| This interactive discussion focused on four central issues facing women and their organizations:
1. Glass Ceilings – A general term describing the barriers women face in achieving the highest levels of leadership. In 2019, only 6.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women and only one is a black woman, Mary Winston of the BBB.
2. Broken Rungs – The reality that the first step to a manager position is sometimes a big obstacle and therefore the long-term leadership career path for women is “broken” early on. According to a study conducted by McKinsey and LeanIn.org, for every 100 men who receive their first promotion, only 72 women achieve similar promotions. This makes it difficult for women to catch up to men at senior levels of leadership.
3. Glass Cliffs – Describing a situation where often when achieve a leadership position in an organization when it is in crisis and therefore the risk of failure is high. Examples of this
4. Glass Slippers – The “Think Leader – Think Male” phenomenon where it is assumed that leadership traits like “strong” and “competent” belong to men. This is also exemplified by an analysis of 81,000 performance evaluations where it was shown that managers use more positive words to describe men and more negative ones to describe women.
These issues can impact the bottom line – economic studies have proven that organizations can see a 15% net profit increase when at least 30% of leadership includes women as CEO, in board seats, or in other C-suite roles.
What is the root source of glass ceilings, cliffs, slippers, and broken rungs for women:
Extreme perceptions – either “too soft” or “too tough,” never “just right.”
- Higher competence threshold – have to be twice as good to get half the credit.
- Competent or disliked – perceived as competent OR liked, but rarely both.
What are strategies to buffer against these problems:
Dr. Bonomi provided five specific strategies people and organizations can use to reduce the influence of implicit bias:
1. Stereotype replacement – Recognize when you have stereotypic thoughts, such as “Men are better able to lead the country” and label it. Then identify what caused you to have the stereotype and challenge the fairness of it. Then replace it with a non-stereotypic response, such as, “I know that training and experience, rather than gender, are the main determinants of leader competence.”
2. Counter-stereotypic imaging – Begin to change your response by imagining a counter-stereotypic figure in detail.
3. Individuating (vs. Generalizing) – Avoid making a snap decision based on a stereotype. Instead get more information about the person. And practice making situational attributions rather than dispositional attributions.
4. Perspective-taking – Take time to adopt the perspective (in the first person) of a member of the stigmatized group. Imagine what it would be like to have your abilities called into question or be viewed as less committed to your career than colleagues with similar training and effort.
5. Increasing opportunities for contact – Seek out opportunities for greater interaction with counter-stereotypic people.
In addition, there are opportunities for organizations to focus on creating formal and informal networking spaces and professional development opportunities and cultivating and supporting women in leadership roles.
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