What Would Be Different in Our World If We Had 50% Women CEOs?

Let’s engage in an exercise in imagination. Let’s imagine that our companies and countries are led by 50% (+ / - 5%) women. What would be different in our companies, families, societies, and the academic world?

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What Would Be Different in Our Companies?

If companies in our country / region / world had 50% and more women CEOs, most probably we would experience:

?? More profitability. A 2016 study by McKinsey & Company found that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on executive teams were 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability compared to companies in the fourth quartile. Similarly, a 2019 study by S&P Global found that companies with female CEOs or CFOs tended to be more profitable and have higher stock price performance compared to those without.

?? More long-term thinking and sustainable strategies.

?? Less impulsive, unnecessary risk taking.

?? Diverse perspectives on product and service development leading to more innovations.

???More focus on sustainability and complex stakeholder engagement.

?? More versatility and adaptability. ?

???More diverse, inclusive, and cohesive executive teams.

?? More focus on psychological safety and healthy company cultures.

?? Better, more empathetic internal and external communications.

?? Genuine customer care leading to customer retention and long-term prosperity.

?? Masterful crisis management turning crises into an opportunity and learning from them.

?? More focus on people development and effective internal coaching, mentoring, and sponsoring programs.

?? More flexible work policies allowing people to balance work and family care.

?? More positive, inspiring role models for young women.

?? Thick, buoyant internal pipelines of female talent ready and eager to lead.

?? A general normalization of being led by a woman.

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What Would Be Different in Families?

Now let’s take a look at what would be different for families if we had more than 50% women CEOs. The following lines are based on my own work with women CEOs, on observations of changes in a family ecosystem when a woman is promoted into top leadership, and on the stories of local and global women CEOs such as Ginny Rometty, Indra Nooyi, and others:

? More real, genuine partnership. It’s impossible to be a woman CEO without a loving, supportive partner by one’s side.

? More flexibility and resilience in the family dynamics. Not having a mother stuck in a servant role – aka someone who is constantly available and ready to fix everything for and after everybody - all family members would need to stand up to their own challenges and mature into their real contribution to the family system.

? More innovations on the care market, from childcare to caring for aging family members and to household management solutions.

? More communications, more balance, more respect towards the mother and the women in the family.

? More genuine role models, support, and unchallenged development options for young women.

? More money. This possibility would become real provided that spouses worked and that we managed to eliminate the gender pay gap, which even today pays women executives less than men in similar roles. ?

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What Would Be Different in Our Society?

Next, what would be different in our society?

??Finally journalists could take a break from covering sensationalist headlines like: “The first woman in science, the first woman black CEO…” etc.

??Now seriously: for sure we would have a better care market dripping with innovative, humane solutions for childcare, aging people, and household management.

??We would have normalized solid, robust, inspired female leadership – in organizations, communities, political parties, and countries.

??Having more women in top corporate leadership could feed a healthy female leadership pipeline for public office. ?

??Hopefully, we would have normalized the vision of women seen and respected as equal partners belonging in all possible roles and functions based on their genuine capabilities, vision, and leadership.

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What Would Be Different in the Academia?

Last but not least, what would be different in our academic world?

?? We would have more real-time data about the positive impact of women leaders on companies and the society.

?? We would study more topics that are now lingering at the periphery of male interest.

?? More innovations thanks to a diversity of perspectives in what should be taught and researched and how.

?? With less ego in the room, probably we would have more fluidity between the academia and the corporate environment, which would make both worlds benefit.

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What else do you think would change for the better if we had more women CEOs in our companies and societies? What is your imagination telling you?

Now, I am fully aware that I chose to focus on the positive aspects of having more women at the top, and that I / we lack data for numerous assumptions I made above. This is why I called this an exercise in imagination. But every systemic transformation starts with a vision – so why not envisage a world in which women truly have an equal shot at top leadership?

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For Whom Is This Newsletter?

As you can notice by now, I do intend to be controversial in this newsletter.

I intend to challenge the heck out of the status quo. Few women – even women CEOs – have the luxury to act as real challengers in their organizations and in our societies today without losing their heads. I do have that luxury because I am running my own company, and I am running my own life. A privilege for which I am very grateful.

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This newsletter is therefore dedicated to trailblazers and status quo provocateurs; to all those who understand and believe that the way we live and lead today is deeply unbalanced and unsustainable. To those who are uncompromising about experiencing purpose at work. To those who dare to see beyond the spreadsheet and the latest profit reports – and also beyond the steel & glass walls of their organization and the narrow interests of their shareholders. To all those who strive to turn their privilege – being a member of the C-Suite, a non-executive board member, or the CEO – into a trampoline for driving positive systemic change in our world – this newsletter is for you.

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Expect real-life CEO stories, solutions, and strategies for how to nurture the female talent pipeline in organization so we all can experience less pain and limitations. Expect perspectives on how to jumpstart and nurture more purpose, vision, and genuine compassion and care in organizations. Expect honesty about those moments when CEOs – men and women alike – and companies screw it, or when they are downright hypocritical and fake. Expect a mirror of what it, and a magnifying glass of what could be if only we put our minds, hearts, and spine to it. ?

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Let’s Talk

Let’s not stop in our conversation here. If you want to reach out to tell me what you think about this newsletter or to explore the possibility of us working together, you can find me here:

?? Book a direct, simple, no-strings-attached live virtual 30-minute call with me: https://calendly.com/cristinamuntean/ceo-to-ceo-exploration-call

?? Follow me and make sure we are connected here on LinkedIn so you can drop me a DM: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/munteancristina

?? Drop me an email: [email protected]

?? Drop me a text, voice, or audio message via WhatsApp: +420 776 574 925

? Visit my personal website for more blog posts and case studies mapping the becoming of women CEOs: www.cristinamuntean.com .?