Investigative Reporter: 50 Reasons Why Women do not Seek Leadership Positions

By: Lynnette Lockwood

Dr. Back

Principles of Leadership

May 2^nd, 2014

Table of Contents

I. Introduction

II. 50 Reasons

Societal Reasons: p.1-6

Historical Aspects
Socialization
Social Labels
Media
Discrimination
Sexism
Male Dominance
Inequality
Social Penalty
Sexual Harassment
Hostile Work Environment
Victimization
Resistance from Others
Child Rearing Responsibilities
Multiple Family Roles
Multiple Home Responsibilities
Marriage Not Career

Self-Reasons: p.6-9

Lack of Self-confidence
Internalized Negative Thinking
Underestimating Potential
Aggressiveness
Overachieve
Lonely at the Top
Internal Barriers
Lack of Determination
Living Life
Taking Risks
Expectations
Passivity
Fear of Failure
Blocks to Success

External Reasons: p.9-14

Insufficient Paid Maternity Leave
Single Parent Homes
Lack of Child Care
Lack of Parental Care
Personal Life
Unequal Pay
College Degrees
Lack of Mentors/Sponsors
Hesitant of Change
Lack of Opportunities
Sandbagging
New Boss Phenomenon
Glass Ceiling
Glass Cliff
Low Social Economic Status
Lack of Institutions’ Support
Making Excuses
Women Buying Into the Future
Women’s Responsibility

III. Conclusion p.14

IV. Works Cited p.15

Due to societal, self and external factors, there can be as many as 50 reasons why women do not strive for, or obtained leadership positions. Leadership is the process of influencing a group to accomplish goals. Leadership includes decisions and actions that are based on reason and passion. Leaders innovate, develop, inspire, have long-term goals, ask what and why, originate, and challenge the status quo (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012). Women’s power in leadership stems from perfection. Women are constantly bombarded with thousands of messages telling them how to be perfect, from beauty products, clothes, and even their body shape. There is a misconception that the more perfect they are the more power they hold (Bushell, 1987).

The historical power of women’s leadership started with the Equal Pay Act proposed in 1963, making it illegal for a business to pay a woman lower wages than a man. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 granted equal rights to women in employment and then added an amendment known as the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 to prohibit sex discrimination based on pregnancy (Godbole, 2011). In 1991 the Civil Rights Act was updated by adding awareness of sexual harassment (Lister, 2011).

Socialization draws gender lines early and exclusions for women continue up to adulthood. Culture teaches girls to be liked and accommodate others (Saujani, 2013), and they are encouraged to participate and are pressured into stereotypical female-oriented professions and roles (Wolfe, 2008). Women are labeled as emotional, gentle, understanding, devoted, caring, supportive (Denmark, & Paludi, 2008), cooperative, and focused on pleasing others (Sandberg, 2013) which decreases the emphasis on their abilities to be leaders. Women are frequently known to use interactive leadership. This involves encouraging participation, enhancing other’s self-worth; and the best performance occurs when workers are excited about work and feel good about their job. This interactive leadership style develops out of years of socialization (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012).

These social labels continue with men who are labeled to be active, competitive, independent, self-confident, and have strong abstract thinking and critical thinking skills. Males are supposed to be the breadwinners and women are supposed to be the homemakers (Valerio, 2011). Women are labeled as passive, non-competitive, dependent, lacking in self-confidence and poses lower abstract and critical thinking skills. Women are not expected to fulfill leadership roles (Sandberg, 2013).

The media sends strong cultural messages about what is appropriate for each sex role, traits and behaviors, and women are punished if they fail to meet the cultural expectations. Media messages are strong and influential and central to how women define themselves (Rhode, 1997). If women break the traditions of these roles, it can make them feel guilty. The media set barriers that limit women’s ability to reach their full potential, own their own destiny and have the confidence to develop and pursue goals (Hadary, & Henderson, 2013). Few people realize how much these media messages affect women’s opportunities for making their own decisions about what is fulfilling for them (Rhode, 1997).

