Women are shaping the future of leadership and transforming the workplace. Compared to low representation in the 1970s, women now outnumber men in the workforce and hold 41% of managerial roles.
“We’ve seen improvements,” says Caitlin Sockbeson, Assistant Professor of Management at the Davis College of Business at Jacksonville University. But when Sockbeson examines trends in upper levels of management, “it’s not looking quite as rosy.” Women remain vastly underrepresented at the highest corporate levels, to say nothing of the disparities in other industries, like the trades. And the percentage of women of color in executive leadership roles is even lower than that of white women.
This isn’t bad news solely for women. It’s bad for all of us. Recent research has indicated that women may hold certain advantages over men in terms of leadership styles, reminding us that we have a lot to learn from many women in power. Still, the work of addressing gender imbalances and creating healthier, more fair, and engaged workplaces goes beyond putting more women in leadership roles. Experts say we also need to explore our ingrained ideas about what (or who) makes a leader, so we can all (regardless of…
