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Elaine, US
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The Glass Ceiling: Leadership Barriers for Women
According to a study by catalyst.org, gender stereotyping is one of the key barriers to women's advancement in corporate leadership. It leaves women with limited, conflicting, and often unfavorable options no matter how they choose to lead.
A 2006 Catalyst Census showed that, even though women make up over 50% of the management, professional, and related occupations, only 15.6% of Fortune 500 corporate officers and 14.6% of Fortune 500 board directors are women.
They are either considered too soft or too tough, they face higher standards than male leaders and are rewarded with less, and when women exhibit traditionally valued leadership behaviors such as assertiveness, they tend to be seen as competent but not personable or well-liked.
Those who do adopt a more stereotypically feminine style are liked, but are not seen as having valued leadership skills.
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Uma Shashikumar, India
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Leadership barries for Women Women in Leadership role is challenging. Especially when she is at the Core level. She has to face the ego problem with the male in the top. When she proposes the valued views or ideas, she is been pushed down, ignored and criticized. Leadership role as women is challenging.
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Ellie M., USA
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Labyrinth instead of Glass Ceiling for Women In a HBR article (Sept07) Alice Eagly and Linda Caril say there is no glass ceiling (one reason that women cannot reach top functions), but rather a labyrinth of obstacles (at various management levels). They mention the following leadership obstacles for women:
1. Vestiges of prejudice (men still earn more)
2. Resistance to woman's leadership (due to gender stereotyping as described in the comment by Elaine)
3. Issues of leadership style (women struggle to adopt an appropriate leadershipstyle, because of issue #2)
4. Demands of family life
5. Underinvestment in social capital (lack of time to invest in networking: the core work activities plus issue #4 consume all their time).
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Ellie M., USA
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Women reaching the C-Suite In another HBR article (June 2008, p.36) , Louann Brizendine adds another reason as to why women don't make it to the C-suite: according to her it's a timing issue.
In many companies, the selection for C-suite candidates takes place when managers are in their forties. For men this is a good time, for women not, because at that moment their stress levels are high and their multitasking capabilities are challenged to the maximum. At this age, their preadoloscent and teenage children require a lot of attention at unpredictable times, and also women are beginning to experience normal hormonal changes leading up to menopause.
Brizendine recommends to open the window of promotability wider - especially for women.
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April K, USA
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An Observation Ellie, #5 (lack of time to invest in networking) struck a chord for me. I think part of the problem resides with women and scarcity. I do not see women supporting eachother and networking in the same fashion that men do.
Social pressures and messaging has developed a false sense of scarcity at the top which puts women in an adversarial position with each other.
The results of this are very destructive. I think women hold part of the power to change this equation.
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Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
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Women in Management - Little Progress in Gender Parity Nancy Carter and Christine Silva of consulting firm Catalyst have done research among 4100 graduates of elite MBA programs from all over the world and found that considerable gender disparity continues to exist.
Men continue to get better first jobs, are paid better, have higher career satisfaction, and are less punished for bad career moves.
The authors conclude from their research that women do NOT aspire less to the top, and that the findings are NOT a matter of parenthood slowing women's careers either.
Rather they suggest the following phenomena contributing to the problem:
1. Systemic bias in the Talent Pipeline Processes
2. Women are found to have more difficulties with supervisors.
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Sibongile Nxumalo
Director, South Africa
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Upward Mobility of Women Is the glass ceiling shattering or has it changed into a brick wall ceiling?
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Oshun, Grace Okaima
Lecturer, Nigeria
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Leadership Barriers for Women I agree with Elaine that gender stereotype is one of the barriers to women's advancement in corporate leadership. In fact gender roles are determined by society. First, she must overcome the barrier of discrimination in the patriarchal system that exists in most societies around the world. That in itself is tasking.
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Geethalakshmi.J
Manager, India
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Leadership Barriers for Women I too agree with the comments post by different people, women are really not reaching the corporate leadership, because of the multi task, balancing work and life.
But I never give up for the male in all sorts of work. Women is more than men in all aspects. Problem is after going from work she concentrates on kids / studies / house hold work. She doesn't spend time on networking.
