Despite efforts to achieve equity in the workplace, professional women face barriers to becoming recognized leaders. According to a recent McKinsey report, professional women, especially of color, make up only a small fraction of senior leadership in organizations across the country. In fact, women hold only 21% of C-suite positions.
What are the barriers to women in leadership, and how can professional women overcome them? By leveraging their strengths and tapping into the right resources, professional women can tenaciously push ahead and build equitable work environments where they thrive.
Barriers to Female Leadership
In the last 50 years, professional women have jumped huge hurdles in the corporate world, advancing into top leadership positions even with the odds stacked against them. Nevertheless, persistent barriers regularly delay and obstruct their success.
Sexism
Sexism, veiled or overt, holds professional women back. Sexual harassment, inequitable work environments, and subtler forms of sexism place a huge burden on professional women working toward their goals. For example, when professional women constantly get interrupted or mistaken for administrative assistants at board meetings, it takes a mental toll that can stall their progress.
Deeply ingrained attitudes and biases against women keep professional women from getting their deserved respect and finding opportunities for advancement. The United States has yet to fully dismantle the social structures that favor men over women. As a result, professional women must confront incorrect assumptions and perceptions about their abilities and capacity for leadership.
While professionals tend to assume their male colleagues are competent, they less frequently afford their female colleagues the same good opinion. Professional women often deal with colleagues or supervisors who have low expectations of them or who discount them because of their gender.
Gender Bias and Stereotyping
Gender biases and stereotyping work against professional women鈥檚 leadership aspirations. Employers tend to interpret men鈥檚 assertive behavior in the workplace as strong, commanding, and direct, but when women display the same assertiveness, their employers often see them as aggressive, pushy, and shrill.
If a female professional鈥檚 behavior doesn鈥檛 align with gender stereotypes, then she often faces backlash. However, if her behavior jibes with traditional gender roles, such as being accommodating or looking out for the best interest of others before their own, she may risk coming across as less competitive than her male counterparts.
Less Assertive Tactics When Seeking Promotions
Perhaps women tend to use less assertive tactics when seeking promotions out of a concern they could encounter gender bias and stereotyping. Nonetheless, the failure to self-advocate a well-deserved raise or promotion slows professional women鈥檚 rise to higher levels of leadership.
Unfortunately, a lifetime of socialization that has taught women to seek perfection in themselves can also make professional women more averse to risk and therefore less pursuant of advancement. Unlike boys, whom adults typically teach to take risks and act bravely, society typically teaches girls to act cautiously.
In the article 鈥3 of the Most Common Challenges Women Face in Negotiations,鈥 researcher and expert in negotiations and management Mara Olekalns discusses her field study of women鈥檚 experiences in negotiations. She found that women often hesitate to push for career advancement, citing lack of confidence and fear of backlash.
Structural Barriers
Historical sexism and gender bias have resulted in structural barriers that serve as obstacles to women trying to climb the rungs of the corporate ladder.
Limited Access to Established Networks
Social activities, formal and informal, such as golf or happy hours, too often leave professional women out, not because women wouldn鈥檛 join but because men don鈥檛 invite them. In turn, professional women miss opportunities to build the rapport and relationships responsible for career advancement.
Professional women frequently experience limited access to established networks in which professional men often participate. This turns women into outsiders and hinders their ability to communicate, belong, and establish themselves as equals with their male colleagues and bosses.
Less Developed Female Leadership Networks
Men鈥檚 historical dominance in the workplace has resulted in less developed networks of female leaders. Such networks play a critical role in mentoring and sponsoring budding female talent. Some female leadership networks might offer formal presentations about strategies for following up in business, while others might feature casual get-togethers over wine during which professionals have a chance to build relationships and learn about one another鈥檚 businesses and how to help one another.
However, since women leaders are in a game of catch-up, rising professional women have fewer opportunities to get the same level of support from mentors and sponsors as their male counterparts do.
Family Responsibilities
Professional women often face significant challenges balancing work and family. Their family responsibilities can limit their ability to pursue leadership positions. That鈥檚 because despite the fact they have full-time jobs, they also frequently have the lion鈥檚 share of household responsibilities, such as caring for young, sick, or elderly family members.
According to the McKinsey report, since the onset of COVID-19, mothers in dual-career relationships (wherein both spouses work) are twice as likely as fathers in dual-career relationships to spend hours a day on chores.
