Category: Leadership

Although women are increasing their presence within the work force, they are still notoriously underrepresented within leadership positions. History is to blame for the late entry of females, however there are still numerous factors that explain the low numbers today. Theories such as the “glass ceiling”, the “glass-cliff” the “sticky floor”, and even the “maternal wall” come to mind as this constant battle that women have to face. Yet in the past few years, especially in light of the recent social activism, we start to see more women break these barriers and overcome these limitations. 

Sticky Floor and Glass Ceiling

Women already tend to have difficulties entering certain career fields, especially those that are already dominated by males. While they are likely to be accepted to entry-level jobs, advancing beyond that is improbable. This is a reflection of the “sticky floor” effect, where females have low mobility in within their career fields and are unlikely to be able to rise to management positions. 

Glass Cliff

In the cases that women do achieve these higher ranks, data shows that they are typically appointed to them in moments of crisis. This is often categorized as a downturn in company performance and finances. If the said company continues on track with that trend, the blame will fall on the female leader. This result is then used to justify why women are less likely to be appointed to higher rankings.

Maternal Wall 

The “maternal wall” refers to the more social aspects of gender bias. It is the idea that women are not able to handle to combination of work and family life. This is especially found for women who, for example, take maternity leave or have moments of putting their family first. They are often viewed as less competent, and therefore not as committed to their careers. This term is also used to refer to character assumptions, where mothers are not seen as not capable enough to complete high risk jobs, especially in leadership roles. The attributes that are typically associated with motherhood are seen as a less desirable trait in a firm. 

Policy Recommendations

Research has found that certain countries had begun implementing laws to enforce gender equality. The national government enforces these rulings, and companies face a penalty if the demand is not met in a timely manner. It would be ideal for the United States to adapt some of these methods, however due to the political climate there is sure to be backlash against it.

This is why it is now up to companies to execute these procedures within their own walls. Individual company policies could be set up to create a healthier environment not only for women, but their entire work force. They can take the steps to host diversity, equity, and inclusion seminars in order to address the biases on all levels. Another step would be to acknowledge the difficulties employees have when it comes to balancing work and life. An example of this would be offering a more flexible schedule for them to choose from. This can benefit the company as a whole as people are finally able to commit themselves to other realms, thus producing a happier work environment.

Most importantly, solving this problem starts from a young age. An example would be to encourage more girls to take the leap and start pursuing more male dominated fields. With more young ladies being introduced to subjects like STEM, their confidence to succeed in the work force will thrive. Promoting positive mindsets in both boys and girls alike is key to future equality.

Looking towards the future

As of 2020, only 2% of black women in undergrad earn a degree in economics. The double-glass ceiling is something unique that women of color have to face, dealing with the intersectionality of bias. Taking this class was still inspiring though, as through our research there is seems to be a shift in dynamics. Even through the set-up of the classroom, there are people willing to take the steps to educate themselves about these problems. For future research I would love to see how women CEOs, especially of Fortune 500 companies, have been addressing gender equality. If they are using their status to help continue to diversify their boardrooms. To take it a step further, it would also be interesting to see how these CEOs are able to manage their family dynamics. Seeing how these top leaders are apple to approach this “maternal wall” would be inspiring to lower rank females on how they are able to juggle it all. In all women continuously face barriers against them, especially in a corporate climate. But as more people become aware of these issues, more will take the steps to make it right.

Sources

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“Modern Family Index Shows Motherhood Penalty in American Workplace.” Bright Horizons®, https://www.brighthorizons.com/newsroom/modern-family-index-2018. 

Ryan, Michelle K., and S. Alexander Haslam. “The Glass Cliff: Evidence That Women Are over-Represented in Precarious Leadership Positions.” British Journal of Management, vol. 16, no. 2, 2005, pp. 81–90., https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2005.00433.x. 

