Obstacles In Leadership

In the article it is expressed that “women comprise 66% of the U.S workforce, yet only 21% hold middle management positions, and a mere 15% are at the senior management level” (Sipe, Johnson, and Fisher 340). This statistic shows that women occupy less of the higher authority positions than males. It is stated that “although the equity gap between men and women in management careers appears to be closing, the glass ceiling still persists in today’s business environment” (Sipe, Johnson, and Fisher 340). There will also be a little wiggle room for women in the job market; however, they will always have to compete and work hard to break the glass ceiling. The glass ceiling is the area right below the senior management level, which will always be the obstacle hindering women’s passage to higher management jobs. It ensures women that they will only go so far in the corporate level and will not get paid equally for similar type of work as a male. Barbara Czarniawska, a organization theorist, conduct an interview with both sexes and they concluded that “being a woman is a handicap to pursuing a career in that company” (236). Females tend to have less authority then men, despite similar characteristics and individual attributes; this is a clear violation of discrimination at work. Women can hold the same amount of schooling as someone of the opposite

In the United States, study after study continues to show that women have fewer opportunities to advance in the workplace than men. These disadvantages are a result of society’s views of women in leadership positions and how women may view themselves in these roles. Women have been making progress in terms of equality in pay and job positions, but significant gaps remain. Women who strive to be promoted into higher levels of responsibility in their companies often meet resistance that prevents them from achieving the goal of a senior or executive level of management. This barrier is referred to as the “glass ceiling” and it is a controversial issue in our country today. The glass ceiling called this because women are able to see the higher level positions, but can reach them because of an intangible barrier. One can look at the Fortune 500 companies, which are the most successful companies in the U.S. in terms of revenue to see how few women are in leadership positions. Clearly, women are significantly underrepresented in these companies, as less than 5 percent of these companies have female chief executive officers (CEO) today (Dockterman 105). Providing the opportunity for women to move into management positions, like CEOs, would bring a unique talent and a new perspective on how the company can operate to perform better (Buckalew 147). The “glass ceiling” is a real obstacle that creates an intangible barrier that puts women at a disadvantage in advancing in a company.

This case study involves Deborah Westman and her work at the Bank of Montreal (BMO) as a junior employee. Deborah has aspirations of progressing within the bank to higher levels of leadership, but is concerned about possible barriers due to her gender that have prevented other women from advancing. The bank is actively seeking to provide better opportunities for women to attain key leadership positions through the use of a task force and new policies. Deborah is uncertain if she can take advantage of the increased awareness of women in the bank, and if the barriers to higher leadership will actually be removed. Possible strategies will be recommended for Deborah in order to assist in her career.

Although in 2012, only 18 women served as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Furthermore, in a recent report, women only held 16.6% of board seats in 2012 in the fortune 500 companies (Aguilar). Women are somehow being held back from achieving their higher potential, and is is not due to lack of education. The department of education found that “140 women will graduate with a college degree at some level this year for every 100 men”(Aguilar). Most people believe the reason is because of the phenomenon of the “glass ceiling”. Many large companies do not hire women for the upper level positions, because they have always hired men, and many companies may believe that they do not see women in that position. This is also influenced by the media as well, as “women hold only 3% of clout positions in telecommunications, entertainment, publishing and advertising.”(Newsom 2011). With so few women leaders in the media industry, women are rarely portrayed in highly respected executives roles. This in turn communicates to young girls and the public in general that women are not supposed to hold these

This myth has been perpetuated throughout history and in result; we have barriers such as the glass ceiling in existence. If we were to pull up a list of the Board of Directors for any given company, the probability of it being a predominately male group is high. This notion alone shows how companies have continued to dwell in olds days where men are considered more capable than women. The Glass ceiling effect has continued to place barriers against women endeavor in achieving success in their careers and participation in their work place. Women have not been able to realize their potential in their work places since they are not offered equal chances as compared to their men counterparts who enjoy great opportunities in organizations. The fact that an organization is ran by men, may cause an adverse effect on the performance of men. Obviously, a man thinks differently than a woman. It is likely that a decision made by men only is likely to ignore the interests of women in the organization. This creates a domino effect because it affects the woman’s performance in business since they only get limited chances to learn, and limited job assignments that will enhance their skills. Hence, low or limited skills and experience will lower their overall

While women make up 46.6% of the Fortune 500 workforce and 51.4% of middle management, according to Catalyst, in these companies they represent only 14.1% of executive officers, 7.5% of the highest paid and only 4% of CEO’s Despite the fact that women have a foot in the door with 4% of all CEO positions of the Fortune 500, the rest of their frame is stuck in the entry level, which is 46.6% of the Fortune 500 workforce. The difference is not in men and women; it is in masculine vs. feminine ways of thinking and acting. Both men and women incorporate masculine and feminine approaches (Forbes).