Even though professional women with children at home tend to spend more time than fathers on household labor, they don鈥檛 necessarily have access to paid family leave or workplace flexibility. This imbalance affects professional women鈥檚 advancement and finances because it can require them to make personal sacrifices:
- Taking unpaid leave
- Downshifting their careers for needed flexibility
- Resigning from their positions to care for family members
Strategies to Address the Challenges
In the face of these barriers to female leadership, professional women can employ several strategies to help address the challenges.
Female Leadership Programs
Female leadership programs offer professional women supportive communities that allow them to network with others familiar with the unique challenges they face. Such programs give professional women greater insight into issues and offer them strategies and solutions.
For instance, a professional woman may lack confidence in her leadership style because it doesn鈥檛 match the model typical in her organization. However, after attending a female leadership program, she may get feedback from other participants who point out the value of her team-building methods and active listening techniques.
By discussing how to leverage certain leadership traits associated with women, such as leading through inspiration or showing empathy, female leadership programs teach women how to capitalize on their talents. In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, by adopting traits considered typical in female business leaders, male business leaders can add greater value to their organizations.
Mentorship and Sponsorship Programs
Mentorship and sponsorship programs are vital to professional women wanting to move ahead in their careers. Mentors share the tricks they鈥檝e learned along the way and model successful approaches. They offer confidence-building encouragement invaluable to professional women.
Sponsors 鈥 typically professionals in influential positions 鈥 use their influence on behalf of an up-and-coming fellow employee they believe in. They help their sponsees get high-stakes assignments that give them a chance to shine. They also advocate for professional women when coveted positions open.
Both sponsorships and mentorships empower professional women to grow, excel, and gain the visibility needed to move into the most senior-level leadership positions.
Effective Communication 亚色影库 Career Advancement Goals
Overcoming barriers to women in leadership calls for effective communication about career advancement. Professional women must learn to skillfully and consistently communicate their career advancement goals and desires to their supervisors. This may involve setting up meetings with their supervisors to discuss their careers.
Before such meetings, professional women should consider the following questions, for example:
- What are my short- and long-term career objectives?
- What are my strengths, and where do I have room to develop?
- What am I willing or not willing to do to achieve my career objectives?
During discussions with their supervisors, professional women should review their accomplishments, describe their visions, and ask for guidance and next steps to achieve the goals laid out.
Based on their impressions from the meetings, professional women can then develop personal strategies for advancing their careers. Perhaps that means researching other departments to see if they hold better opportunities or creating a solution to a problem in the organization.
Such communication helps change misconceptions about professional women鈥檚 ambitions and drive. It also opens an important dialogue about the needed steps to charge forward. Discussing career goals empowers professional women to direct their paths and reach their growth objectives by giving them a chance to deepen their relationships with supervisors and gain clarity about how to plan for the future.
In addition, effective communication about career goals allows professional women to get more frequent feedback and information about the actions needed to achieve their career objectives. When supervisors see focus goal-oriented employees, they are often inspired to champion their efforts.
Strategically Promoting Equity
Professional women can help eliminate barriers to their development by working with human resources and allies in leadership to influence company policies and promote equity.
For example, professional women can help form or join employee resource groups, or ERGs. ERGs discuss and strategize ways to create more equitable work environments that support employees.
An ERG can focus on improving conditions for workers or identifying and nurturing future leaders. ERGs can promote equity and influence policy decisions.
Collaborating with human resources and allies in leadership, professional women can work toward achieving policies key to creating more balance in the workplace.
Universal Paid Family Leave
Universal paid family leave means leave that鈥檚 equally available to new mothers and new fathers 鈥 and to employees at all levels. This evens out the playing field for professional women. If everyone has this benefit, no one is seen as more of a liability and expense.
Subsidized Child Care
Subsidized child care allows parents to make better choices for their families and gives women more support for staying in the workforce.
Family Leave Policies That Don鈥檛 Create Financial Penalties
Leave policies can easily have hidden costs such as lost bonuses or lost commissions. Policies that make adjustments to account for these issues help prevent women from taking on the brunt of financial losses due to family responsibilities.
Empower Yourself to Overcome Barriers to Female Leadership
Professional women often face obstacles on their journeys to success. Nonetheless, by tapping into leadership programs, cultivating relationships with mentors and sponsors, and learning to effectively advocate for their goals and needs, they can and do achieve their professional goals.
Explore how 亚色影库鈥檚 business programs prepare graduates to overcome barriers to female leadership and flourish in their careers.
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