What we can do about the gender leadership gap
Conference Year
2024
Abstract
In the last 50 years, women have made significant gains towards equality in business, politics, and education. This congress has the highest percentage of women in history, more women are CEOs than ever in our nation's history, and women are graduating at nearly equal rates to men from medical school and law school. Although measurable gains have been made, inequality is still very present in each of these spheres. Two phenomenons often researched are the gender pay gap and the gender leadership gap.
The gender pay gap is the difference between the median income or men and women. In our country today, women make on average about 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Prior research by numerous scholars, but most notably harvard economist Claudia Goldin highlights the various reasons why the gender pay gap exists. Her research asserts that nearly no gender pay gap exists for recent college graduates. Men and women are equal in pay during their first job, however, as they age the gender pay gap increases dramatically. This is due to a host of reasons which includes the need for flexibility of schedule, choosing better benefits over pay, part-time work, unequal caregiving responsibilities, time out of the work force and many others. Most importantly the overwhelming point of the research is that while there are instances of blatant sexism that impact women, the gender pay gap is actually due in large part to the job pathways and choices women take.
The leadership gap is the disparity between the number of men and women in leadership positions. This is similar to the wage gap, but it does not take into account the salaries of those involved, it addresses the power women have at organizations and how it relates to their shaping the company. The leadership gap in our country is striking. While women earn more than 57% of degrees and 59% of masters degrees, they only make up a mere 5% of fortune 500 CEOs. Similarly, while women receive half of law degrees they make up only 19% of the equity partners at firms in this country. Women earn 49% of specialized master degrees and 38% MBAs, but make up only 10% of any top management position at S&P 1500 companies and hold only 19% of board seats of S&P 1500 companies. In politics, women account for only 28% of state legislatures, represent only 9 states as Governor, 23% of mayors, and only 19% of congress. (CITE)
Women in this country hold about 52% of all management and professional level jobs, but lag substantially behind their male counterparts in rising to the top ranks of leadership. While the issue seems dire, in order to understand how we can fix the leadership gap in the U.S., we need to get to the root causes of the issue. First by examining why the leadership gap is so important to correct. Then by understanding the typical pathways to leadership at a broad level for both men and women. Finally, examining these paths change between men and women over their lifetimes. With these facts in mind, we can then assess what we can do at the individual, family, community, and national levels to address the leadership gap in the United States.
Primary Faculty Mentor Name
Pramodita Sharma
Status
Undergraduate
Student College
Grossman School of Business
Program/Major
Business Administration
Primary Research Category
Professional Studies
What we can do about the gender leadership gap
In the last 50 years, women have made significant gains towards equality in business, politics, and education. This congress has the highest percentage of women in history, more women are CEOs than ever in our nation's history, and women are graduating at nearly equal rates to men from medical school and law school. Although measurable gains have been made, inequality is still very present in each of these spheres. Two phenomenons often researched are the gender pay gap and the gender leadership gap.
The gender pay gap is the difference between the median income or men and women. In our country today, women make on average about 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Prior research by numerous scholars, but most notably harvard economist Claudia Goldin highlights the various reasons why the gender pay gap exists. Her research asserts that nearly no gender pay gap exists for recent college graduates. Men and women are equal in pay during their first job, however, as they age the gender pay gap increases dramatically. This is due to a host of reasons which includes the need for flexibility of schedule, choosing better benefits over pay, part-time work, unequal caregiving responsibilities, time out of the work force and many others. Most importantly the overwhelming point of the research is that while there are instances of blatant sexism that impact women, the gender pay gap is actually due in large part to the job pathways and choices women take.
The leadership gap is the disparity between the number of men and women in leadership positions. This is similar to the wage gap, but it does not take into account the salaries of those involved, it addresses the power women have at organizations and how it relates to their shaping the company. The leadership gap in our country is striking. While women earn more than 57% of degrees and 59% of masters degrees, they only make up a mere 5% of fortune 500 CEOs. Similarly, while women receive half of law degrees they make up only 19% of the equity partners at firms in this country. Women earn 49% of specialized master degrees and 38% MBAs, but make up only 10% of any top management position at S&P 1500 companies and hold only 19% of board seats of S&P 1500 companies. In politics, women account for only 28% of state legislatures, represent only 9 states as Governor, 23% of mayors, and only 19% of congress. (CITE)
Women in this country hold about 52% of all management and professional level jobs, but lag substantially behind their male counterparts in rising to the top ranks of leadership. While the issue seems dire, in order to understand how we can fix the leadership gap in the U.S., we need to get to the root causes of the issue. First by examining why the leadership gap is so important to correct. Then by understanding the typical pathways to leadership at a broad level for both men and women. Finally, examining these paths change between men and women over their lifetimes. With these facts in mind, we can then assess what we can do at the individual, family, community, and national levels to address the leadership gap in the United States.