Women have been in the news a lot lately, and while this article is not a reflection of what has been happening as the topic of sexual harassment has dominated the headlines, the reality is that we need more women in leadership positions in business. .
- According to the National Council of Women Entrepreneurs, women start their businesses with less capital than their male counterparts$75,000 versus $135,000.
- 32 women are executive directors of Fortune 500 companies.
- Women pay more than men for the same services and products, while earning less than men and have started to lose ground in pay. They pay more than men for dry cleaning, haircuts, razors, blouses versus men’s shirts, deodorants, etc.
- In 2017, women occupied only 6 percent of seats in the US Congress..
- Women made up 20.2 percent of board positions in Fortune 500 companies.
- and although women hold 51.5 percent of managerial positions In business, we know the reality is that men are typically reported to.
While progress has been made, most women would tell you; there is more that can and must be done to bring women to gender parity in business (and in life) with men.
I am someone who believes that in his business he has to be the best. I expect excellence, and I also seek to dominate in my industries. I have a “take no prisoners” style in business, and I believe that women (and the diversity of opinions and viewpoints they bring to my business) help us improve.
I also understand that in the tech industry, companies sometimes take advantage of cognitive diversity to keep offices full of men. But as a female entrepreneur, if business leaders want to crush the competition (and hey, who doesn’t want to be the one customers think of first?), then it’s essential to support women-led businesses and include gender diversity in the management and senior leadership of women.
Why bother making concerted strategic efforts to ensure gender parity in business, as well as being the right thing to do from a social perspective?
Well, because companies that have women in leadership positions perform better. That’s the short answer.
In a study on gender diversity commissioned by the Peterson Institute for International Economics and completed by Marcus Noland, Tyler Moran and Barbara Kotschwar stated: “The presence of women in corporate leadership is positively correlated with
firm features…”
I see it in my businesses. We get much better services for our partners because of the insight, job performance, and thinking that women (and diversity) bring to our corporate table.
- Year MSCI study found that companies with “strong female leadership generated a return on equity of 10.1% per year versus 7.4% for those without…”
- MIT studies found that the woman had a higher level of emotional intelligence and therefore can better understand the subtle context.
- Women outperform men at multitasking, as noted in a BMC Psychology articleand the reasons why is because they handle most of the work at home and at work.
- In a time of increased transparency by the public and customers, women have a lower tolerance for corporate practices that border on the unethical or illegal and are more likely to be whistleblowers.
Will more companies understand that recruiting women into leadership positions in business or investing in their startups will help them make more money and profits? Unfortunately, we do not know how things will develop in the next few years. I would like to think that male leaders have outgrown hiring people who are similar to us, in effect men, and that we are moving more towards gender parity. I am hopeful that the fire hose of information on the Internet and more studies targeting the strength of women in the workforce will help more companies understand what I have known for a long time. It is great to have women well represented in companies, even in leadership positions.