A barrier that often occurs in the workplace is discrimination against women. Workplace discrimination is an unfair or unfavorable treatment based on gender (Godbole, 2011). Gender bias occurs because of personal values, perceptions, and outdated traditional values about women. Women are often placed into low paying, clerical, and administrative assistant jobs while men are placed into jobs that promote upward mobility and career advancement (Mayhew). Women who feel discriminated against may feel strong resentment, loss of self-worth, loss of motivation and morale to perform their jobs effectively (Gluck). This discrimination can be serious enough that a company that has a low number of females in executive positions can be sued for discrimination even if they have a large percentage of lower-level female employees (Bennett, 2014)

Sexism enters into the equation of lack of support for women leadership. Men often ignore women because they see them as sex objects and not as competent associates (Bushell, 1987) and do not believe that women have what it takes to be at the top management level (White, 1992). Men believe that women are not suited for upper management because they have mood swings, lack achievement orientation, and have low self-esteem. Males are of the opinion that women are too emotional, indecisive, deficient in qualitative skills, and career commitment, lazy, passive, ineffective, and lacking in interpersonal communication abilities (Rhode, 1997). Males fear female power, their talent, energy, sexuality, and competence is threatening. (Karsten, 1994).

Historically men have been dominant over women. Men have been and continue to be on top when it comes to holding leadership positions. Those who do not climb the social ladder are viewed as “wimps” by others (Karsten, 1994). Men are viewed as natural born leaders, while women have to prove over and over that they can lead (Valerio, 2011). Women can be competent to lead, but are many times disliked by their male counterparts as well as other females (Whelan, 2009). According to Branson in 2007, women communicate differently and because of this difference, women are viewed as lacking confidence and the assertiveness necessary to lead or be in senior management positions.

It is clearly evident that today there is inequality in leadership positions. Of the 195 independent countries around the world, there are only 17 countries led by a woman. According to the Fortune 500 in 2011 in the United States, 15.4% were corporate officers, 14.8% served on boards, 6.7% were top earners, and 18% were elected as congressional officials (Sandberg, 2013). These low numbers of success is due to many traits that women possess perpetrating their inequality (Rhode, 1997).

Social penalties occur to women who are leaders. Being professional, powerful, successful, and ambitious is a positive expectation from men, but is viewed negatively for women (Sandberg, 2013). What is considered assertive in men is viewed as being abrasive in women (Rhode, 1997). If a woman tries to be a leader she is oftentimes viewed as bossy, (Sandberg, 2013) power hungry, egotistical, selfish, and manipulative (Saujani, 2013).

Sexual harassment is unwelcomed sexual advances, requests for sexual behaviors, and other verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature. Sexual harassment includes performing sex favors to be hired, being promoted, receiving a pay raise, being dismissed from a job and experiencing unwelcoming and intimidating working conditions. Sexual harassment violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Women that experience this may be angry because they are exploited as sex objects, but may be afraid to speak up because they do not want to be labeled as troublemakers (Kleiman, 2007).

A hostile work environment focused towards a woman is unwelcomed and abusive (Sandberg, 2013) and many times they are afraid to speak up due to retributions. They do have the option to file a hostile environment claim if they can document the frequency, the total number of incidents, and that they told the harasser to stop. The employer will be liable if the female employee suffered a loss, are required to pay attorney fees, and remedy the situation through awarding back pay and reinstatement to a position if she lost her job.

However, this does not insure that she will not be victimized and be able to remain working in the environment, regardless of the level of employment she has achieved (Kleiman, 2007).

Resistance from other workers prevents women from going into leadership positions. A survey was conducted and found that 17% of employees prefer female bosses and 23% prefer male bosses and resistance is due to the fact that women can go overboard to exhibit their superiority (New Poll, 2013). There is resistance to female bosses because older women feel stigmatized by younger female leaders (Karsten, 1994). Both genders dislike women bosses more when they are successful (Sandberg, 2013). Females in leadership roles received fewer positive responses and more non-positive responses from employees than from males that offered the same input (Karsten, 1994).

Child rearing responsibilities are primarily considered the female’s role and women will often sacrifice anything for their family. Being the main caregiver of children can lower workforce participation due to children’s illnesses, physical care needs and social activities. Some women will postpone their upper management positions because they may depart from their jobs to bear children and the percentage of women over 40 who do not have children has nearly doubled in recent years (Branson, 2007). Child rearing has no economic value; part- time work is highly stigmatized and the woman can experience loss of status at work and feelings of isolation which can result in workforce shunning (Branson, 2007).

