Is There a New Generation of Women Leaders Breaking the Glass Ceiling?

Today marks International Women’s Day, a global celebration dedicated to uplifting women and honoring our achievements. To me this day is more than a celebration. It is an opportunity for all of us to rise our voices to call for gender parity and raise awareness about women's equality. An opportunity to challenge ourselves and our current policies and see what else we could be doing because, without gender equality, a sustainable future is unlikely to happen. But?where should we all begin?

Some months ago, I wrote an article about women's journey to break the glass ceiling and reduce the gender gap, where I also covered the changes in women’s representation over the past years, how gender diversity transforms and impacts positively businesses and society, and more recently, how COVID-19 affected women's representation in senior leadership. I couldn't find a better day to release this and share some insights about where we are in terms of gender parity and what is preventing women to advance in their careers.?

2020 was a year unlike any other. Covid-19 created new challenges for employees and highly affected women at work.

The pandemic threatened to slow down the positive advancements made towards reducing the gender leadership gap in the past years. When I first started to work on this article, I was looking for some positive signs that weren't erased by the pandemic, but reading through research and testimonials, the outlook was discouraging. And then, suddenly, something happened. Kamala Harris made history. She became the first woman, first black, and first Asian-American U.S. vice president-elect. 2020 wasn't all bad, after all.

As a woman and a professional, currently in a leadership role, I never felt threatened by a male-dominated culture or felt held back in my life, education or career because of my gender. I have always been surrounded and inspired by strong working women in my family that expressed their early desire to develop their professional careers. I am lucky enough to work for a company where women are supported. I work with leaders who embrace their role, pursue what they want and live their lives and jobs with passion. Women who lead by example, showing strength and conviction in their decisions to push the boundaries of gender equality.

In November 2020 Kamala Harris achieved a milestone in the U.S. government leadership that no woman had ever before: she was the first to hold that office. She was the most recent example of a generation of women who are leading the change, as the first woman to break the glass ceiling—or at least crack it—. And her election was even more significant for Black women. Her victory uplifted the Black female community, inspired and energized them. At the forefront of political and social progress, she was leading the way and preparing the ground for many women to come. Fortunately for us, she was well aware of her significant responsibility and the example she set for women and young people. And her victory speech couldn’t be more reassuring. She recognized this historic, glass-breaking moment as vice president-elect and acknowledged Joe Biden for breaking one of the most substantial barriers in the U.S. by selecting a woman as vice president.

"While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last. Because every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities and to the children of our country regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: Dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourselves in a way that others may not simply because they've never seen it before.” said Harris

Harris's speech was an emotional one for many women around the world and me, as we were witnessing a historic moment. I felt empowered by her words. It is uplifting to see a woman in power inspire you to become anything you want. A woman who acknowledges the fight of many women before her who battled for women's rights, including their right to vote—such a great way to commemorate one hundred years since that major landmark in the history of U.S. democracy. I can’t imagine how women of color felt at that moment, having someone who shares similar thoughts and beliefs, who represents them and is determined to make a safer world for everyone, after years of racial injustice for many women.

I went back to my research to look deeper into the topic. Are these public demostrations in women’s empowerment transforming the current situation and pushing towards gender diversity? Will these changes positively impact the access of women to key leadership roles across the board?

We have seen positive signs of reducing the gender gap in the last five years before the pandemic. While women’s overall representation seems to be close to parity (near half of the world's workforce are women), research from Catalyst about "Covid-19: Women, Equity, and Inclusion in the Future of Work," shows that the gender leadership gap is still significant. Only 26% of senior executives are female, and 6% are CEOs. Men continue to hold the majority of the positions of responsibility, including leadership positions, high-level management, the board of director seats, and CEOs. ?

Furthermore, McKinsey's 2020 report about "Women in the Workplace" notes that an increasing number of companies see the value of having more women in leadership. Since 2015, the number of women in senior-vice-president leadership has grown from 23% to 28% and, particularly in the C-suite—term to refer collectively to a corporation's most important senior executives, as in CEO, CFO, and COO—with an increase from 17% to 21%. The gender gap in leadership seems to be improving, and we are heading in the right direction. Still, despite many women's efforts to break the glass ceiling and the positive progress in the representation, this research alerts that parity remains significantly out of reach for women, particularly for women of color, who are underrepresented at every entry-level.?

For many years, I believed that the glass ceiling—a term that refers to that systematic barrier that is keeping women from rising to senior leadership—was the major obstacle preventing women in their path to leadership positions. However, recently and contrary to one’s belief, I found out that fixing the broken rung is the first step to achieving parity. "The broken rung refers to the obstacles women face at the start of the corporate ladder." The glass ceiling is not the biggest barrier to getting parity into management. Earlier in the pipeline, at the step up to manager, is where women are getting stuck.

