for familiy and kids?
Just please don't fall into the trap of creating a self fulfilling prophecy for yourself. If you believe that people are uncomfortable with a powerful woman you might misinterpret their behaviour this way. Maybe the guys you describe as being uncomfortale with powerful women are just uncomfortable with women in general... If you frame it this way, you won't see them as your enemies but just as shy men who need a strong leader, male or female :)
It's important to have a positive attitude if you wan't to be a leader.
Hmm maybe that is another issue right there, the family roles at home. I mean in today's world it isn't very common yet but also not completely foreign to have stay-home dads. Why is it that the mother is assumed to be the one giving up her career and focussing on being a mom only, if that role can be split? Just a thought to add. And I'm not sure what you're referring to with "positive attitude". I would love it to be different, I'm just basing the statements off of a current issue, that I'm sure can be changed in the future if that makes sense :)
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