Women in Leadership

Women in Leadership

Introduction

Women leaders continue to face barriers when seeking positions in executive levels of leadership, and this imbalance in gender representation is of widespread concern. Wiley-Blackwell (2009) pointed out that although women have made strides in the business world, they still occupy fewer than 2% of CEO leadership positions in Fortune 500 companies. Dalton (2009) reported that the proportion of women leaders serving on Fortune 500 company boards increased only marginally from 12% in 2001 to 15% in 2007. According to Catalyst (2002), women held only 11% of the board seats at Fortune 1000 companies. This is a minute number when considering that half of American consumers are women. A recent report also disclosed that the number of director positions nationwide remained the same over the previous year, leaving the boardroom male-dominated.

Although women have progressed in many professional fields, education, and other work environments once considered to be male only positions, executive leadership positions remain elusive and out of reach for women. In many organizations, women comprised more than 50% of the staff, yet fewer than 2% of those organizations are lead by a woman (Thereon 2004). The dynamics that have enabled some women to progress into executive positions should be the focus of continuing study, yet research in this area remains lacking. Information and statistics about why there are only a few women considered CEO and boardroom qualified is non-existent.

According to Catalyst (2002), “women born at the end of the 19th century contended with limited access to education, few options for earning money, little control over when to have children, and no formal political voice”. It was not until 1920 that the State of Tennessee became the final state to ratify the 19th Amendment, giving all women the right to vote. During World War II, ...