New research reveals the critiques holding women back from leadership that most men will never hear

Despite gender quotas, pay parity reports and global initiatives including International Women’s Day, the stark reality is that leadership positions are predominantly held by men.

In fact, according to a recent report by GW Voices, women have only held 12 percent of the top jobs at 33 multilateral institutions since 1945. More than a third of those institutions, including the World Bank, the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization have never had a woman at the helm.

Additionally, women CEOs run just 10.4 percent of Fortune 500 companies, accounting for 52 out of 500 (that figure only pushed past 10 percent for the first time ever in 2023).

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You could argue that these abysmal figures could be symptomatic of a generational trend of women historically opting out of the workforce due to family or caregiving choices. But a study by Harvard Business Review has found that bias is the real reason why women are underrepresented on such a vast scale.

The research examined gender bias within four industries that have more female than male workers—law (53.3 percent), higher education (55.3 percent), faith-based non-profits (63.8 percent), and healthcare (77.6 percent)—and found that gender bias is still prevalent in these female-dominated industries.

Using the Gender Bias Scale for Women Leaders along with open-ended questions, the study found that constrained communication, whereby women had to temper their language and downplay accomplishments was a notable bias, as was being interrupted by men when speaking.

The study also uncovered that despite so many women making up the workplace, women lacked mentors, sponsors and allies.

Similarly, a lack of support for family duties often left women with no other choice than to limit their career aspirations.

While higher education was deemed to be the least challenging environment to work in, law was the most challenging, with women reporting the highest levels of exclusion and workplace harassment in comparison to the other three industries.

And although healthcare organizations tend to have meritocratic reward systems in place, these systems show increased gender inequalities in performance reviews.

A subtle yet insidious problem

The research also points to a more subtle yet insidious problem: women are being unfairly critiqued on physical characteristics or characteristics that are deemed to be inherently female.

Age, accent, attractiveness, body size, cultural identity and dietary restrictions or requirements were all found to be deciding factors in whether women progressed in an organization.

However the study also found that there was no sweet spot either, and women leaders reported feeling judged about being too short, too tall, too thin, too fat, too educated, not educated enough. Introverts were too shy to be leaders, while extroverts were seen as too aggressive.

Parental status, whether that entails having children or not having children, was also found to act as a barrier to progression as it is often assumed that women with children are unable to take on more senior roles because of their responsibilities at home.

Pregnancy is also seen as problematic as it is often interpreted as a sign that a woman might not come back to work after her maternity leave had ended.

“When people feel included, they will speak up and go the extra mile, which boosts organizational performance. Transparent decision making has been linked to increased employee trust, happiness, and engagement, and it fosters innovative thinking,” the report states.

“Like higher education’s shared governance model, full discussion and decisions should occur when stakeholders are present, as opposed to taking place in informal conversations.

“Leaders should make sure that everyone has a voice in meetings and that all perspectives are heard and considered.

“Gender equity isn’t just about representation. We need to terminate gender bias at its root by fixing our organizations to make them inclusive, flexible, supportive, and equitable to women.”

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