The Gender Gap Knows No Borders

The picture at the top of this article is a shot of my beautiful daughters that I've been in love with since the day each were born. Brantley is now 8 and Gracie is now 6 (my son Ben is also pictured, who is 5). I've already learned so much from each of them - - and want nothing but the best for each in life. I want them to choose their own path in life and chase (and fully realize) their own dreams. I'm not alone, as all fathers want the same. But I also know they will have challenges in their career that I will not have experienced first hand. And that makes me angry and frustrated - - but gives me a profound sense of urgency.

As a group of network colleagues and I were discussing the interesting Grammy statistics related to nominations (899 nominations over the last 6 Grammy awards - - and only about 9% were women nominees), my friend and ShowMe50 founder Elba Pareja-Gallagher offered the following comments that I find inspiring:

"The statistics are startling but not all that surprising. Positions of power and leadership continue to be dominated by men. And haven't you heard? Women don't want positions of leadership, they don't want to work as hard, they choose to raise families over education and career ambition, and, they just aren't as capable -if they were we'd already be at 50/50 because institutions are meritocracies where the best people get the jobs - executive succession planning is totally bias free. The truth is we need more more men in power to coach, mentor and sponsor women to the same degree they have done so for men throughout the decades. From music to government to supply chain, institutions are better off when every single layer of management- especially at the top- is diverse - and represents the customer base. I would encourage executive males to reach out to women and bring them into your networking and coaching circles. Things don't have to be the way they are. Do it for your daughters. #LeadershipCourage "

Well put, Elba. As an extraordinary executive from Southwire put it during a keynote at a 2016 Georgia Manufacturing Alliance event: "you cannot begin to address the Skills Gap until you successfully address the Gender Gap." That was also very well put, Kathleen Edge.

If you still don't think we have a problem, consider the following:

• From Industry Week magazine in 2016: "According to SCM World’s poll of global universities, women accounted for 37% of students enrolled in university supply chain courses. Yet when you analyze Fortune 500 companies, only 5% of the top level supply chain positions are held by women." Find link here.
• Despite these huge gaps at the top of the totem pole, Supply Chain & Demand Chain Executive magazine reports that only 55% of supply chain organizations set gender diversity goals. Find link here.
• In a recent Supply Chain Now Radio episode from last week, we featured industrial organizational psychology graduate student & ShowMe50 leader Elizabeth Vamos report on some eye-opening numbers related to sexual harassment, which is part of this huge problem. In fact, 64% of Americans call sexual harassment a "serious problem" in a 2017 ABC News/Washington Post poll. Listen to Elizabeth's commentary here from our show.

Want to get involved to help address this systemic problem in our country? Beyond Elba's wise & practical advice above, I'd welcome you to get involved with ShowMe50 - - which is working to provide opportunity to all by advocating for progressive leadership and effective policies of inclusion.

Everyone wins if we successfully tackle the Gender Gap.