Millennial Women Leaders - Cheated out of the Future

There's a financial toll for companies perceived as being non-inclusive when they lack women in leadership positions.

TO ATTRACT TALENT MAKE YOUR CULTURE INCLUSIVE 

We judge companies differently these days, where women in leadership is a corporate social responsibility (CSR) criteria Millennials use to gage an organization's values. 

Millennials want data and transparency on being inclusive, that is, incredibly important to us. Millennials crave corporations that are fully accountable in a time of changing values.

We bring a new set of norms, standards and values, and what we will tolerate in the workplace, boardroom and for the future. 

WHY MILLENNIAL WOMEN CHURN 

Feeling underpaid, unmotivated, or disconnected and overlooked for positions of leadership hits women perhaps harder than Millennial men. 

Many Millennial women will still evolve professionally in sexist environments, and women must overcome significant challenges that men do not.

It's not just having children and the leaky career pipeline that still means Millennial women on the whole do not earn as much as Millennial men. Figure this, 75% of the 2025 workforce will be Millennials. 

Attracting Millennial talent, particularly women, becomes a huge issue of how corporate cultures can put their employees first. Millennial women aren't as tolerant of inequality or poor opportunities for leadership positions as their GenX older sisters.

They churn due to wanting a higher paying job, a lack of learning and development and a shortage of interesting and meaningful work, just like everyone else.  

MILLENNIAL WOMEN MORE EDUCATED BUT POORER THAN THEIR MALE PEERS

In 2015, The report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), found that women are better educated but poorer than men. Is this the world we want to live in, where the custodians of the next generation, the mothers of our children, have to struggle more than men?

There's something fundamentally backwards and profoundly harmful for the future about this (think of millions of children living in poverty).

In a majority of states in the U.S. more women have a college education than men. Yet, half of Millennial women feel they are being overlooked for positions of leadership. Many Millennials actively want to leave their jobs for better prospects, but women especially feel that their opportunities are limited. 

In every state, millennial women were found to be more likely than millennial men to hold a bachelor’s degree or higher—and also more likely to live in poverty (22.4 percent of millennial women, compared to 16.8 percent of millennial men)

How can we build a better future when the very glue of our civilization is put in this position?

WOMEN CEOs ARE STILL A RARITY AT THE TOP

When we think of women in leadership, why not look at the top?

Women currently hold 23 ( 4.6%) of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies.

What is this telling Millennial and GenZ women about equality in the U.S and about the opportunity of women to be leaders?

• Less than 5% of CEOs at top companies are women. 
• Less than 10% of highest-earners at top companies are women. 
• Less than 1 out of 5 members of top corporate boards are female. 

Meanwhile, about 30% of people who work in our major technology companies are women, they only hold about 22% of leadership position. Let's be honest, that's a pretty harsh reality to work in! 

• 77.5% of leaders in major tech companies are men. These are the companies that are shaping our future and our digital experience. 

If we recognize that a lack of female leadership is a problem, what can organizations do about it?

What are actual solutions to harnessing the true potential of these Millennial women leaders in waiting to support them to receive their just rewards?

WHAT CAN ORGANIZATION DO TO KEEP MILLENNIAL WOMEN TALENT?

1. Create a corporate culture that syncs with their values and Millennial values as a whole. 
2. Focus on what matters (beyond motherhood), pay women fairly! 
3. Challenge women with learning and development that gives them truly an equal chance of attaining leadership positions without bias (irrespective of their ethnicity). 

1. Create a culture that is stricter on abuses of male leadership i.e. sexual harassment. 
2. Create corporate cultures that advocates equal opportunity for advancement. 
3. Give Millennial women extra support to transition through key early transition points. a) The transition from University to their first job b) The transition to their first management or leadership position c) Improve mentoring for young Millennial women identified as having leadership potential. 
4. Identify and continue to learn about what employees value in a corporate culture and organization.

This will help your organization attract and retain talented Millennial women who can make or break your corporate culture and the success of your company. 

MILLENNIAL WOMEN LEAD STARTUPS

In 2009, 9.5% startups had at least one woman founder, but by 2014 that rate had almost doubled to 18%.

While female led startups are on the rise, male CEOs may have a distinct advantage in their pitch to male venture capitalists. Men are socialized to use self-enhancement innately, while women who do so are perceived differently in our society (just look at Hilary Clinton). Not to mention the obvious point of bias here: 

Only  7% of partners at top 100 venture firms are women.

How are women supposed to lead when they continue to have to impress men to get promoted or to get funding for their startup?

Implicit gender bias is everywhere, including in the patriarchal patterns of many of our corporate structures. 

In a world where women are so much more ambitious to improve themselves, why don't we allow them to be leaders?

Give me solutions, how can corporations foster more Millennial women in positions of leadership?