Women In Leadership

Question raised during a recent success survey:Why are there fewer women than men in leadership and management positions?

My perception is that this is changing, as women throughout the world are now better educated and make up a greater proportion of the working population than ever before.

Also, as the skills previously thought to be more ‘feminine’ – the interpersonal and communication or soft skills - are now being recognised more widely as traits of good leaders. It’s apparent that the command and control culture of previous generations no longer works in today’s society and in today’s organisations, because we now expect so much more.

On the other hand, many women (myself included) have come to the realisation that society’s idea of success – having it all; a partner, family , career, home, a good income, nice car and regular holidays – comes at a high price. The price is often a lack of time to enjoy life, a lack of energy and enthusiasm and a feeling that ‘there must be more to life than this!’ This realisation is causing more and more of them to examine their definition of success and to define it in a way that suits them better both personally and professionally.

Many of these women (and some men) want to lead a more balanced and satisfying life, with the time and energy to enjoy their work and home and social life and feel more fulfilled generally. To many this means not working as many hours and this includes not applying for more senior positions because of what is expected in terms of the ‘quantity’ of time they must commit to work, rather than the ‘quality.’

I’m not one of these women who blame the situation on men. I actually believe we’ve brought a lot of it on ourselves by buying into society’s view of how we can ‘have it all.’

So until we can have more serious discussions generally about how we define success and about what that means for the way we do business and the way we live our lives, then it will be difficult to change to a position where there are actually more women than men in leadership and management positions!

On the other hand, these days women are taking more personal responsibility for their own success and for getting on in business and this includes starting up new businesses themselves. In many parts of the world women entrepreneurs and female business owners are the fastest growing part of the economy!