4 Actions Organizations Should Take To Achieve True Gender Equity in Leadership

Discover the barriers companies should overcome to promote true gender equity in leadership.

March 10, 2023

While women are reaching leadership positions today, much progress is yet to be made. In this context, IBM and Chief conducted a study to understand the barriers companies should overcome to promote true gender equity in leadership.

Today, more women are breaking the glass ceiling and entering top leadership roles. While this is an achievement, significant progress is yet to be made. Further deeper barriers to female leadership exist. Real progress and benefits come when companies develop systems to embed and sustain essential behaviors, accountability, and action. These systems are currently broken and need to be fixed.

In this context, IBM and Chief recently conducted a study to understand the key barriers organizations should overcome and suggest actions to create the necessary structure to promote women’s leadership. The following are a few insights.

Organizations Are Reinventing Themselves

The last three years have shown that organizations can reinvent themselves. The pandemic nurtured a growing awareness of female employees’ challenges in advancing their careers. In the U.S. alone, 5 million womenOpens a new window either quit or were forced to quit during the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Several companies responded by transforming their workplace practices, which helped professionals, and women in particular, to continue to work.

Even today, respondents ranked the pandemic the most severe disruption women face at work. The attention on female employees has influenced discussions around gender equality. Many organizations today have implemented initiatives geared specifically toward advancing women. For example, they have created formal networking groups and offered career development planning. About 65% of companies also mandated diversity training for their managers, including gender topics.

While these programs are essential to change attitudes and mindsets, they are now basic expectations. There is a rise in other gender parity practices that carry higher risks and are more challenging to implement. For example, they include involving female candidates in leadership succession plans and holding management accountable for progress. While these practices are slowly gaining favor, companies implementing them are very low.

Target-setting hovers at 2019 levels

More companies are taking action to advance women, but target-setting hovers at 2019 levels

Source: Women in leadershipOpens a new window

Organizations may have taken initiatives to raise gender equity awareness, but that is insufficient for meaningful progress.

See more: Women’s Day 2023: Tech Leaders Discuss the Impact of Digital Gender Gap

Optimism Is Real but Unrealistic

The efforts to make an organization inclusive have significantly impacted men’s perception of gender parity. Most men today do not see gender as a hurdle to ascending to their companies’ top ranks. For example, in 2019, 31% of men thought a woman could become a CEO. In 2023, 54% of men feel the same. This year, enough men have shifted to where most women and men share the same optimism.

The gender-focused initiatives organizations have taken up are resonating. This year, the percentage of companies making advancing more women into leadership roles a top business priority almost doubled in two years, from 25% in 2021 to 45% this year.

However, the challenge is that if the perceptions of progress reflected real change, we would see a significant increase in women filling leadership roles today. Unfortunately, the pipeline tells a different story.

Wins at the Top Are Threatened by Stagnation in the Middle

There are undoubtedly more women in leadership positions. Another bright spot this year is at the start of the leadership pipeline, such as specialists and junior professionals. After a drop in 2021, the role has surpassed the numbers of 2019. 

However, more skilled and talented female employees need to make it to the middle of the pipeline. There has been a hollowing out of female professionals in middle management. 

The 2023 leadership pipeline of women

The 2023 leadership pipeline of women

Source: Women in leadershipOpens a new window

The roles in the middle of the pipeline act as feeders to the top positions. If companies are genuinely making progress in advancing female employees to senior leadership, the percentage of female talent in the middle of the pipeline must be higher. Yet, that is not the case. Further, more stagnation exists in non-executive managerial and senior professional positions.

So, why is the path to advancement so challenging for female employees despite the attention on the issue? There are a few reasons:

Attitude alone is insufficient

While the attitude shifts we have witnessed are vital, they are insufficient. The belief that hard work and the right attitude can overcome structural barriers to advancement is a myth. Women’s advancement is an organization’s issue and not a women’s issue. But most companies are letting their managers and employees work through the tensions of change on their own.

