The top five reasons to deny women roles of leadership!

 For what seems like forever, women have been denied the opportunity to take on the most senior levels of leadership in our society.  People have postulated any number of reasons to deny them of this privilege. 

The following are the top five, not in any particular order of importance.  Once you fully understand the rationale, it’s hard not to agree that we are fortunate indeed to have kept them out of offices of responsibility and influence.

 

1.   Women lack experience.  While that is true, the reality is that it is not for lack of trying but for lack of opportunity.  Men have successfully blocked attempts for women to infiltrate the upper echelons of the hierarchy. Private clubs or golf courses have historically been the ideal networking venues for men.  Women, on the other hand, have been serving in soup kitchens, supporting women’s shelters and aiding charities.  The disparities could hardly be more startling and the preparation for leadership more succinct.

Women continue to be under-represented on Boards of Directors, with North American numbers being under 25%.  Even worse, the number of women in executive positions is under 20%

The deck is stacked against them, and other minorities.  At current rates, it will take 50 years before boards and executive ranks reach full diversity.

2.   Women are underqualified. The reality is that almost 40% of MBA graduates are women and almost 50% of new enrolments are women.  These numbers have continued to grow over the past 20 years.  Interestingly the gender split in law and medicine is 50/50 and we have seen no degradation in the quality of service provided in either occupation. 

It is not that women have been tried in positions of responsibility and influence and been found unfit.  Rather it is a case that their fitness represented a threat to men and so it remains untried.

3.   Women are too emotional.  To this I have one word…testosterone. Case closed. 

4.   Women lack strength.  Tried childbirth… 

Leadership has nothing to do with physical strength.  Leadership is about character and mental fitness and women score higher in both categories.  Like all minorities, they have to work twice as hard as a man to be recognized in the workplace while continuing to carry an unequal burden of responsibility in the home.

The reality is that most men would revolt if they were expected to assume the weight of responsibility that most women endure every day.

5.   Women are poor negotiators. When all else fails, create a lie and keep repeating it.  In time it will become your truth.

The reality is that in order to even be considered for executive positions, women have had to navigate the minefield of male egos.  That has taken much more subtle negotiation than any male could achieve.

You need to understand that for women it is not an ‘either / or’ proposition.  More often it is a ‘both / and’ compromise that accomplishes more without destroying the other party.

 

The definition of an idiot is one who continues to fail doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.  On that basis we must all count ourselves idiots as we have perpetuated the myth that only a man can lead effectively.

I, for one, am done.  I am prepared to support a woman to lead a company, a city or a nation. It has been a century or more that most countries liberated women with the right to vote.  It is well past time that we move out of the way and support their right to lead.