Fulfilling multiple family roles by women is a societal expectation. There is an assumption that women can have it all. The time and effort required for success in work compete with time and effort for satisfaction in the home (Rhode, 1997). Being in multiple family roles has been linked to better psychological well-being, life satisfaction, and self-acceptance, but the demands of the business world and the insensitivity of women to their own needs makes this difficult to achieve (Valerio, 2011).

Multiple home responsibilities can be overwhelming and distracting. A manager may not hire a perfectly good candidate for a job if she is torn between her home and job responsibilities (Gluck).

Marriage, not a career, is a choice that many women feel they must agree with. There are great levels of social pressure to get married. Therefore there is the viewpoint that minimal jobs and fewer responsibilities in a job situation can enhance the marriage. Women are constantly convinced of the belief that they cannot be committed to family and have a career (Sandberg, 2013).

The lack of confidence is feelings within one’s self that can be due to socialization and restrictive to success. Women’s lack of self-confidence can be enhanced and consequently they can feel inferior because of men’s attitude towards them (Bushell, 1987). Women are supposed to be “good girls”, not make waves, do whatever needs to be done without question, and not confront authority. If no one thinks that a woman can be a leader than it becomes more difficult to stay confident (Whelan, 2009).

Internalizing negative thinking can sabotage women’s leadership skills. The negative messages that women receive on a daily basis will build and they begin to internalize. Women begin to believe that it is wrong to be outspoken, more powerful than men, or aggressive in any way (Sandberg, 2011).

Many women underestimate their own potential and performance abilities and put themselves down before others can. If a woman is successful she is often ridiculed and must have had help or she just got lucky, causing her self-esteem and self-confidence to drop (Sandberg, 2013).

Aggressiveness and stubbornness is when women rub men the wrong way when they display masculine traits (Bushell, 1987). If a woman acts too aggressive, she is pushy and threatening. If she is too empathetic, she is too soft and not tough enough. If she acts like a man, people will dislike her (Valerio, 2011). The double blind dilemma occurs and women are “dammed if they do and damned if they do not” (Whelan, 2009).

Overachieving is a necessity for women to get ahead. Men are encouraged to boast about their accomplishments, but women are not. Even though women perform just effectively as men, they have to constantly prove their credibility and qualifications. This is a barrier to obtain important jobs, influence others, and get leadership positions in organizations. Many women feel that one mistake can ruin opportunities for advancement. They feel extra pressure to smile, be nice, and find ways to show disagreement in a more subtle manner (Valerio, 2011).

Women leaders find that they feel lonely at the top many times because there are so few female leaders at the top of management. They experience feeling of isolation to the degree that it can affect their performance and appear aloof, distinct, uninterested and cold. These results can drastically affect their performance level and many women do not seek top positions because of the feelings of loneliness (Whelan, 2009).

Women build their own internal barriers at the early stages of childhood by not volunteering and not raising their hand when they know they have the right answers. They do not expect to take leadership roles within their classroom, school environment, hold officer roles within clubs and organizations or be CEO’s of big corporations (Whelan, 2009).

Lack of determination to be successful can prevent women from being leaders. This lack of determination stems from cautious instincts and excessive doubts of their own abilities. Women conform to how they should behave and what they have to do to be successful while making decisions to please others instead of themselves (Saujani, 2013).

Society communicates to women that they must choose between living life and being a leader. Leadership brings large amounts of responsibility, long work hours, and interruptions when out to social events. The lack of living life can be unattractive to some and considered not worth the hassle (Sandberg, 2013).

Taking risks are alien to a woman’s nature. Women are taught to “play it safe” and that is why so few make it to the top or stay there. Women are afraid they will not excel or they take baby steps instead of big leaps. Women do not like to take risks because they are unsure if they have the current skills to get the job done (Sandberg, 2013).

Expectations get in the way for women and they hold too high a standard for themselves (Saujani, 2013). By holding high standards, many decide to forego the chance to show the courage to be a leader. Due to anxiety about if they are ready for a big challenge often leads to the insatiable quest for perfection, endless preparation, and the lack of desire before they even try for the leadership position.

Women are taught to take a passive role. They are encouraged to develop attitudes that they need to “wait their turn”, to know their proper place in society, and to hide their ambitions (Saujani, 2013).

Women have fear of failure (Denmark, & Paludi, 2008) and the fear obstructs their engagement in activities that are important to them and holds them back from admitting that they desire more. It is hard to be likable and ambitious at the same time (Saujani, 2013). They have fears about making the wrong choices, drawing negative attention to themselves, overreaching into areas they are not capable of handling, and speaking up too much (Sandberg, 2013).

