Three barriers women face in claiming executive positions — Written by Theodora Pavlidou
“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change”– Sheryl Sandberg
Women may not face barriers to enter the workplace, but they do face resistance, and more isolation when it comes to leadership positions. For every 100 men promoted and recruited to managerial positions only 72 women respectively are promoted and recruited. According to McKinsey’s research, men occupy 62% of managerial positions, while women hold just 38%. It is undoubtedly encouraging that over the last 16 years, female representation in executive positions worldwide has increased. However, the number of women in senior positions is still small.
Archetypes vs Stereotypes
Someone may argue that family responsibilities do not leave time for running a major corporation. Claiming that, employers hesitate when it comes to the process of selecting and promoting women in leadership roles. This perception is deeply rooted in our society, and puts pressure on both men and women from an early age. Men should succeed in their professional life, and women should start a family and be responsible for the household. In 2021, why should women take care of the family and the house on their own? Why isn’t this responsibility shared between women and men? Why do we have to reinforce the stereotype that a woman’s job is to take care of her family and she won’t be able to have a career too? Fortunately, many men have understood that this stereotype has no place in today’s society and assume their own part of responsibility.
I would say that there are two types of women; those who want to devote their time to their families and those who are willing to share their time between their career and family. It’s one thing to choose not to pursue both and a completely different thing to let go because of the circumstances. I can’t help but wonder, women who are willing to follow this difficult path, are they also willing to push hard for their career, look for a promotion, be part of a big project? Let’s think for a moment, how many of those women wouldn’t step back if they knew they could count on their husbands for the care of their children. However, it is different to not be promoted due to a lack of qualifications from not to be promoted because of your gender and the pressure that society exerts on you.
Self-sabotage
There are still people, today, questioning women’s ability to balance their personal life and career. Therefore, we conclude that the real challenge for women is to gain respect and acceptance among peers. The question is; how can this be achieved? Jan Fields once said, “I always had to do better than anybody else to be considered equal.” When I first read it, the only thing that came to my mind was that we have to work more and harder than men to convince everybody, we are as capable as men are. Many men are ambitious, confident and never underestimate themselves. As a consequence,they exude dynamism and certainty of success and they are automatically better candidates for seniorpositions. On the contrary, many women lack confidence, underestimate their abilities, and attribute their success to external factors. I sincerely believe women need to acknowledge that and start to value their abilities as well as what they can bring to the table. It is not unusual to see women take a step back when they have the opportunity for a promotion because they have doubts; “I don’t think I have the knowledge or experience to take the responsibilities for this role” “What if I fail?” “There are better candidates than me”. This kind of thoughts, limiting beliefs, and behaviours take us all back and we make our career journey more difficult than it already is.
How do we require others to trust us and give us a chance when we don’t believe in our abilities and don’t take every opportunity that comes our way?
Empathy versus sensitivity
Some women are confident and try to gain respect with the wrong attitude. According to a Lean In/McKinsey & Company survey with 34,000 participants; women who negotiated for promotion were 30 per cent more likely than men to be labelled intimidating, bossy, or aggressive. In my point of view, this is happening because of some stereotypes of how someone should behave to gain a leadership role. Seeing that the largest percentage of senior positions are occupied by men, one may assume that dynamic personalities set aside all kinds of emotions and deal with problems with toughness. However, studies have shown that this approach is an inhibitory factor in women’s efforts to take on senior positions (Kanter, 1977). On the other hand, many people believe that women are sensitive and this is considered a weakness. However, some may confuse sensitivity with empathy. Women are empathetic enough, and this is an advantage for a good leader in order to understand the needs of their employees.
The reasons why many women aren’t in leadership positions may vary. The question rising here is “What can we do to change the situation?”. Before anything else, every woman has to change the way she thinks by learning to claim the position she deserves in the right way; not to be afraid to take risks, to take every opportunity even when they don’t have all the skills and knowledge but they have the will to learn and develop, and above all to be ambitious and believe in themselves.
Starting there, we’re going to change the social stereotypes around the female or any other gender, and equality will no longer seem like a distant dream.
