Women in Leadership: Creating an Inclusive Executive Culture

Background

Despite recent initiatives and targeted recruitment strategies, the proportion of women in leadership/management positions in the U.S. is just 40% despite women representing nearly 50% of the workforce (Catalyst, 2020). This suggests that more work must be done to create a more inclusive executive culture and empower women to pursue leadership positions. Organizational leaders should identify and address potential barriers to ensure that we create an inclusive, merit-based pathway to leadership and management for talented and highly motivated women. Kalaitzi et al., (2017) highlight the following common barriers women encounter when attempting to rise to management and executive positions in healthcare, academic, and business organizations.

1. Lack of career advancement opportunities (unequal access to opportunities)
2. Gender gap
3. Gender stereotypes
4. Work/Life balance
5. Lack of mentoring
6. Lack of flexible working environment
7. Sexual harassment
8. Tokenism

Recognizing the Barriers

The current organizational executive culture has significant blind-spots and has long ignored the many endemic barriers that negatively affect women trying to reach management and leadership positions (King, 2020). Therefore, organizations need to look within and examine their own organizational culture to ensure they are creating an equal playing field for all employees. Schwanke, (2013) discusses several things to look for and consider when examining your organizational culture toward improving equality and access for women. Asking yourself some of the "tough" questions below will help toward addressing the issue of gender inequality.

1. Are the expectations of women and men in our organization the same?
2. Do all/most of the women in our organization work in the same department or section? If so, why is that?
3. Do we actively encourage women in our organization to pursue management and leadership positions?
4. Are we putting our female executives/managers/leaders in positions to succeed with sufficient support networks?
5. Are we practicing tokenism or are we truly promoting inclusivity and equality?

Addressing the Barriers

Once we identify the barriers women experience in the organization, it is our responsibility as leaders to address them. Eagly & Carli, (2007) highlight the following strategies to address the common barriers faced by women in leadership.

1. Increase awareness of ingrained prejudice and stereotypes about female leaders and work to remove and dispel the misconceptions that may exist.
2. Change harmful workplace norms, especially those related to the number of hours worked.
3. Conduct objective performance evaluations and limit the potential for subjectivity in the evaluation processes.
4. Use open recruitment strategies; do not rely on internal social networks or referrals.
5. Ensure there are more than one or two women in executive positions.
6. Ensure that there is more than one woman represented in organizational teams.
7. Create strong support structures for women composed of men and women in the organization.
8. Provide equal job assignments and opportunities to men and women to prepare them for management positions.
9. Create a family-focused or family-friendly culture in the organization starting with HR but extending to the top of the organization.
10. Give women who have greater familial obligations time to prove themselves toward promotion.

References

Catalyst. (2020, August 11). Quick Take: Women in Management.

Eagly, A. H. & Carli, L. L. (2007). Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership. Harvard Business Review, 85(9), 62-71.

Kalaitzi, S., Czabanowska, K., Fowler-Davis, S., & Brand, H. (2017). Women leadership barriers in healthcare, academia and business. Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: An International Journal, 36(5), 457-474.

King, M. (2020, June 19). Leaders, Stop Denying the Gender Inequity in Your Organization. Harvard Business Review.

Schwanke, D. (2013). Barriers for Women to Positions of Power: How Societal and Corporate Structures, Perceptions of Leadership and Discrimination Restrict Women's Advancement to Authority. Earth Common Journal, 3(2), 1-2.