Women and Leadership

Women & Leadership

1. Introduction

Despite years of progress by women in the workforce (they now occupy more than 40% of all managerial positions in the United States); within the C-suite they remain as rare as hens' teeth. Consider the most highly paid executives of Fortune 500 companies and the composition of women

15% of boards of directors

6% with titles-Chairman, President, CEO

2% of CEOs

Consider comments made by President Richard Nixon, When explaining why he would not appoint a woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, Nixon said,

"I don't think a woman should be in any government. Men are erratic and emotional, too, but the point is a woman is more likely to be."

– Richard Nixon

In a culture where such opinions were widely held, women had virtually no chance of attaining influential leadership roles. The fact that there have been female chief executives, university presidents, state governors, and presidents of nations gives the lie to that charge.

In truth, women are not turned away only as they reach the penultimate stage of a distinguished career. They disappear in various numbers at many points leading up to that stage.

2. Global Leadership

The following two charts show the number of the 100 most powerful women globally as of August, 2009 (Forbes, 2009). Women in leadership holding positions of power command 63 percent in the United States. The remaining 28 countries hold 37 positions. These statistics are encouraging for American women. Globally, there is much work to be done in the area of educating women and men that women are competent to hold positions of leadership. The women in the report direct countries, large companies or influential nonprofit organizations with a combination of visibility by press exposure and the size of the organization or country led by these influential women. These power women are not waiting for consent to lead. They are leading.

3. The Centered Leadership Model

From research and interviews, Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston, have created a leadership model, mainly focused on women, consisting of five interrelated yet wide-ranging dimensions. They are as follows:

• Meaning – finding one's strengths and putting them to work in the service of an inspiring purpose. Meaning inspires and guides women leaders.

• Managing energy – knowing where one's energy comes from, where it goes and what you can do to manage it.

• Positive framing – adopting a more constructive