Starting in the 1940s, women became a powerful and significant part of the American workforce. Since this time, there has been a constant struggle for equality in the workplace. Women have been discriminated against in the workplace in a variety of ways, especially when it comes to leadership and management. Even though there are more women in management roles than men in U.S. companies, the number of women in leadership roles decreases drastically as we move up in the organizational hierarchy. Women make up only 3% of CEOs in Fortune 500 companies, even though they comprise nearly half of the total U.S. labor force (Northouse, 2013). There is also a significant pay disparity between genders, with women making only 77.5% of men’s wages, based on the 2007 national average (Bishaw & Samega, 2008).
Most research on the subject of women’s leadership styles show that there is little basis for suggesting that gender is related to being an effective leader. Research on women’s leadership styles has shown that women lead in a “more democratic or participative manner than men” (Northouse, 2013). Men are often perceived to have a more autocratic or directive style of leadership. Other research has shown that when women lead in a manner that is closer to the perceived “male” style of directive leadership, they may be disparaged for taking on a “traditionally” male role of leadership. Women and men were found to be equally effective in their leadership, but women were found to be most effective when the role itself was not considered a “masculine” leadership role, such as those in the military (Northouse, 2013). Men were found to have more laissez-faire approached to leadership, whereas women were more focused on transformational leadership (Engen, 2003).
One particularly challenging issue facing women in leadership is the concept of the “glass ceiling”. The “glass ceiling” is the idea that regardless of their level of education or qualification, women are unable to progress as far in their careers and will make lower salaries than men (Northouse, 2013). Over the last 30 years, we have seen trend that show a diminishing effect of the glass ceiling, as more women are able to join the ranks of leadership as the highest-income executives in many companies. Today, women make up a larger portion of the top one percent of incomes in the U.S., comprising 18.3% today as compared to just 5.6% 30 years ago (Cassidy, 2014). Another challenge that women face in the workplace is the concept of a “double standard”. The gender double standard describes a paradox that women face, where if they are too assertive or competitive, or push their employees too hard, they will be criticized for being either too forceful or too weak in their leadership style. This issue is discussed in detail in Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In.
In more recent years, the situation has improved somewhat, with women seeing a pay increase to making about 80% of men’s wages, but compensation is still a hot issue and nowhere near perfectly equal. Female CEOs have been getting attention in the media, as they are becoming more common, especially those such as Mary Barra at GM or Ginni Rometty at I.B.M. These CEO appointments are especially important because it shows that women were able to break through into C-level positions in industries which have been predominantly male-centric, such as the automobile industry and computer technology. I believe that we can continue to do more to bring the gap closer to , and end gender inequality in the workplace. This begins with raising awareness of these types of issues facing women in the workplace, and ensuring that companies foster As I wrote in my discussion post, I work in an environment where discriminatory behavior on the part of employees is not acceptable, no matter at what group it is directed towards. I also work in an office which has a much higher percentage of female upper-level managers than in any other office I have worked in, where female managers actually outnumber male managers. According to national statistics, 51.5% of all managers and professionals are women, so these values are actually more expected that one might imagine (Northouse, 2013). I have found that working in this environment has made me much more aware of the disparity that women face in the workplace, and of the double standards that are often applied to them. The organizational culture that this generates is beneficial, as it gives an accurate representation of what a more balanced and equal working environment is like. The issues begins and ends with our perceptions of women in the workplace, and if we are able to change this perceptions we will eventually overcome gender disparity in the workplace.
Bishaw, A., & Semega, J. (2008, August 8). Income, Earnings, and Poverty Data From the 2007 American Community Survey. Retrieved November 23, 2014, from
Eagly, A., Johannesen-Schmidt, M., & Van Engen, M. (2003). Transformational, Transactional, And Laissez-faire Leadership Styles: A Meta-analysis Comparing Women And Men. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 569-591.
The Hole in the Glass Ceiling Is Getting Bigger – The New Yorker. (2014, October 2). Retrieved November 23, 2014, from http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/hole-glass-ceiling-getting-bigger
Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Kristina Kay Piper-osorio says
I too wrote about the glass ceiling effect but with a slight twist based on a recently written article by Larry Kim for Inc. on-line. He moved past the glass ceiling being the only obstacle that women face, but of the 4.8% of women who obtain Fortune 500 company CEO positions, a staggering 38% are forced out of that job. He went onto write about the “glass cliff” which is the term for those 38% who are relieved of their high-powered positions. I also wanted to incorporate another article I read on the glass ceiling topic that I found very interesting because it took it in a polar opposite direction than Kim’s writing. Deborah Spar wrote for Salon on-line defining that the glass ceiling is becoming less of a corporate culture issue and more of a personal choice situation. She highlights in her 2013 article that women, even though more are enrolled and graduating from MBA programs than men, they are shying away from the high-powered positions in exchange for personal choices of family and relationships. Both articles provide a very interesting commentary of why women are held back at the expense of the “glass ceiling” effect…whether culturally or personally.
Kim, L., “After Shattering Glass Ceiling, Women CEOs Fall Off the Glass Cliff”. Inc. October 28, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/after-shattering-glass-ceiling-female-ceos-fall-off-the-glass-cliff.html
Spar, D.L., “Lean in? Here’s why the glass ceiling still exists”. SALON September 15, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.salon.com/2013/09/15/the_real_reason_women_arent_reaching_the_top/
Whitney Robinson says
You’ve written a very interesting and pointed blog post regarding women in leadership roles! It is interesting to note that despite there being more women in management roles, that the number of top female CEOs is so low. I do believe that there is some gender bias when it comes to women in leadership roles, and much of this does seem to fall into the “double standard” that you mention in your blog post.
There is a great article in the Harvard Business Review that discusses some of these barriers that you mention. The article argues that a disconnect exists in many cases between potential women leaders and their organization’s environment, policies and practices. The article suggests that many of the leadership education and mentoring programs that are provided at these organizations are not adequate in cultivating women as leaders. The authors propose that there are three additional actions that organizations can take to improve the chances that women will “gain a sense of themselves as leaders, be recognized as such, and ultimately succeed.” These three actions are (1) educate women and men about second-generation gender bias, (2) create safe “identity” workspaces” to support transitions to bigger roles, and (3) anchor women’s development efforts in a sense of leadership purpose rather than in how women are perceived. (Ibarra, Ely, Kolb, 2013)
The article goes into further detail for each of the three actions, and discusses how to arm women with the tools and understanding to counter the effects of gender bias and stereotypes, and stresses the importance of coaching and support groups for emerging female leaders. These tools can help ground future leaders and can assist them in focusing on a leadership purpose that they can strive for. As a female in a large organization myself, I can certainly see the purpose and use for these types of ideas, and think that they could be very effective in helping to cultivate women leaders. I do work daily with several women in high ranking leadership positions, and I think they would also agree with many of these suggestions when considering their own paths to their leadership roles.
Ibarra, H., Ely, R., & Kolb, D. (2013, September). Women Rising: The Unseen Barriers. Retrieved November 26, 2014, from https://hbr.org/2013/09/women-rising-the-unseen-barriers