We’ve all heard the facts, but they’re worth repeating:
In recent years, the number of Fortune 500 women CEOs has been stuck at below 5 percent. Women hold only around 16 percent of Fortune 500 board member positions, and not one of the 50 new Fortune 500 CEOs in 2016 were women.
Considering that the number of female Fortune 500 CEOs in 1995 was zero, it seems that women are climbing the corporate ladder, but slowly. Why the sluggish progress?
Could it be that most women lack the traits necessary to be successful leaders? Not likely.
Research suggests that women leaders are more facilitative negotiators, leading to more transformative and integrative solutions, and consistent findings demonstrate higher levels of organizational performance and improved working environments when women are included in senior leadership positions.
Women have been found to equal or outperform men in every subject from elementary school through college (including traditionally male-dominated fields such as mathematics and science). Women are also the majority in both undergraduate and graduate education, and are awarded more doctoral degrees in the United States.
Studies identify structural changes that organizations can make to better integrate women into senior leadership, while other research highlights what women can do to more effectively craft their own leadership journeys.
For example, a recent study by McKinsey found factors that keep women from the C-suite include a lack of role models, exclusion from informal networks that help build a leadership brand and lack of a sponsor in upper management to create opportunities.
And existing alongside these obstacles is another, more sinister factor: deeply held self-limiting beliefs. These entrenched mindsets are pernicious, and can have a significant impact on a woman’s upward trajectory. For example, many women report hesitance to apply for a promotion because they lacked certain knowledge
or skills listed in the job description, whereas their male counterparts applied regardless of missing abilities.
These mindsets are only reinforced when talented and capable female professionals look around their own organizations and see a lack of mentors, role models and supportive colleagues.
Other studies demonstrate that this lack of academic and professional support begins even earlier, reporting that professors are more willing to mentor “John than Jennifer.” “John” still makes more money after graduation.
So what can we do about it?
Fortunately, the past five years have seen a surge in research about women’s leadership. This research suggests the efficacy of the aforementioned factors that can support women’s leadership. They include corporate governance codes with gender inclusion policies (not quotas) and maternity provisions.
Further, individual women can work to take command of their own personal leadership journeys with women’s
leadership programs, which have proven helpful.
This might be a surprise to those who would say, “The leadership skills and competencies that women need as leaders are often the same as those that men need. So why not just have programs together?”
The answer is: The key to women’s leadership programs lies not just in what is taught, but how it is taught. Programs geared toward women tend to emphasize the shift in identity to viewing oneself as a leader – a much-needed skill in many cases.
It’s also important that women in these programs do not compare themselves against men, but against other women, so they do not feel that their gender is a differentiator in what allows them to be a leader.
Further, women-specific programs provide opportunities to network with other female professionals in order to
fill that important mentorship gap.
Direct, local, personal mentorship is critical to success. Optimally, professionals should not have just one mentor, but a developmental network – people who serve various roles from career advisors to psychosocial supporters. Women’s leadership programs are the perfect avenues to provide such mentorship.
These critical differences make women’s leadership programs one of many potential solutions.
Programs like the one that we have designed at the University of Delaware aim to loosen the restraints around women’s personal efficacy, and to help them gain a competitive advantage in landing leadership roles.
After decades of slow progress, we say: No more waiting for the right time. No more hesitation. We’re excited for a future of women working together to build networks, develop leadership skills and make a difference in the world.
Dr. Wendy Smith is an associate professor in the University of Delaware Lerner College of Business and Economics, and leader of the High-Potential Women’s Leadership Forum. Dr. Amanda Bullough is an assistant professor in the University of Delaware Lerner College of Business and Economics, whose research focuses on women’s entrepreneurship and global leadership. Barbara Roche is an executive coach who helps women achieve success and the author of the book, “Commit to Confidence: 30 Strategies to Help Women Step Up and Stand Out.”
