Women and Global Leadership
It is shocking that in although women are more than 50% of the population yet only 29% of leadership positions in are held by women, which is the highest number recorded (Catalyst, 2019). There are multiple reasons why this is still as issue. One is that men still hold the power and that power is through their roles in leadership, they have the money, the positions in all sectors of business, politics, academia, etc., and since women are denied this power and the perks that positions of power are afforded they do not have opportunities to make a difference (Hill, 2016) nor As women continue to work towards improving their skill sets by furthering their education; women earn 60 percent of all university degrees, (Moran Abramson, Moran 2014).
Another problem is the beliefs, cultures and societal rules regarding women in many countries inhibit or in some Middle Eastern countries it is illegal for women to work, (Moran, Abramson, Moran, 2014). that different cultures and societies prevent or inhibit women from obtaining leadership roles, There are exceptions, Norway and Scandinavian countries have the highest percentage of working women outside of the home at a rate of 80% and the half of the of the government ministries are women (Moran, Abramson, Moran, 2014). Another interesting fact about the Scandinavian countries that have the highest percentage of women working and in government ministries is that they have the fewest social problems, (Moran, et el, 2014).
As of January 2019 only 5.4%, which is 27 women that hold the position of CEO in S & P 500 companies (Catalyst, 2019). This is an increase from 2015 where on 3% of women held these positions according to Hill, (206). The number of women in politics is just as grim. According to Moran, Abramson and Moran only 1 in 5 positions in government are held by women (2014). In order to accomplish the changes that are needed sexist ideologies need to be dealt with. There are types of sexist ideologies benevolent and hostile. Benevolent ideologies are that women should be taken care of and hostile sexism is that women are inferior to men, (Moran, et el 2014). It is these sexism ideologies that are the basis as to why women have difficulty in moving into leadership positions.
In addition to the sexism ideologies the discrimination and the fact that there is a stigmatism and a hesitation to hire or promote women of child bearing age because of the possibility that she will start a family and her priorities will switch to her family instead of the job. This is discrimination and stereotyping. There have been major strides in improving parental leave and the fact that both parents want to be involved in their children’s lives; it is still looked at negatively when a women wants a career and a family. The irony of this is that although the United States has a higher percentage of women in positions of power, it has the shortest leave time for maternity and childcare, whereas other countries have longer leave times with pay and benefits for new Mother’s (Moran, et el, 2014). So the work life balance issue is also an inhibitor for women as well since they are expected to be the primary care taker of the children. This is another expectation that needs to change.
There is hope though, “Over 70 male Heads of State and Government contributed a testimonial, giving their personal reason for more women as leaders” (WLP, n.d). Through the work of WLP, (Women Political Leaders committing to not only work to ensure better that more opportunities’ are available for women in leadership, but to develop curriculum for girls throughout their education. As programs are developed to encourage and enhance young women and society to accept women in power the roadblocks that current prevent women from gaining these leadership positions will diminish.
References
Blackwell, G. 2016. We Need Women Leaders to Solve Global Challenges. AAUW. Retrieved from
Catalyst, Quick Take: Women in Management (August 7, 2019). Retrieved from https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-in-management/
Catalyst, Women CEOs of the S&P 500 (October 4, 2019). https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-ceos-of-the-sp-500/
Hill, C., 2016. Barriers and Bias: The Status of Women in Leadership; AAUW. Retrieved from https://www.aauw.org/research/barriers-and-bias/
Moran R., Abramson, N.R., Moran, S. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences, Ninth Edition. Routledge, New York, NY.
Women Political Leaders, n.d. retrieved from https://www.womenpoliticalleaders.org/
Tina Cermignano says
Daniel,
thanks for the video link, I really enjoyed it and found it just as appalling as those who appeared in the video. This video was followed by other videos that tried to mock and refute the message, which just out of principal I will not link here. It is very disheartening that the gap significantly increases when comparing western societies with certain middle eastern and Asian societies, but what is even more disturbing is that according to The Global Gender Gap Report http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2018.pdf , the U.S. ranked 51. So we need to deal with our inequities before we start preaching to other countries of what they need to do to reduce the gender inequality gap. The United States is behind Mexico, Nicaragua, Ireland, Bulgaria, Albania and Cuba to name just a few.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and the video.
Daniel Murphy says
I too am an advocate for equal pay and work for women. It is astounding how many competent capable women they are in the world who go underutilized. A youtube video was published not too long ago, August of 2019, with some staggering information regarding gender equality. You should check it out, it is also delivered by comedians, please not this may not be suitable for young ears or at work as there is some vulgar language, here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=33nwuSIPNZ0. Melinda Gates is a big supporter for gender equality.
When you consider the issues faced by women in the Middle East it is almost crushing to imagine that level of existence. To be denied the right to leave your home, to drive a car or even see your children (Moran et al, 2014) is simply something I personally could not fathom. I would love to see some additional data regarding the suppression of women in the Middle East. Though progress is being made, as mentioned in our Lesson readings, The Saudi King has been taking steps toward gender equality. This forward momentum feels like a crawl but with the tensions that already exist between our two cultures intervention from western countries might exacerbate rather than help the problem.
Reference:
Moran R.T., Abramson N. R., Moran S.V. (2014) Managing Cultural Differences. Ninth Edition. New York, NY: Routledge
Pennsylvania State University (2019). OLEAD410: Leadership in a Global Context, Lesson 07 The Middle East: Focus on Saudi Arabia: Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved October 12, 2019,
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2008449/modules/items/27026982