Leadership and Gender

While the number of women in the workplace has increased drastically in the past few decades, women remain significantly underrepresented in leadership positions. Despite this underrepresentation, women’s educational and work attainments are remarkable: In the United States women earn almost 60% of bachelor’s and master’s degrees, they make up slightly greater than half of the labor force, and they occupy more than half of all professional and managerial positions. Yet a closer examination of the data reveals the very real gap that still exists in the highest organizational ranks. Women occupy a mere 4.6% of Fortune 500 chief executive officer (CEO) seats and represent only 2.8% of the CEOs and heads of boards of the largest companies in the European Union. The numbers are not ...