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Georgina Popescu
Manager, Austria
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Top Management Barriers for Women I agree with what is said above, even though I would not call it "leadership barriers", but "top management" barriers. Women are indeed less paid than their male peers, challenged to prove best and flawless before getting top promotion.
What I miss is an element which I believe is important: the freedom to choose. The higher one climbs, the more demanding the job becomes and takes its toll in terms of time and also pushes tolerance levels (being politically and ethically correct becomes a real challenge). Women have different set of priorities and are less willing to compromise on those issues. Why should we transform ourselves in men?
Therefore I would say the truth is somewhere in between - women's choice not to go for 'top' may be part of it.
Choosing family over career and strong ethics over compromise is not at all bad, children and society need this.
History taught us that behind every strong men there is an even stronger woman.
Being a good wife and mother on a mid-management position is not such a bad career mix!
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Gregory Johnson
Coach, United States
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Leadership Barriers for Women; The Glass Ceiling is Actually a Labyrinth I embraced the material produced by Alice Eagly & Linda Caril, which accurately states that the glass ceiling is yesterdays rant (Editor: ~old term) when in reality there exist a labyrinth for women a...
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Cindy Lanphear, United States
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Labyrinth versus Ceiling @Greg Johnson: I believe these terms are two very different situations for women. Part of the problem with researching them (my dissertation topic) is that so many researchers intertwine them. My impr...
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Tom Wilson
HR Consultant, United States
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Alpha Female Leadership, Beta Male Leadership @Cindy Lanphear: I think that the Alpha Male leadership model is inferior to the Alpha Female leadership model, size and aggression being the singular characteristic that tips the dynamic in the favo...
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Anneke Zwart
Student (University), Netherlands
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Women as Leaders: the Invisible Barriers In the HBR of September 2013, H. Ibarra, R. Ely and D. Kolb write about women as leaders. They argue that gender biases currently existing in organizations and in societies hinder the process of becom...
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Tom Wilson
HR Consultant, United States
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Gender Stereotyping and Homosexual Reproduction @Anneke Zwart: Of the three strategies you have outlined, Anchoring in Leadership Purpose strikes me as the most promising, in particular the observation that focusing on managing perceptions is diver...
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Harlen Williams
Student, United States
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Organizational GLASS: Can Females Crack It? Decades of the invisible barriers limiting the advancement of qualified females surfaced in 1986 as a phenomenon known as the “Glass Ceiling”. As the number of skilled women in the workplace continues...
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Gregory Johnson
Coach, United States
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Glass Ceiling?????? @Harlen Williams: A very good dissertation on the topic of Glass Ceiling. I have been engaged in this topic for a while now, and I wonder if there is another theme sticking its head out of this conver...
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Kari Egge
CEO, Norway
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Organizational Glass - Yes we Can Crack It!! @Harlen Williams: To add to the misery, almost every leadership book and theory is written by men for men. Such theories are not even acknowledging the existence of women in leadership positions and r...
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Jemima Riley
Trinidad and Tobago
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Lack of Emotional Awareness is a Leadership Barrier for Women Leadership by women can be intellectual, visionary and stimulating.
However, many women struggle to maintain objectivity. In human related situations, emotional responses and ideas change the environ...
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Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
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Sexes are not So Different Professors Riley and Ely report on meta-analysis (combining the results of many studies) done by various researchers about the question if women are fundamentally different from men in that they:
1. ...
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Gregory Johnson
Coach, United States
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Hot Button Topic This is such a "Hot Button Topic", because it crosses so many lines of control and denial based on gender, race, religion and more.
There seems to be a profile similar to Hitler's "Perfect Race" mant...
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Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
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Close the Gender Gap for C-level Positions So far we have discussed in the above the persistent situation of a glass ceiling for women and the main issues and reasons causing it. Interestingly, Ammerman and Groysberg recently provided a system...
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Gregory Johnson
Coach, United States
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Systemic Choices I agree with Jaap de Jonge's closing statement in his last entry, "It's about time we get rid of the tough, persistent problem." I think when dealing with systemic bias there are choices. I believe in...
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Jaap de Jonge
Editor, Netherlands
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Gender Biases and Stereotyping by Hiring Managers Recent research by Campbell and Hahl among seasoned hiring managers confirms that:
- Appropriately qualified female job applicants are less likely than their male counterparts to get a job offer.
- ...
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