Research Report Summary: The State Of Women In Leadership 2020

Prioritize the development of women leaders to help shatter the glass ceiling once and for all

Although we live in a modern and advanced world, when it comes to gender equality, we still have a long way to go. There are gender gaps everywhere, even in the views about women in leadership. About seven in ten U.S. women say too few women work in high political offices and in top executive business positions. However, only about half of U.S. men say the same. To better understand the degree to which organizations are employing women in leadership positions, HR.com’s HR Research Institute conducted an extensive study of HR professionals and produced a full report of insightful findings, The State Of Women In Leadership 2020.

Key Findings

• Women are under-represented in the leadership ranks, and leadership gender diversity is not usually a high priority.
• Companies do not typically have senior leaders outside of HR responsible for increasing gender diversity in the leadership ranks.
• A large majority of companies lack programs that advocate for women leaders, and many don’t have plans to build such programs in the future.
• Companies have few all-encompassing initiatives in place to narrow the gender diversity leadership gap.
• Most organizations are not formally communicating the importance of gender diversity or diversity-related findings.

A Look at Women Leaders Today

More than half of HR professionals (56%) say women represent somewhere between 0% to 30% of the organization’s leaders. Only 13% say women represent 61% or more of the leaders.

These findings suggest that women are under-represented in the leadership ranks, a situation commonly referred to as the “glass ceiling.” One reason for under-representation is that some women leave the workforce after having children. In fact, studies show that 43% of women with children leave their jobs^{1 2} or “off-ramp” for a period of time.^{3 4} This creates resume gaps, sometimes making it difficult to jump back into full-time leadership roles. Those that off-ramp may turn to part-time and low-paid jobs, making it less likely that they will funnel into leadership roles.
 

At the same time, studies also show that the percentage of women leaving the workforce after having children has not grown in years. Given that women represent nearly half (46.7%) of the overall workforce aged 25 and older, it seems likely that gender gaps among leadership ranks are at least partly based on some level of discrimination or bias.

“Women are not choosing to leave the workforce to raise their children; antiquated policies and unintentional discriminatory practices leave them no choice but to choose one over the other. Women in mid-career face the same challenges if they care for aging relatives. The demographics of the workforce have changed, yet our cultural constructs have not caught up because there is no real catalyst for those currently in power,” says Dr. Patti Fletcher, Chief Workplace Disrupter and Equity Advocate
A majority (55%) say less than 40% of high potentials (HiPos) are women, and only one-tenth says women are 61% or more of HiPos. Only 4% do not have any women who are high potentials at their organization.

When participants were asked to rate how much of a priority increasing or maintaining gender inclusion in the leadership ranks is to their CEO, about one-fifth (22%) say it is a very high priority and an equal proportion say it is a high priority (22%). Another one-fifth (22%) think it is a moderate priority. However, one-third of HR professionals say their CEOs are not focused on gender inclusion in the leadership ranks. Twenty-two percent indicate it is not a priority at all, and another 11% say it is somewhat of a priority.

Do Mandates Exist to Increase the Number of Women Leaders?

Only 24% of organizations have mandates to increase women leaders, and just 21% say the same for HiPos. This is consistent with the finding that many organizations do not hold managers accountable for increasing gender diversity in the leadership ranks.

Participants were asked to indicate the types of incentives in use to help increase the number of women in leadership roles. Most companies today are not incentivizing managers to promote more women into leadership positions at all (77%). Among those that do use incentives, they are most likely to leverage performance appraisal criteria (16%). Fewer incentivize via compensation increases (6%), rewards (5%) and/or bonuses (5%).

Do Companies Have Programs Advocating for Women Leaders?

Most HR professionals say their organizations lack programs that advocate for women leaders (68%), with only one-third saying these programs exist. From a business perspective, boosting the proportion of leaders who are women might have a positive financial impact.

Informal one-off events for women leaders (63%) are more common than formalized mentoring programs (48%). In addition, fewer companies use executive education (41%), formalized championing/advocacy programs (30%), entrepreneurship education/training (24%), and board-readiness programs (16%).

Considering that the leadership and HiPo ranks are not very gender-balanced in most organizations, unfortunately, HR professionals most commonly say they have no plans to add at least one leadership development initiative focused on or designed for women leaders (42%).

Only one-fifth plan to build one (19%), and 18% say they currently have initiatives in place at their organization. One-fifth does not know whether plans are underway. This could be partly because gender diversity is not promoted and prioritized at the top or communicated across the organization.

Do Organizations Evaluate Diversity Among Leadership and High Potential Pools?

The largest proportion (44%) says they do not track or evaluate gender diversity at all among these two groups. Typically, gender diversity in the leadership ranks is neither highly prioritized nor widely evaluated, so it is doubtful that most companies today set specific targets for improvement.

HR was asked to indicate the three activities that will help women attain and succeed in leadership positions. Nearly half (46%) say “leadership training for hiring managers and decision-makers” will help, and two-fifths cite “gender equity as part of the overall HR strategy” (39%).

Significantly, fewer participants think women need to change their personal and professional actions and behaviors to improve diversity in leadership. More than one-quarter say increased confidence (29%) and a greater ability to influence their careers (28%), while one-fifth say better personal branding and more ambition and willingness to aim high.

Benefit Programs and Impact on Women Leaders

More than two-thirds (67%) of companies offer flexible work schedules (i.e., any role outside of the traditional nine-to-five, five-day work week). Other studies show that many employees value flexible work. In fact, 92% of millennials identify flexibility as a top priority when job hunting, and 80% of women and 52% of men want flexibility in their next role.

Women with flexible work arrangements are more likely to return to work. However, continuing to take advantage of these arrangements can sometimes be frowned upon or even career damaging. This may be similarly true for women who take part in telecommuting (51%) and job sharing (15%).

Considering the life-changing social, emotional, and financial impact of a child, it is disappointing to learn that fewer than half of companies offer paid parental leave (47%). One potential reason for this is that some geographic regions mandate paid leave while others do not.

Benefits are also expensive and many companies are faced with the cost of having to hire a temporary replacement while not being certain the person on leave will return. It is possible that some of this uncertainty leads to bias that is brought into the performance review process, impacting women leaders and high potentials.

To learn much more about the survey results and insights into how organizations might become more successful at obtaining gender diversity in the leadership ranks, read the complete report.

 
Notes
¹Strauss, E. (2016, September 1). The number of women opting out of the workforce hasn’t changed over the past 30 Years. Slate. Retrieved from https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/09/the-number-of-women-opting-out-of-the-workforce-hasnt-changed-over-the-past-30-years.html 
²Valenti, D. (2018, October 22). Women most likely to leave labor force after first child, not later births. Princeton University. Retrieved from https://www.princeton.edu/news/2018/10/22/women-most-likely- leave-labor-force-after-first-child-not-later-births  
³Connolly, S., & Gregory, M. (2008, January 17). Women most likely to leave labor force after first child, not later births. The Economic Journal, 118 (526) F52-F76. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary. wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2007.02116.x  
⁴Chung, H. (2017, August 18). Want more women in top positions? Provide them with more flexibility at work. Phys.org. Retrieved from https ://phy s.org/news/2017-08-women-positions-flexibility.html
 

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