Women leaders must manage conflicting stereotypical role expectations. Their gender role expectations are centred on what psychologists call communal attributes, such as kindness, empathy and nurturing. At the same time, their leadership role expectations involve agency attributes, such as being aggressive and self-confident. These simultaneous, contradictory expectations often trap women leaders in no-win situations. On […]
Read More… from How Women Leaders Overcome Conflicting Expectations
Women continue to be vastly under-represented at the top levels of business, with recent figures in the U.S. indicating that less than 5% of major corporations CEOs are women, and less than 20% of corporate board directors are women. What accounts for this continuing gender disparity? This question, according to University of Virginia professor and […]
Read More… from Demand vs. Supply: The Future of Women in Top Leadership
Interest in the need to develop training programs for women entrepreneurs is growing, especially in developing countries where the potential influence of women entrepreneurs is significant. In these countries, woman entrepreneurs are often the first women in their families to receive an education or training. They also offer much-needed leadership models for girls and women […]
Read More… from Influences on Entrepreneurial Training for Women
Although mentoring is often cited as one of the paths for women to break down the barriers that hamper promotion opportunities and career success, what exactly can women learn through mentoring relationships and how does this make a difference for them in the workplace? This question is at the heart of a qualitative study on […]
Read More… from Mentoring Programs for Women to Overcome Workplace Challenges
The dearth of female leaders in industry, despite the stated intentions of most companies and organizations to encourage diversity and promote women, is well documented. Past studies in this field have focused in large part on the actions and biases of (mostly male) leaders, or on the career choices of women (e.g., fewer women training […]
Read More… from Male Subordinate Bias Against Female Bosses: The Evidence from Schools
While it is well documented that women earn less than men, a series of three studies examined whether agreeableness had an impact on this wage inequality — that is, whether men and women being agreeable or disagreeable changed the equation. Agreeableness incorporates attributes such as being trusting, altruistic, compliant, modest and tender-minded. Disagreeableness refers to […]
Read More… from Why Are Disagreeable Men Being Rewarded for Being Disagreeable?
Women face an uphill battle in achieving high leadership positions because of the prejudice of many men — and women — against women leaders. Too many men and women buy into the gender stereotypes of women as emotional, caring and gentle, who don’t have the active, competitive, independent and self-confident traits of men needed in […]
Read More… from Gender Bias Against Women Leaders Is Higher Than We Think
New research into the personal history and decisions of division managers, CEOs and directors of nearly 360 S&P 1500 industrial conglomerates reveals the extent of the gender bias that exists in large corporations, and highlights some of the surprising origins of the bias. Specifically, the in-depth study led to the following findings: 1. CEOs are […]
Read More… from CEOs-Gender-biased Formative Years Has a Negative Economic Impact
Women are still a minority in many male-dominated professions, such as engineering and technology, as well as being a minority in leadership positions in most industries. Past studies have shown that women in these industries have a difficult time exerting the same influence in their organizations. One reason often cited is that women don’t appear […]
Read More… from Why Self-Confident Women Have Less Influence than Self-Confident Men
With social inequality in the U.S. only getting worse and with intergenerational mobility lower than in many other advanced economies, it is clear that individuals in the higher socioeconomic levels of American society have a distinct advantage over lower class individuals in economic trajectories — that is, they are given the most lucrative jobs and […]
Read More… from High Social Class Helps Men Get Jobs, But Not Women