According to the same research from McKinsery, for every 100 men promoted and hired to manage, only 72 women are promoted and hired. Furthermore, men hold 62% of manager-level positions, while women hold only 38%. Not surprisingly, many companies don’t realize the profound impact this early inequality has on women's journey to leadership levels. The promotion gap is at this first step up to becoming a manager. Employees’ optimistic perception—including myself—about women's representation at this level doesn’t help either. For example, when one in three managers at this first-level in the company is a woman, 62% of men and 54% of women think women are well represented.

Contrary to the general understanding, the broken rung is a reality, and to me, it follows logical reasoning. Since men's representation at the manager level is significantly higher than women's, there will be fewer women to hire or promote to senior managers. Therefore, the percentage of women at every subsequent level will decrease. This is particularly true in the case of Black and Latina women. Research reports that for every 100 entry-level men promoted to manager, only 68 Latinas and 58 Black women are promoted. Likewise, for every 100 men hired as managers, 57 Latinas, and 64 Black women are hired.

On top of this, as I mentioned earlier, we can’t ignore the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic added to the list.

According to McKinsey’s latest study, Covid-19 “turned people’s lives and workplaces upside down and disrupted workplaces in ways we’ve never seen before.” Many of us struggled with work, childcare, and homeschooling responsibilities, in addition to mental health and burnout issues. Anxiety and stress caused by financial and career insecurities resulted in nearly half of employees reporting that they consistently felt stressed at work during the pandemic. A third admitted feeling exhausted or burnt out. For working parents and—once again— working mothers, especially women of color, burdens were notably harder and heavier. A friend told me that during the first lockdown, she felt completely lost, that she was not doing enough, not enough at home and at work.

I felt I was failing at everything. I was asked for the impossible. Performing at the same level as I was in the office with a 2-year-old kid at home… I had to reorganize my whole life to fit work and daycare. My days started at 6 am and ended at 11 pm. I couldn't disconnect, I was "always on."?White woman, senior leader, full-time employee, one child.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Black women was even more disproportionate, and they faced greater challenges. This same study confirmed that “they [Black women] were more than twice as likely as women overall to say that the death of a loved one was one of their biggest challenges during the pandemic, and they felt uncomfortable talking with colleagues about it.” Additionally, in the workplace, they were underrepresented in senior leadership and promoted more slowly.

Covid-19 also made working parents go through full of tough challenges. With the schools closed and childcare centers shut, many had to take care of their kids and homeschooling while struggling working from home. Some even were forced to choose between their jobs and staying home to take care of their children. And once again, childcare and housework mainly fell on mothers. According to research, during the pandemic, mothers of children under age 10 who are in dual-career couples were twice as likely as men in the same situation to spend more than five additional hours per day on household responsibilities.

The pandemic revealed how disproportionately family and household activities are distributed. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 85% of women and 67% of men spent some time on household activities such as housework, cooking or financial.

Given the intensified challenges that mothers were facing during the pandemic, near two million women (1 in 4 women) were considering taking a leave of absence, downshifting their careers or quitting work altogether, warned McKinsey’s study. “Mothers were significantly more likely to be thinking about taking these steps than fathers. Among mothers who were thinking about downshifting or leaving, a majority cite childcare responsibilities as a primary reason.” These numbers were painfully high. “This was the first time we saw signs of women leaving the workforce at higher rates than men; in the previous five years of this study, women, and men left their companies at similar rates.” This unprecedented crisis was risking all the progress achieved and gains made to date. Sadly, it led to a new work landscape with fewer women in leadership and limited opportunities for future female leaders.

But I strongly believe this crisis also represented an opportunity for companies and public services to assess how they were doing and make the right investments and changes in building a more flexible, inclusive, and supportive workplace.

The Covid-19 crisis overstretched companies worldwide and proved their capacity to adapt and their determination to do it right. How companies confronted these unprecedented challenges and put the right strategies in place determined their success as we move to a more inclusive and gender-equal world.

To this end, Catalyst’s research encouraged corporate leaders to take this opportunity “to assess what they value, how they lead and how their teams work together.” The pandemic offered unique opportunities for many companies and organizations, leaders, and people services teams to finally remove old habits and fix unseen exclusionary behaviors to welcome new ones that contribute to a more inclusive workplace that maximizes opportunities for women.

Companies seem to ignore that diversity in leadership is good for business, and women in senior and decision-making positions, in particular, contribute positively to any organization. According to researchers Paul Gompers and Silpa Kovvali at Harvard Business School, Venture capital firms that increased their female representation in partner hires by 10% reported an average of 1.5% increase in overall fund returns each year and obtained 9.7% more profitable exits—a significant figure given that just 28.8% of all Venture Capital investments achieve a profitable exit—. Advantages on the financial side are just one example. In its report titled “The diversity and inclusion revolution,” Deloitte confirms that companies with an inclusive culture are six times more likely to be innovative, ultimately translating into better financial results as they can stay ahead of changes.

