The Numbers Are Stark. Despite Women’S Impressive Gains

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.

Likewise, understanding how societies have historically viewed and treated women in leadership roles is informative but fails to address how change can be affected. Business approaches in women in leadership look at the economic factors of what women earn in such positions and how many are represented in upper management but do little to address how to change long-standing perceptions. These three approaches provide vital information yet independently cannot be actionable. When considered in concert, elements of each discipline can come together to provide an understanding of the cause of gender bias in leadership, how societies deal with such bias, and what can be done to change the situation to improve economic realities for women. It is clear that an interdisciplinary approach yields much more useful information than can an approach based on any single

Eagly & Chin (2010) note that the barriers described intersect with leader behavior and identity in that leaders who are members of these groups are often expected to not only perform leader functions but also to fulfill the stereotypes associated with their group membership. They note that women who do demonstrate more "masculine" traits are often given poorer performance reviews even if their leadership performance is the same. Eagly & Johansen (2003) point out that women do have high levels of leadership performance, and so-called feminine traits are better correlated with positive outcomes than masculine traits, yet there remains discrimination in hiring females into leadership positions. The issue is even more complicated for people who incorporate multiple points of diversity, for example African-American females (Sanchez-Hucles & Davis, 2010).

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 key to successfully becoming a leader involves one working their way up to the top of the pyramid, but this can only be done by one advancing their way to different positions in a company. This task can be seen as inherently difficult for women because of two main reasons: one reason is way women leaders are viewed by others, and the other deals with how companies were structured and organized before women were able to enter the workforce. Since men made up most of the workforce many companies were designed to reflect men’s daily lives, situations and their leadership styles. When women were able to come into workforce they had to try to adapt to the situations and leadership styles already in place, making reaching different positions in the workplace almost impossible; women did not live the same daily lives as men and they certainly did not face the same situations as men. The traditional career path to obtaining a higher executive position typically includes rotations in sales or operations, both positions which men are more likely to have had than women. It has been extremely difficult for women to overcome leadership barriers because women have not had the ability to construct the correct leadership identities (Eby, Ibarra, & Kolb).

As society moves away from authoritative leadership and into transformational leadership style preferences that grant wider success of employee retention, morale, and growth, women’s natural skill sets are demonstrably more successful in filling the job. However, women continue to be deeply underrepresented in higher levels of public and private organizations. Exploring the complex nature of gender stereotypes and how they perpetuate female inequality in leadership opportunities, this paper explores why this continues, who is at risk, and how women are better cut-out for the job.

Most importantly I would like to discuss the current gender inequality situation in the world. We all know the good old saying “if you do not include women in your daily activity 50% of your populations intellectual wealth is eliminated”. Although this is a common understanding amongst all in modern society yet it lacks the practical application. There are ample research articles that outline the wage and leadership inequality amongst genders but there are no concrete articles or suggestions how eliminate gender bias. The research findings reveal general idea of what can be done to solve the leadership gender inequality by suggesting activities for women to engage that would positively

Northouse (2016) offers three areas that hold women back in leadership: human capital, gender differences, and prejudice and discrimination (p. 399). Lisa obviously does not lack in human capital as she has an advanced degree from a prestigious school, has work experience, and no home-work conflict was mentioned. The one exception in human capital is that of developmental opportunities as a male peer was promoted to partner despite Lisa’s better performance with the firm. In gender differences, Lisa has a style that works, as

Contrary to this, if one fails to receive validation for leadership attempts diminishes, so does self-confidence and the motivation to seek out other opportunities or to experiment, and take on new leadership roles (Day et al., 2009) thus weakening one’s self-identity as a leader (DeRue & Ashford, 2010). Now if you are a woman and predisposed to being viewed as “the weaker sex”, one more emotional, passive, and lacking ambition, must you redouble your efforts in order to get past these biases? Can you actually pass through that glass ceiling to reach the potential that male counterparts seem effortlessly able to reach through the same or lesser effort? Women are thought to be communal—friendly, unselfish, care taking—and thus lacking in the qualities required for success in leadership roles (Heilman et al., 1989). These characteristics place women in a double blind and subject them to a double standard.

Only two out of ten men say having more women in top leadership positions would do a lot to improve women’s lives (Women and Leadership, 2015). This speaks volumes.

especially in decision-making positions. Some of the challenges that women face in management roles are

The issue of gender inequality is an issue that cuts across all demographics in all regions of the world. Gender inequality is one of the most recognizable limitations to female prosperity. Male dominance coincides with gender inequality to create a lack of female prosperity and a gender gap, and this is a prevalent issue for all women who seek employment within any organization. Gender inequality is a complex social and organizational issue that demands comprehensive evaluation, especially if it is to be challenged with a new approach. The ability to overcome challenges that are excusive to women in the workplace requires that women are respected, rewarded, and recognized. Likewise, anticipating problems to a new approach is a proper way to overcome such challenges. The most important step to overcoming gender inequality lies in the ability to not only recognize underlying factors that contribute to this issue, but to also implement new strategies designed to provide women with an avenue to prosperity. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg is a comprehensive book that provides extensive research on gender differences within organization, and feasible options for women to bridge the gender gap. Companies can overcome gender inequality by creating programs that facilitate female careers and personal balance for females, and it is this opportunity that [our company] seeks to provide to women so that there is an increased chance that they can have it

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).

One of the primary challenges is that female employees in a number of our branch offices have informally complained that our organization has more men than women in management positions. We can describe this challenge is workforce diversity which means that organizations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, age, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation (Robbins & Judge, 2010). In this challenge, it is clearly that female employees less than men employees entering senior management. Despite significant investment in diversity programs female representation in top management remains stubbornly low over the last decade. ASX Top 200 Female CEOs 1.3-3.4% and Board directors 8.1-12.3%. ASX Top 500 Female CEOs 2.4% and Board Directors 9.2% (ABS, 2014). Studies have evidence that there is no significant difference (if any, must say) will affect the job performance between men and women. For example, men and women in problem solving, analytical aspects, the driving force of competition, motivation, social skills, learning ability did not show significant discrepancies. Although many psychological studies have found that women are more willing to comply with authority, and men are more aggressive than women

This report examines the research on gender equity in educational leadership published since 1997until 2010. Even though women attaining jobs in school leadership has increased, women still do not fill administrative positions in comparison to men. The majority of research related to women and leadership examines the barriers women face in entering or moving up in the leadership hierarchy. Looking at the differences and similarities in how men and women take on and exercise leadership roles, the authors of the articles suggest ideas based on biological, psychological and sociological theories that stress gender difference.