There are many blocks to success that a woman encounters that hinders her professional growth and leadership abilities. Some of these blocks are historical within society, within herself or due to external factors. Regardless of the source of the blocks, women need to examine these blocks, develop self-awareness and remove those blocks to move towards success (Sandberg, 2013).

Lack of paid maternity leave can be a complex situation to handle. By nature being a woman comes with the decision of whether or not to bear children. When a woman gets pregnant she may not be covered by sick, or paid maternity leave offering no safety net of benefits. Approximately one half of Americans do not have paid sick time or maternity leave (Whelan, 2009). The Family Medical Leave Act was passed in 1993, but this only applies to women who can afford to take 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave. This excludes women who work for a small company that employ 50 or fewer workers or hold temporary jobs (Rhode, 1997). This legislation stipulates that women have to be a full-time worker and have worked for the company at least for one year and companies are not required to offer these benefits. Since January 2014 Obama Medical Health Care Coverage the rules have changed, however women must take the initiative to apply for the benefits and many opt to keep their own health care coverage which may not include paid maternity leave (Kleiman, 2007).

82.2% of single parent homes are run by women and single mothers often find it difficult to keep up with their responsibilities. Companies can feel the effect or have the impression that the woman’s job is suffering because of being a single parent (Whelan, 2009).

Quality and affordable childcare is lacking and difficult to find (Rhode, 1997) and consequently, many families depend upon family members or unlicensed providers. The lack of child care may limit women to obtain full-time work and resort to part-time work with more flexible hours, low pay, no benefits, and no opportunities for advancement in their career. Even if a woman has a full-time job, this lack of finding adequate care may result in feelings of guilt, stress, workplace absences and less satisfaction with their work life and their marriages (Rhode, 1997).

Women generally are viewed as the main care giver in any family. Therefore when the woman’s aging parent requires care, it falls onto her list of responsibilities. Lack of sufficient parental care is almost non-existent. Work environments usually involve long hours and there is limited support from family members (Wellington, 1998). Companies do not take into account the need for flexible work arrangements. Many men refuse to assume family responsibility; because they believe that they work hard enough outside the home without doing home chores and if one partner’s career has to suffer because of aging parents, it should not be theirs (Rhode, 1997).

A woman’s personal life can suffer if taking the responsibility of being a leader. Women are socialized with the belief that if a woman is working and successful, then she is so consumed by her career that she cannot have a personal life. She would never have the time for social events, family vacations, and romantic getaway (Sandberg, 2013).

Another barrier that hinders a woman from seeking leadership positions is unequal pay. The average pay for a woman is $31,900 annually and the average pay for a man is $39,700 annually even though they oftentimes are the same age, have the same education, hours of work, and are unionized (Whelan, 2009). The more education a woman has the greater disparity in her wages (10 Surprising Statistics on Women in the Workplace, 2010). Lily Ledbetter was a woman that advocated for equal pay because after working for the Goodyear plant as a manager for 19 years, she found that she earned less than the lowest paid man and she sued the company. This caused the passing of the Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act in 2009, which was an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, addressing unlawful employment practices (Ledbetter, 2012).

In the 1980’s approximately 50% of women graduated college and since then, the number of women with college degrees has slowly and steadily advanced. Women are entering more fields that have been previously dominated by men, but the percentage of women in corporate America has not changed. According to Fortune 500 in 2011, only 2.4% of women are CEO’s (Sandberg, 2013).

Mentors and sponsors are very important in higher level leadership positions. Anyone that wants to be an effective leader needs close guidance, advice and supervision. Oftentimes women do not desire or are unsuccessful in leadership because there is a lack of women mentors or sponsors that help advance careers, make connections (Saujani, 2013), give strategic advice, close a deal, handle personal problems, point out steps to reach goals, cut the red tape and obtain inside information (Branson, 2007). Finding adequate mentors and sponsors for women is a challenging task (Sandberg, 2013).

Change is a difficult aspect of life. If a woman wants to become a leader she needs to focus her life on reaching success by setting priorities on her time and surround herself with people who can support her to change. Her mindset wants to keep things status quo, with no changes and therefore no personal or professional growth can occur. She needs to look for support, reassurance, clarity and direction to strive forward (Saujani, 2013).

