Women in leadership: Two lessons from the global pandemic

By Merlin Francis.

Many women are entering the workforce thanks to changing perceptions on gender roles and improved access to education. But this is not necessarily reflected in senior management or leadership positions in organisations across the world.

The scenario is worse in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Despite having a significant number of graduates, women’s participation in the STEM workforce is a mere 14% in India. These numbers decline further as we go higher up the hierarchy as various pressures and circumstances force women to drop out at the mid-management levels.

According to the Egon Zehnder Board Diversity Tracker 2020, only 23.3% of board positions are held by women globally. Although there is a marginal increase from 2018 (when it was 20.4%), the report cautions, “Yet positive change also requires that women and other underrepresented candidates serve as leaders, not merely participants, on boards.” The study found that only 6.7% of all board seats were held by women in leadership roles.

There has been a gradual increase in these numbers of late. However, they are significantly disproportionate to the number of women in the workforce. Also, the ongoing pandemic threatens to regress much of the limited success women have achieved: be it in homes or workplaces. For instance, as businesses attempt to fight the pandemic’s impact, measures focussing on diversity will be put on the back burner as companies try to stay afloat. A study by Nature says that with schools shut and remote working becoming the norm, women published fewer research papers compared to pre-COVID-19 because their responsibilities increased. Studies also suggest that work-from-home moms spent significantly more time performing housework than dads.

However, the pandemic does provide two critical insights that can help us navigate the way forward: (a) equality needs to be at the heart of responses (b) and collaboration, and not competition, is what will help endure any crisis.

Equality

Making equality the heart of responses means businesses need to do more than merely appoint women as board members to tick policy adherence boxes. Diversity and inclusion need to be at the core of workforce policies and championed across hierarchies — especially at the leadership level.

We also need to acknowledge that stereotypes and subtle and not so subtle discriminations still exist across hierarchies. Unlearning centuries-old social conditioning cannot be done in a day. Interrupting women during conversations, sexist comments, mistaken perceptions on what a woman’s role in society is, and other unconscious biases that result in ‘mini-me’ hiring have become so ingrained that enabling gender diversity requires a sustained effort. An open mind that empathises with the varied experiences of people from diverse backgrounds is essential while training to unlearn the social conditioning.

Collaboration

We have learnt from the COVID-19 crisis that a collaborative approach is critical in an emergency. We saw how women brought in different perspectives and values that helped rein in the spread of the virus by bringing untraditional approaches to leadership — such as emotional intelligence or courage. A UN policy brief on COVID-19 described women’s leadership style as “more collective than individual, more collaborative than competitive and more coaching than commanding”.

Increasing mentorship opportunities for women, facilitating inclusive networking, and pausing to listen are the first steps towards making the work culture more collaborative. The Egon Zehnder Gender Diversity Tracker suggests that we need at least three women in a boardroom to significantly impact gender inclusion within an organisation. At the same time, we also need to address the many challenges that women face while attempting to achieve professional goals, including child and family care (unpaid, unaccounted for, and traditionally considered to be a woman’s responsibility), wage gap, attitudes on gender roles, and opportunities and avenues for networking that can enable more opportunities for women. This will not happen in a day or two but, only gradually, with sustained effort.

The campaign theme for the International Women’s Day is #ChoosetoChallenge. As we go about building a new world from the rubbles of the pandemic, let’s make use of this opportunity to challenge discrimination and exclusion to build a more equitable and inclusive world.

The author is Communication Officer at CSTEP.