Rahman, Shakil, et al. “African- American Women and Leadership Positions: An Analysis of Young Adults.” Quarterly Review of Business Disciplines, vol. 2, no. 4, Feb. 2016, pp. 313–324. 

Terjesen, Siri, and Val Singh. “Female Presence on Corporate Boards: A Multi-Country Study of Environmental Context – Journal of Business Ethics.” SpringerLink, Springer Netherlands, 16 Jan. 2008, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-007-9656-1. 

While investigating the underlying reasons behind the lack of women that occupy C-suite positions in corporate America, there are a number of things that stand out as significant and noteworthy. To preface this, it’s important to highlight that the 2021 reports from Catalyst.org show women make up 57.7 percent of bachelor’s degrees and 52 percent of managerial positions in the workforce. Despite this superficial equity, there are only 44 female CEOs among the top 500 companies in terms of net worth, making up just 8.8 percent of the CEO landscape.

Through my research, two key factors into why there are fewer women CEOs are gender-based stereotypes about women’s roles and the lack of leadership opportunities women have as a result of these biases in childhood and through the early stages of their careers. In early life, women who are taught to conform to traditional gender norms are found to be less independent, and less likely to find themselves in situations that could develop their leadership abilities. Women leaders facing a double bind has also been found to hold women leaders back, as they often face criticism regardless of the leadership style they choose and its effectiveness.

Though some programs and policies have been put in place to help women move up the corporate ranks, there is definitely a lot more that work can be done. Some of this work I am referencing are the programs that many industries have adopted to ensure there are women in entry-level positions. For example, many banks on Wall Street have developed internship programs that are strictly for women and minority groups. Despite these small steps, there are policy changes that could be made to tighten the gap. One thing that comes to mind for me is mandated diversity among corporate boards. Given that these boards ultimately decide on which employees become executives, a policy change to enforce an equal number of men and women board members would mean equal representation for both genders on major decisions. Continued education is also extremely important in my opinion. It would be a great step forward if gender discrimination education was required for corporate employees and board members.

While doing this research, two questions continued to resurface for me. The first of which being; if we, as a society, were to not make any policy changes to help more women become executives, would we see the gap close marginally over time? I personally think we would see it close a little bit over time due to the way people my age are being educated and trained to identify their inherent biases and not act upon them, and also because more women my age are getting degrees and occupying leadership roles. Regardless, policy changes are necessary. The other idea for future research I would love to see explored is to study how impactful childhood leadership development is for women on their confidence and future leadership abilities, and also how the exposure to gender stereotypes on childhood impacts women’s confidence in their abilities.

This class and this project have well-educated me on some of the issues we have today in terms of gender inequality. I understand now how hard it has been for women with high career aspirations to achieve their goals and the barriers that women face in trying to break the “glass ceiling.” I believe the most important thing I took from this class is the ability to identify gender-based stereotyping and inequality, and hopefully be able to educate others on what I learned when I inevitably witness some sort of gender discrimination or bias.

Oakley, Judith, G. (2000). Gender-Based Barriers to Senior Management Positions: Understanding the Scarcity of Female CEO’s. Journal of Business Ethics, 27: 321-334.

Fitzsimmons, Terrence, W. Callan, Victor, J. Paulsen, Niel. (2013). Gender disparity in the C-suite: Do male and female CEOs differ in how they reached the top? University of Queensland Business School. The Leadership Quarterly.

Atwater, Leanne, E. Carey, James, A. Waldman, David, A. (2001). Gender and discipline in the workplace: Wait until your Father gets home. Journal of Management 27: 537-561.

Ladge, J. J., Humberd, B. K., & Eddleston, K. A. (2018). Retaining professionally employed new mothers: The importance of maternal confidence and workplace support to their intent to stay. Human Resource Management, 57(4), 883-900.

Coleman, M. (2020). Women leaders in the workplace: perceptions of career barriers, facilitators and change. Irish Educational Studies, 39(2), 233-253.