Doubts about women’s ability to manage

The study showed that only about half of managers are confident that the leaders in their companies believe women have the education to advance. But the deeper concerns revolve around women’s dedication and overall effectiveness. For example, when asked if women with dependent children are as dedicated to their jobs as women without children, only 40% of male managers agreed that this is what senior leadership believes. Naturally, low belief in a mother’s ability to balance work and family will lead the management to look for other candidates.

Similarly, only 48% of male managers said their leaders believed women are as effective at supervising as men. This indicates unconscious biases are holding women back.

Women are expected to shine in undervalued areas

People still have deep-seated expectations about leadership that differ for men and women. There is almost no agreement on the prioritized list of attributes men and women need to be considered for a promotion to a leadership position. For example, men are valued for being results-oriented, and women are expected to be more strategic and bold while people-oriented. These kinds of expectations fall into the trap of stereotyped gender modules.

When Women Win, Everyone Wins

Studies, including this one, have shown that diverse companies perform better in many core competitive metrics. Considered ‘First Movers,’ these organizations usually:

  • Have made the advancement of women a top business priority.
  • View gender inclusivity as a driver of financial performance.
  • Believe that businesses need to continue to make changes if they want to achieve gender parity.

First Movers have more women in leadership positions, and they witness a better financial performance. According to the study, they reported 19% higher revenue growth over the last two years. They also fare much better in employee retention, gender equity, workforce diversity, and childcare and leave benefits.

Organizations Cannot Delay Action

Despite the benefits, many organizations haven’t yet taken steps to enable inclusivity in leadership. By delaying action, they risk destroying the progress made over the last few years, as evidenced by the dips in the pipeline of female talent. And these dips will get deeper. About 30% of women actively plan to look for a new job over the next year. For many women, sticking around for a long time, hoping they would land a senior leadership role, is not worth the price.

It is time for senior leaders to get serious about achieving gender equity. The following few steps and supporting actions can point the way.

1. Design roles at the top that work for top talent

Advancement is more than having a few seats at the table; it is about carefully reevaluating leadership positions and the systems supporting them. This enables individuals to give full expression to their talent in ways that are fair, equitable, and in tune with their needs and aspirations of the business. 

Actions to take

  • Break the mold on historically defined roles.
  • Trim hiring criteria to a core set of gender-neutral requirements
  • End the pay gap

2. Change the dialogue around gender

Reframe women’s leadership advancement in a language that compels action — business results.

Actions to take

  • Show how gender equity and inclusion can build financial performance.
  • Demonstrate that advancement is not a net zero-sum game.
  • Engage men.

See more: 6 Women in Tech on How To Close the Gender Pay Gap in the Industry

3. Give your strategy teeth

Many organizations claim advancing is part of their strategic agenda. But the strategy needs directives and metrics.

Actions to take

  • Create appropriate goals for representation despite the risk of a backlash.
  • Scout and sponsor actively.
  • Commit to openness

4. Detangle the messy middle

When discussing gender parity in leadership, we tend to focus on the most senior roles. However, it is more challenging to enact measures that tackle gender parity across the full leadership pipeline.

Actions to take

  • Ask women what they need.
  • Shift biases with experiential learning.
  • Ask why repeatedly until you uncover the root cause of inaction.

Take Action Now

While companies have seen progress in achieving gender parity in senior leadership roles, much remains to be accomplished. Further, the availability of female talent in the middle of the leadership pipeline is thinning. Organizations should take the steps mentioned above to achieve true gender equity at the top before it is too late.

What actions have you taken to promote true gender equity in leadership in your organization? Share with us on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .

Image source: Shutterstock

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Karthik Kashyap
Karthik comes from a diverse educational and work background. With an engineering degree and a Masters in Supply Chain and Operations Management from Nottingham University, United Kingdom, he has experience of close to 15 years having worked across different industries out of which, he has worked as a content marketing professional for a significant part of his career. Currently, as an assistant editor at Spiceworks Ziff Davis, he covers a broad range of topics across HR Tech and Martech, from talent acquisition to workforce management and from marketing strategy to innovation. Besides being a content professional, Karthik is an avid blogger, traveler, history buff, and fitness enthusiast. To share quotes or inputs for news pieces, please get in touch on karthik.kashyap@swzd.com
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