Breaking the Glass Ceiling

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

~ Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

Greetings and Salutations Fellow Bloggers,

Today, I want to talk about a very important piece of the leadership ladder by addressing the fact that we often miss a few rungs.  We have firmly stated and restated and restated that leaders are not necessarily born.  We have addressed the fact that many personality types can make great leaders.  Then why do we exclude 52% of the population by holding them back from achieving leadership positions just because they were born with two "X" chromosomes?  Hey I'm a guy, so I get it!  Woman are more "emotional," women "take care" while us men "take charge!"  Yadda yadda yadda!  The fact is, not necessarily, and even if that were true, so what!? Leadership is not a one style fits all, nor is it a one sex fits all.  Women help make the rungs of that leadership ladder that much stronger.

From Cleopatra to Oprah Winfrey, women have been a quintessential part of developing human history.  Women have helped explorers find their way, created the Red Cross, paved the way in aviation, have been Pulitzer Prize winning authors, prime ministers of nations, helped free slaves, educated our society, and have even explored space!  This is not to mention all of the teachers, doctors, engineers, pilots, lawyers, politicians, judges, military personnel, scientists, CEO's, filmmakers, musicians, actresses, and inventors that have helped to shape our world as we know it.  So women can lead, and quite frankly, they do not need our permission!

However, something is not quite right with the world in the way we determine leaders in both the private and public sectors.  Women make up the majority, but receive only a scant amount of leadership roles in reality.  In fact, the higher the management position, the less of them there are. One idea behind this phenomena is that we as men are just outright prejudiced towards our female counterparts.  Another factor is that women sacrifice more to help raise families, and then are rewarded by missing out on the chance to show just how great they can be.

The problem is that women face the proverbial, but very real "glass ceiling" or have to negotiate the "leadership labyrinth."  What the heck is that, you might be saying to yourself.  It's best explained with an example.  If you are a woman reading this, and you decide to say have a child, and you take advantage of your absolute right to parental leave, you face the very real possibility of losing your job, coming back at lower/lesser position, or having to "reestablish" yourself within your place of work.  As men, we don't face that problem.  In the comic above, women who take advantage of leave also suffer a wage gap difference as compared to their male counterparts.
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Eleanor Tabi Haller-Jordan delves further into gender bias in her TedTalks video below:

So how do we solve the issue?  I don't have the magic wand to solve this issue, but I do have some ideas.  The very first thing we can do, especially as men, is understand that we have biases.  In order to do so, we need to challenge ourselves by role playing, asking tough questions of our beliefs, and to test ourselves.  One such test, the Gender-Leader Implicit Association helps one to identify their gender biases.  Another thing we could do is to go out and find potential female leaders.  Think about this.  Companies and public organizations make concerted efforts to go out and recruit minorities, but we often do not make the same concerted effort to find females to fit leadership positions.  Thirdly, we as men need to have an open mind and stop trying to compartmentalize what role in society women play.

What can women do to help solve this issue?  Again, no magic wand, but the first and most important thing is to know that you can be a leader.  It is not a man's role to tell a women that she can or cannot be a leader.  Like Eleanor Roosevelt said in the quote at the top, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."  Do not consent!  Another thing is to speak up!  Never sit there and "take it" out of fear of reprisal.  Susan B. Anthony did not "play along to get along," nor should you.  Truth be told, to really bring about the end of gender leadership discrimination, it's going to take both men and women working together to close that gap.  So let's you and I close it!

Well folks, this is the last topic related blog for my postings under "Building a Leader."  Next week will be my final post in this blog and I will sum it up and speak about what I learned and took away from it.  Also, we will finalize our leader and say what he/she would probably be like.  You might be surprised at the answer!

Until next week, take care of yourself!