Despite these benefits, company disparity in the tech industry is even greater. The numbers show men heavily dominate this industry, and it will take years to create more opportunities for female leaders. All is not lost yet, however. Since I started working in a Silicon Valley company many years ago, I have seen good progress to break up the boy’s club. We’re seeing many thought leaders, female CEOs, and founders emerging to drive change. From Safra A. Catz, CEO of Oracle and Susan D. Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, to COOs and CFOs like Meta’s Sheryl Sandberg and Microsoft’s Amy Hood, respectively, women in tech are getting more power and conquering executive-level roles, serving as an example for many women earlier on the ladder. And this diversity is beneficial for companies. A Morgan Stanley report found that, for the technology industry, in particular, gender diversity and performance are a pair. “More gender equality, particularly in corporate settings, likely corresponds with increased productivity; greater innovation; higher employee retention and better risk management—all critical factors for improving a tech company's odds of staying competitive.”

Adi Tatarko, co-founder and CEO of Houzz—the leading platform for home renovation and design,— shared during an interview for Forbes that we live in times where it's possible for women to have a professional career alongside doing other things in their lives, including being a parent if that what they want.

"It’s possible. You just need to do it your way. You need to set up rules the way that work for you. It doesn't need to be perfect or be exactly like what someone else has built. Stay true to yourself; that’s what counts,” said Adi Tatarko

It’s a fact that women are great for business and study from?Nordea?supports this. After analyzing near to 11,000 publicly traded companies across the globe, results showed that companies with a female CEO or a female head of the board of directors had averaged 25% annualized return since 2009—more than double the 11% delivered by the MSCI World Index—. “If you invested in a company with a woman at the helm, you would have outperformed the market,” said Robert N?ss, the portfolio manager at Nordea. “Other studies have also shown that diversity is a positive factor, but not that many have also looked at CEOs or such a large number of companies,” Naess said.

A similar phenomenon is observed in politics. Electing women in public services and politics does make a difference in people's lives, and people perceive women to be equally good political leaders as men. According to Pew Research Center’s survey on Women and leadership, “Most Americans find women indistinguishable from men on key leadership traits such as intelligence and capacity for innovation, with many saying they’re stronger than men in terms of being compassionate and organized leaders.”

When it comes to political leadership, research shows women also govern differently than their male counterparts. Women legislators are more likely to introduce legislation that specifically benefits women. To this point, 34% of adults consider that women are better at working out compromises than men. Only 9% say men are better. In addition, when it comes to being honest and ethical, research confirms that women are perceived to have a clear advantage over men (34% say women are better at this; 3% say men are better at it). However, women only score a bit better than men when working on policies to improve the quality of life and defend their beliefs despite political pressure.

But what stands out most to me is that having more women in politics changes significantly how society perceives women, which is the root of the problem. By having more women in government, we are sending a subliminal message to educate people, and most importantly, to kids and young women, on the value of having women in power. And at the same time, we help them to change their self-perception and reinforce their capabilities. Ultimately, we will be sending a meaningful message: you can do it too.

Kamala Harris said during her speech that she was thinking of her late mother and “the generations of women, Black women, Asian, white, Latina, Native American women, who throughout our nation’s history have paved the way for this moment tonight.”

Is there a new generation of women leaders breaking the glass ceiling?

There certainly are. I firmly believe there is a new generation of women out there cracking the glass ceiling, inspiring and expanding the possibilities for many women to postulate themselves for executive roles. A new generation of leaders serving as role models and sending a positive message that women can achieve top executive roles. A new generation that is making significant changes to prepare the ground and empower other women to take on top leadership positions in politics and business. However, I also believe the root of the problem is much deeper. It is clear that there is still work to do to reduce the gender gap in manager and leadership positions, but women's determination to change this won’t be enough.?

The Covid-19 crisis provided a unique opportunity for companies and organizations to finally confront their realities and make the right choices to end current and future gender inequality. However, it also created new challenges for many women at work and at home. When quantifying the direct and indirect effects of the COVID-19 on gender disparities globally, a research paper from Lancet indicates that the pandemic intensified the levels of pre-existing inequalities between women and men and the indirect effects have affected women disproportionately.?

Leaders across all levels in both private and public organizations play a crucial role to promote change. They need to encourage women in their team to actively participate in the workforce, to speak up and raise their hands to take on more responsibilities and apply for leadership positions, all while equipping them with the right tools, abilities and confidence to overcome the barriers they face and achieve their career goals.

The choices we all make today will affect real progress on the road to equality and determine the role of women and other underrepresented groups in the workplace for years to come.