In the business world, being a woman in a male dominated world is not easy. A woman should move away from the virtues that was instilled to them as a young girl. Working in a male-dominated field, especially for a new up and coming female executive, a woman must always have

In recent years, women have broken through the glass ceiling by achieving senior executive status in Fortune 500 companies – including General Motors, IBM, Oracle, Yahoo, and Facebook, to name a few. However, in 2012, women only made up 17% of Fortune 500 company board directors. Thus, women are still feeling the effects of discriminating employers. This paper will assess two organizations in the United States that have recently made headlines for policies regarding women in executive positions, one for better and one for the worse, and recommendations for improvement for the latter.

Role models are necessary and relevant in today's society. More than ever role models are needed for woman interested in running their own business or managing a Fortune 500 company. In today's market woman still feel uncomfortable with their portrayal as a manager or boss. Women mention the glass ceiling when promotion is mentioned. Mentorship and networking helps, but other resources and ideas are needed.

As the author points out, the figures on women in leadership is staggering in disparity. The article takes time to focus on identifying and highlighting reasons what makes a successful leader. Having an opportunity to attend a leadership meeting, in which we discussed improving inclusion at my company, this article presented many of the same reasons that as a company we tried to understand, “Why do we not have more women in leadership?” This article really underscores that in order for a business to survive and grow or for that matter, any organization to flourish you need to find individuals that embody the above-mentioned leadership traits not just seniority.

The business world today is competitive. It's full of fierce, educated, and motivated people. For some people it's tough to rise to the top and for some people it comes much easier. It's not always about hard work! One might ask for a map to the yellow brick road, but few people are ever provided with it. Most people are stuck in an ocean making calculated guesses as to how they can reach land. Which route is the best? How much school is enough? How many certificates of accreditation is enough? How much work experience is enough? All of us ask these questions attempting to navigate our ships in a competitive world were only a few individuals ever get to their targeted career position. How many of those in leadership positions are women?

As organizations are built and ran, leaders are made. For many the position of Chief Executive Officer and president of a corporation is the ultimate goal. To become a CEO in an organization, the candidate must possess the required level of higher education, numerous years of experience, and personal traits of leadership through quality, communication, and drive. This way of reaching such high status is referred as the “human capital” theory of career success. The human capital theory theorizes that individuals with time, make effort, and have individual assets, or human capital such as education, experience, skills, and personal characteristics, adds to the job (Branin, 2009). Then there are organizational barriers. These obstacles refer to the organizational-level influences that affect the gap of hiring and promoting qualified men and women. A stereotype against women is that they lack in self-confidence when compared to men. In a study on self-confidence of 437 managers in Florida in work and social situations, the study also found no differences between effectiveness evaluations received by male and female leaders, nor among ratings received by leaders with masculine, feminine or androgynous gender role.

Gender and leadership? Leadership and gender? A journey through the landscape of theories start off by giving a statistical summary of percentages of women in higher echelon position in the workforce. With this information in the intro, the article quickly highlights the limited representation of women in exclusive positions in Fortune 500 companies. Next, the paper examines multiple theories why this problem exists in the workforce. The four theories examined are biology and sex; gender role; causal factors; and attitudinal drivers (Appelbaum et al, 2003, p. 44).

however, there are many significant barriers that impact on female managers in attaining top level of managerial position, these barriers include political, economical, legal and cultural factors which will limit their entry to high management positions. From the research of (Bem 1974) it shows that both femininity and masculinity scale is believed to be containing 20 percent of personal characteristics of the male and female, these characteristics are believing to be based on the sex-typed social adorability. Past research of (Cortis and Cassar 2005) indicates that there is no significant difference between male and female attitudes towards female manager job involvement, they state that female managers have a strong commitment towards their job similarly to male managers. However, it also indicates that there are two issue which concerns female managers, such as ageing and martial status, where 50 percent of female managers prefers to be younger then their male team members and they strongly prefer to be single. Further more (Cortis and Cassar 2005) research shows that males and females have significant difference in attitudes towards female managers, where females have favourable

When an employee of an organization feels their performance and achievements do not matter, that organization may ultimately suffer. Genuinely recognizing the value of your employees will help stop a leader from falling into the pitfalls of leadership, and having their employees enter into a dimension known as the ‘critter state”. An employee that falls into this state is known to have their ideas and skills fall short while they focus on a single question: “What will keep me safe?” (Comaford C., 2013). Below, I will explore the leadership pitfalls and how to possibly avoid them.