Who Runs the World? Girls...But Do They?

In 1991, a team of scientists outlined as one of the most terrifying future scenarios a ‘feminist world’ where extreme feminists rejected knowledge and facts as masculine traits and instead prioritized emotions and feelings dooming the world as a result. What was a nightmare then, is an ideal world now (minus the doomsday part of course). Today, a female future is a better future. This is what profits of gender – diverse companies unveil and what our own research revealed as well. In our newest Prosumer Report The Future is FeMale we found that 45% of Prosumers believe the world would be a better place if more women were in positions of power. People expect women to be at the heart of change: 44% of Prosumers, 40% of women and 30% of men globally agree that in the future, it will be women who will lead change in the world.

It may be that people are fed up with the way our history has been lead through wars and aggressiveness and we are now ready for a new type of leadership. It may be that people and their expectations have changed faster than our leaders have. Or, because it’s 2017 and it was about time. Whatever the case, no matter the gender or age, people see tremendous leadership potential in women. In our study we asked people to choose from a list of traits to understand the differences, if any, of perceptions between men and women. Overall, certain typical gender stereotypes persisted – women are seen as kinder and more sensitive and men are seen as more mechanical and independent. But women also viewed themselves as more responsible, harder working, more intellectual, better money managers and better bargain hunters. The combination of these traits along with the more traditional ‘female’ qualities of emotional strength, sensitivity and empathy, are qualities we actually expect a great leader to have today. It may be a complete stereotype to say that women are more sensitive and emotional than men, but the truth is, society needs more sensitivity and empathy in order to progress and solve some of the world’s biggest problems. Women should use this cliché in their advantage to gain more power.

The logic then goes that more women should be leading companies and countries. And yet, only 4,2% of the top 500 US companies and less than 10 countries are lead by women, with few signs of an imminent increase. Society is of course still largely at fault. For example, 57% of Prosumers agreed that sexism and gender bias prevent women from earning as much as men. However, when it comes to leadership, women tend to run low on confidence: while 31% of men think men are better bosses than women, only 15% of women believe women are better bosses than men. Confidence issues like the commonly discussed imposture syndrome, can ‘blind’ women from seeing the great opportunities that lie in front of them. Instead, men have seized these opportunities by embracing so called ‘female qualities’. Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron have emerged as popular ‘resistance’ figures against the comeback of strongmen macho type leaders like Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Although Emmanuel Macron has embraced a more liberal and softer image, the symbolic and ‘not so innocent’ (as Macron himself called it) long handshake he exchanged with Trump during their first one-on-one meeting, depicted a leader who – when necessary – dismisses compromise and intimidation. Justin Trudeau personally welcomed Syrian refugees and did not hesitate to shed a tear in front of the camera when he was reunited with them later. At the same time, he maintains his masculinity. His good looks are definitely an advantage but his image as a devoted father and a decisive country leader is unquestionable. Thus, although both Macron and Trudeau represent a new type of leader with a softer image, they are keeping up with people’s – surprisingly outdated – expectations of men: 67% of Prosumers globally agree that a man should be masculine.

Have these men caught women off guard? Turns out, not all men lost their dominance due to woman’s emancipation as many have argued. Instead, they have shown great flexibility and adaptability to the changes and discerned the opportunity to embrace female traits as a way to stay relevant and remain in positions of power. This is by no means a bad thing, but it could still leave women out of the equation. And so we can’t help at wonder: will it be women who will lead change in the future or men who embrace the ‘so called’ female qualities?