WOMEN AND LEADERSHIP: REVIEW OF RECENT STUDIES

Article by Herb Rubenstein
President and Founder, Herb Rubenstein Consulting

Introduction

This paper summarizes some of the recent findings on the topic of “Women and Leadership” from two major sources: A chapter entitled Women and Leadership by Julie Indvik in Leadership Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition by Peter G. Northouse (Sage Publications, 2001) and a study done by Tracey Manning of the College of Notre Dame in Maryland, titled Gender, Managerial Level, Transformational Leadership and Work Satisfaction.

Key Macro Level Findings

1. Women managers earned $0.68 for every dollar earned by male peers in management in 1998.
2. Women earned 56% of the bachelors degrees in 1999 and by 2008 are expected to outnumber men in graduate school.
3. Women made up 46.2% of the US labor force in 1998, but filled only 11.2 % of corporate officer positions.
4. Women filled 3.8% of executive positions in the US; 2.7 of Fortune 500 “top earner slots,” 11.1% of corporate board positions but only 1.1% of the inside director positions drawn from company executives in 1998.
5. Women filled only 3 CEO positions of Fortune 500 companies and an additional 4 CEO positions in Fortune 1000 companies.
6. From 1990 to 2000 twice as many women have started businesses as men.
7. Four recent studies conclude that underutilized women are a major source of untapped value that can enhance an organization’s financial performance, teamwork, change efforts and creativity.
8. A review of 82 studies measuring leadership effectiveness shows that female and male leaders do not differ overall in effectiveness. One study actually showed that women were more effective in 28 out of 31 leadership areas examined.
9. Women consistently underrate themselves compared to fellow raters; men rate themselves equally to the scores given to them by their fellow raters. Women score lower on self-confidence ratings than their male peers.

Practical Learning on Women and Leadership

The research shows a clear prejudice by men against women leaders, especially in sectors where men currently or historically make up a large majority of the leaders and employees. Men’s evaluation ratings of women are consistently lower than their ratings of other men.

The research also shows that women are generally more participative, less autocratic, have less “line” (vs. staff) experience than men (“Line experience means having budget authority in an organization) and the lack of line experience is viewed as a serious barrier to securing top leadership positions by women. Women generally receive less training, were usually given fewer resources to manage, given less challenging, less risky assignments and did not receive equal encouragement or mentoring support as compared to men.

Since leadership development is often composed of three basic components: challenge, recognition and support, women are currently at a disadvantage since they receive less of all three in most organizations when compared to their male peers. In order to secure higher leadership positions the research suggests that women must seek out high stakes, challenging assignments. They must also lobby hard to receive appropriate recognition and mentoring at all times in their career, plus secure adequate levels of financial, technical and political support to perform their duties and responsibilities successfully. Other important forms of support are shown to be beneficial to women seeking and currently in leadership positions include receiving timely information, inclusion in informal networks, regular feedback, collegiality, flexibility and acceptance.

The mentoring issue for women is complex. Studies show that male mentors had a dramatic impact on the salary and leadership status of their mentees. Men generally have both men and women mentors, while women generally have female mentors. The research suggests that women also seek out male mentors as well as female mentors to assist with their career and leadership development.

Mainiero conducted a study in 1994 of 55 women executives and found four distinct phases in their leadership development learning process. They are:

1. Transcend political naivete – become direct, yet sensitive to corporate/org culture.
2. Build credibility – perform against/in spite of accepted stereotypes, take significant risks, build alliances, create interpersonal networks, work within and build the system one seeks to lead.
3. Refine Your Style – Delegate and build teams in your own image; be tough, find and overcome significant obstacles through persistence and setting high goals; display self-confidence and create self confidence in others and your teams; develop and deploy strong personal influence skills.
4. Shouldering Responsibilities – Become comfortable being the sole woman at the top or at your level; manage work-home balance; mentor others, be demanding of self and others; hold others accountable.

Gallagher’s 1996 study of 70 executive women identified five key patterns of behavior important to leadership success among women. They are.

1. Build sense of commonality and rapport with work associates
2. Extend one’s web of relationships beyond the organization’s walls
3. Be discreet
4. Avoid severing relationships directly
5. Meet people through project involvement rather than through “networking.”

Conclusion

These research studies show that women lead as well as men when they have the opportunity, the resources, the recognition and the same access to timely information. Male prejudice against women leaders is well documented, pervasive and possibly changeable in the near term. Women consistently underrate their own leadership skills, exhibit less self-confidence than their male peers and do not receive the same quality mentoring or recognition as their male peers. Key breakthroughs are likely to occur for women to reach and succeed at tope leadership positions through their willingness, in the face of big hurdles, to:

1. Create and define their own, distinctive personal style
2. Delegate and create teams in their own image (branding and forcefulness)
3. Be demanding, yet congenial
4. Require others to play by the rules you create
5. Be a whistleblower if necessary
6. Seek out and take large risks
7. Establish multi-faceted webs of relationships within and beyond the organization’s walls
8. Seek and obtain recognition and adequate support and mentoring

Women have recently made substantial progress in entrepreneurship and leadership. A new magazine The Female Entrepreneur will be launched soon. Fortune is now tracking many more female leaders than it was just five years ago. However, time is moving slowly. At the present rate (1990-2000) of “improvement” in the number of women CEO’s and political leaders in the US, it will take another 300 years for women to have 50% of the top leadership positions in large companies and 500 years to reach 50% of the members of Congress.

Clearly, breakthroughs are needed and the members of Women in Technology stand in an excellent position to help achieve these breakthroughs in the coming days, weeks and years ahead.

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