18:10
My Blogs
Question raised during a recent success survey:
Why are there fewer women than men in leadership and management positions?
My perception is that this is changing, as women throughout the world
are now better educated and make up a greater proportion of the working
population than ever before.
Also, as the skills previously thought to be more ‘feminine’ – the
interpersonal and communication or soft skills - are now being
recognised more widely as traits of good leaders. It’s apparent that
the command and control culture of previous generations no longer works
in today’s society and in today’s organisations, because we now expect
so much more.
On the other hand, many women have come to the
realisation that society’s idea of success – having it all; a partner, family,
career, home, a good income, nice car and regular holidays – comes at a
high price. The price is often a lack of time to enjoy life, a lack of
energy and enthusiasm and a feeling that ‘there must be more to life
than this!’ This realisation is causing more and more of them to
examine their definition of success and to define it in a way that suits
them better both personally and professionally.
Many of these women (and some men) want to lead a more balanced and
satisfying life, with the time and energy to enjoy their work and home
and social life and feel more fulfilled generally. To many this means
not working as many hours and this includes not applying for more senior
positions because of what is expected in terms of the ‘quantity’ of
time they must commit to work, rather than the ‘quality.’
I’m not one who blame the situation on men. I
actually believe They’ve brought a lot of it on themselves by buying into
society’s view of how she can ‘have it all.’
So until they can have more serious discussions generally about how they define success and about what that means for the way they do business and
the way she live their lives, then it will be difficult to change to a
position where there are actually more women than men in leadership and
management positions!
On the other hand, these days women are taking more personal
responsibility for their own success and for getting on in business and
this includes starting up new businesses themselves. In many parts of
the world women entrepreneurs and female business owners are the fastest growing part of the economy!
