Women in Leadership – Time to NOT Beat Around the Bush

For starters, let’s beat the dead horse again – it is unfortunate that in 2021 we are arguing about women's representation in senior leadership roles considering them to be a part of “diverse” community. By now, we should have been implementing plans to represent members of other diverse groups in senior roles. While some organizations have won in that race, most are still lagging behind. 

A couple of weeks back, Strengthscape launched a LinkedIn poll asking, “What do you think is the most significant barrier to Women Leadership?” Considering that this Women’s Day (8th of March 2021), the theme identified is Women in Leadership, it sets the stage to discuss concerns related to the topic. (Link to the survey here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6757554788692504576) 

The survey results were obvious – out of the 85 votes, 47% mentioned that Gender Disparity practices is a primary reason and close to 44% mentioned that Social Structure is the most significant barrier.  

In a McKinsey Report titled Women in the Workplace 2020, about 317 companies participated and close to 40,000 people surveyed, stated that women especially of color are more likely to have been laid off during the COVID-19 crisis thereby jeopardizing their career and financial security. More than one in four women are contemplating downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce completely due to lack of external support in managing “double shifts” that women already did.  

The same McKinsey report stated that “for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 85 women were promoted, and this gap was even larger for some women...As a result, women remained significantly outnumbered in entry-level management at the beginning of 2020—they held just 38 percent of manager-level positions, while men held 62 percent”. This is for the sixth year in a row, the under representation of women and women of color in senior management cannot be explained by attrition alone.  

That is a dangerous number for America. But doesn’t it equally hold true for India as well, where the social structure is so designed that it hinders participation of women in the workforce?  

If we observe closely and introspect deep down, we are still living in an era where since childhood, behaviors and values are taught based on gender. Women need to talk softly and cannot raise their voice while men are head of the family who are required to manage conflicts and issues upfront. When these women are nominated for managerial roles, the first comment is “She won’t be too strict or upfront; she will have a harder time being firm with people or telling them to get shit done or lose their job”. Well, don’t we teach that to our young girls and women in the first place? 

The social pressure of “being a mother” or “to get married soon” further hinders participation of women in the workforce. And mind you, this is not a scenario prevalent in the interiors and villages (as many naysayers would think) but a reported picture amongst the educated city dwellers. When such events occur, the first one to leave the job or reject a promotion are the women. 

Women are caregivers while men are bread earners. Being ambitious and to dream is also a learnt behavior. These “learnt” behaviors and values are not only detrimental to women alone but destroys the potential for men and society as a whole. Gender disparity practices, especially stemming from social structures and social learning (the defined roles of men and women) are a major concern for lack of representation of women in the senior leadership roles. 

In the poll, about 6% of the votes were to Professional Competency and 4% to Lesser suitable opportunities. Is lack of professional competency really a reason for women being stuck at the very first step of their path to senior leadership? Isn't it time we adjust our lens a bit? 

While many may criticize citing that “things have changed”, “we have now an evolved perspective” or “this isn’t the whole true picture”, let’s consider a few thoughts before that: 

• We are often biased because of our own learnt behaviors 
• Our perspectives are colored due to the many privileges we may have - “If it didn’t happen to me, it doesn’t happen at all” is a perspective we need to get over with. Power and privilege both hinders our ability to see the reality 
• Women, too, might be thinking that lack of professional competency is a reason why they are not selected for leadership roles. That could just mean they are in an unconscious incompetence level or their internal belief of not being competent enough, what is also called “Imposter Syndrome” is way too strong 
• The practice isn’t balanced – representation of women should be solely on the basis of “competence” rather than meeting the “diversity number” in the leadership team 
• And yes, things have changed a great deal but the fact that we are still debating about Women’s representation in Leadership role, is evidence enough that we have a long way to go 

We need to take a balanced approach to dealing with issues like this but more than that, we must first begin to keep aside our personal biases and colored lenses to see the reality.  

As Sheryl Sandberg quoted, “We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” The first step of change is to be “Aware” of the root causes leading to lack of representation. The consequent steps will follow.