There is a lack of opportunity for female employees who have management potential (Wellington, 1998). 47% of women feel that they are not advancing because of lack of opportunity (Saujani, 2013). There is a lack of career planning, job experience, and successful planning for women because managers fail to account for advancing women. Managers are reluctant to give women life experience (Wellington, 1998) and women often have to work longer in a lower level position before advancing (Kelchner).

Sandbagging is forestalling for advancement and silently refusing to support co-workers. Other co-workers will purposely downplay a woman’s accomplishments, reduce credibility, sidetrack and curtail the careers of women who advance too quickly (Branson, 2007).

The new boss phenomenon is when employees point out a woman leader’s weaknesses by using stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. In many instances even though she has become the boss these factors contribute to her being fired within the first few months (Branson, 2007).

The glass ceiling is a barrier that exists where women cannot obtain prestigious jobs in a company. This occurs because there is an overlap between qualities that people associate with leadership and the qualities that people associate with masculinity (Hughes, Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012) and this is compounded by men claiming that the glass ceiling does not exist (Branson, 2007).

The glass cliff is when women are more likely to be hired than men for an organization. This sounds positive but this usually occurs when the organization is declining and therefore the woman appears to ultimately be the cause for the company’s failure (Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012).

Low social economic status is an intergenerational problem because of the lack of sufficient income to obtain adequate health, food, housing, safety and clothing that the rest of society can afford. Women in poverty find it difficult to obtain and maintain a sufficient standard of living. They are often unemployed or rely on social security and other services, and can live in remote areas and therefore stay caught in the poverty cycle. Many women work jobs, not careers, and focus on survival and supporting their families; not making career moves towards leadership positions (Branson, 2007).

Currently women lack the support of institutions and there are only a few organizations that recognize or promote women in leadership positions. There are plenty of opportunities for women to be leaders from a CEO level to service jobs. Even though historically women have shirked away from leadership situations, institutions need to provide the support for a woman to seize the opportunities (Ginnett, & Curphy, 2012).

Women can make excuses by blaming others for their lack of success. They need to do an inventory of their own action plan that must be detailed and on a timetable for completion to take steps towards becoming a leader. Women need to focus on identifying the blocks to success and turn those into positives by having self-awareness of their actions which inhibits their success (Kelchner).

Women must to buy into their own future and realize that with success comes change. They need to develop a broad vision as a leader having insight into the future. Women need to create a culture and environment conducive to breeding passion, enthusiasm, respect and integrity. Striving towards leading into the future can be challenging, but exciting (Kelchner).

It is women’s responsibility to accept being a leader and to take the initiative to improve conditions for not only themselves, but for their gender as a whole. When women take on stronger and more demanding leadership positions, then and only then, will women’s needs and wants be better expressed.

Works Cited 50 Reasons

Bennett, K. (2014, March 12). Female Discrimination in the Workplace. eHow. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://www.ehow.com/about_6676466_female-discrimination-workplace.html

Book, E. W. (2000). Why the best man for the job is a woman: the unique female qualities of Leadership. New York, NY: HarperBusiness.

Branson, D. M. (2007). No seat at the table how corporate governance and law keep women out of the boardroom. London: New York University Press.

Bushell, S. (1987). Paths to leadership: power through feminine dignity. Sedona, Ariz.: Aldebaran Press.

Chapman, J. (1993). Politics, feminism, and the reformation of gender. London: Routledge.

Denmark, F., & Paludi, M. A. (2008). Psychology of women handbook of issues and theories (2nd ed.). Westport, Conn.: Praeger.

Gluck, S. (n.d.). The Effects of Gender Discrimination in the Workplace. Small Business. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/effects-gender-discrimination-workplace-2860.html

Godbole, M. (September 21, 2011). Discrimination Against Women in the Workplace. Buzzle. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/discrimination-against-women-in-the-workplace.html

Goman, C. K. (n.d.). The Hidden Bias Against Women Leaders. Financial Post. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://www.financialpost.com/executive/hr/story.html?id2416505

Hadary, S., & Henderson, L. (2013). How women lead: 8 essential strategies successful women know. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Hughes, R. L., Ginnett, R. C., & Curphy, G. J. (2012). Leadership: enhancing the lessons of experience. Boston, Mass.: McGraw-Hill. (Original work published 1993)