With a growing number of prominent companies such as IBM, General Motors, and Mondelez International appointing female CEOs as CEOs, the trend of women being appointed to leadership positions appears to be increasing. In reality, there are more women who run Fortune 500 businesses today than at any time in the history of 63 years of Fortune 500.
But, in the context of 6.4 percent of these top companies. With recent news stories about the BBC’s gender pay gap as well as stories of female entrepreneurs citing the imaginary co-founder of a male for credibility, it’s evident that women’s inequalities remain an enormous business issue.
Benefits Of Women In Business
An inclusive workforce makes an innovative one.
Diversity–from gender to culture age, race and gender–has been proven to increase creativity and creativity. From PricewaterhouseCooper to Disney and L’Oreal, organizations across industries are seeking to prioritize and benefit from a diverse and inclusive work environment.
Both genders will have different backgrounds and experiences that influence the way they conduct business. Engaging with each other and working with those who have different perspectives can spur creativity and help to develop new ideas that push companies ahead.
1. Women excel in soft skills necessary to be successful business leaders.
While technical expertise and understanding are crucial to success in the workplace CEOs frequently mention soft skills as their most desired professional qualities. Even though traits such as efficient communication, empathy, and self-awareness can be difficult to quantify but they are highly sought-after and can make a significant impact on the overall performance of the company. Recent research has revealed an association between strong character and the performance of businesses, with CEOs who are ranked highly in areas such as compassion and integrity also achieving an average of 9.35 percent return on their assets over a two-year period.
Women have enormous economic power and can provide important insight into the purchasing habits of consumers
It’s been estimated that females contribute more than $20 trillion in spending each year, which is an increase in growth rate that is greater than China and India together. Women are also responsible for 85 percent of all consumer purchases.
Leveraging the wisdom that females and males have will make your items and products more attractive to consumers and also make a business more profitable. In fact, research by McKinsey indicates that businesses with gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to perform better than the industry average.
Women’s Business Challenges
1. Women are not represented in key areas.
Although a variety of sectors are showing signs of a more female-dominated workforce, certain sectors such as engineering, finance, and tech continue to be heavily male-dominated. In STEM (science technology engineering, mathematics, and science) fields females make up only 24 percent of the total workforce in U.S. and less than 15 percent of the workforce in the U.K.
2. Workplace gender bias
Although most executives agree that the most qualified person, regardless of gender, should be chosen for the job but the evidence of women who have greater success when they have the name of a man or gender neutral on their resumes proves that biases are still present.
Women who are or are looking to get themselves in for leadership positions often feel they’re under attention. While men are often instilled to be ambitious as well as assertive, women have been taught from an early age to appear “bossy”. Underlying gender bias means the same behavior and characteristics–initiative, passion, and taking charge–can be interpreted differently in men and women in business events.
3. Women aren’t as successful in the field of the negotiation of salary
Women’s reluctance to request greater pay is often mentioned as the reason for this gender gap in pay. When Glassdoor conducted a recent poll about salary negotiation, they discovered that women accounted for 68% who agreed to the amount they were offered.
In contrast, almost half of the men who were surveyed had negotiated prior to accepting a position. Additionally, for women who did attempt to negotiate their pay, the results were more or less unfavorable.
The idea that women don’t request raises, a study in 2016 by Cass Business School, the University of Warwick, and the University of Wisconsin, found that women are just much as males for a raise in their pay. However, they’re 25 percent less likely to be granted one.
Women’s Business Opportunities For Women
1. Gender equality and inclusion becoming a matter of policy
In many forward-thinking companies gender equality is now an issue of policy, whether that’s making a commitment to a gender-neutral representation of women on the board or the hiring of diversity officers.
2. Entrepreneurship as a pathway to leadership
With a rising number of women, the fastest path to the executive level is to start their own company. Within the United States, the number owned by women has increased by 74% over the last 20 years–1.5 times more than the average national. In today’s startup culture, women are empowered to run their own businesses and earn their own wages and decide how they wish to work making the balance between career and family life much easier.
3. Building your credentials through the business degree
To be noticed in a competitive work market, many of us acquire the expertise and skills we need in business school. The number of women enrolled in business schools is growing. It doesn’t matter if it’s an undergraduate degree or the MBA, EMBA, or Masters’s degree Business schools provide an excellent opportunity for women to develop their expertise in their field and develop leadership skills and build the confidence needed to enter the boardroom.
The business school also provides an ideal networking event and an opportunity to meet mentors in the form of professors, students, and even campus speakers. Mentors can provide professional advice and act as an inspiration for new ideas. Mentors are also career coaches, offering professional opportunities, and assisting skilled and talented women climb the next step of the ladder of success.
