Essay: Female representation versus male representation

Female representation versus male representation across society has been an ongoing, and prevalent issue for many years. The gender wage gap and job discrimination between females and males has been and continues to be an unresolved problem that doesn’t seem to be disappearing anytime soon. Although breakthroughs in women’s roles have been made, the standards in society that women hold are still far from the standards that men attain. Over the years this gender gap issue has been very prominent in CEO leadership roles. A new NBC news article titled, “Female CEOs gained ground in 2018 but still trail their male peers”, states that even the nation’s biggest companies contained a gap between women and men in the C-suite positions which remains to be extremely pronounced. Fewer than 5 percent of the Fortune 500 companies are run by women and these same companies, in fact, actually saw a 25 percent drop in female CEOs in the past year. The author of this article, Martha White, describes that despite this, there has still been advancement in the representation of women across the field. White explains that the annual women CEO report indicates that over 22 percent of new CEO positions were filled by women, and just in the past year 175 women replaced male CEOs, and 89 women had replaced previous female CEOs.
Ahrens, Jan-Phillip. “Gender Disparity in the C-Suite: Do Male and Female CEOs Differ in How They Reached the Top?” NeuroImage, Academic Press, 9 Oct. 2013.
This book, written by Ahrens, describes the scarcity of women in CEO positions across the country and exemplifies that the number of women in C-suite businesses is slowly progressing. The source describes that many leadership positions are given based off of intellectual segregation of gender. Due to this, there is a lack of diversity in leadership positions in many conducted studies. Ahrens further explains that the reason for the difference in the male to female CEO ratio is because effective leadership is often defined by the ability of certain individuals to influence groups of people. In the case of women, women’s abilities are seen to be limited from influencing different types of behaviors onto groups of people. Women can sometimes be seen as too feminine in their leadership positions or seem to be seen as too masculine, which further deters their capabilities to uphold such leadership positions. Capital can also limit women, because many women lacks experience which can cause setbacks in their careers, inhibiting them from further progressing in their career paths. Since there is no actual formal process for hiring people in these positions, Ahrens describes that many employers use stereotypes and personal bias in deciding who gets the leadership positions, and thus females don’t end up being able to get equal opportunity to men. These women also don’t often succeed in these positions because they are always given risky leadership positions since they are “seen” to handle high crisis situations better than males as perceived by many employers.
This source is credible because it provides many sources of where the statistical information is coming from and was written by a credible writer who has done much research on this topic. Jan-Philipp Ahrens got his doctoral degree from the University of Mannheim and completed the Berlin Doctoral program of Economics and Management Science. Ahrens then joined the German Federal Ministry of Finance in Berlin as a political advisor in business restructuring. Ahrens dissertations and articles have multiple international peer-reviewed awards, and he has written many articles about business leadership and management. This source was chosen because it states with information and credibility, why there is such a difference between the number of males and female CEOs. This source is helpful because it shows examples of how female CEOs are getting treated differently from male CEOs, and how the way that they are perceived by others effects how far they can reach in such leadership positions. This book contributes to the idea that females are in fact treated differently in CEO leadership positions and explains how women are purposely denied the ability to grow and take on the responsibilities of a CEO, based largely on their gender, and their gender stereotypes. Ahrens criticism and informative book helps my research because it provides many details and the possible different reasons that answer my question as to why there exists drastically so many fewer females in CEO leadership positions than males, and how these roles are changing as time progresses.
Headley, CW. “Study: Women CEOs Are More Likely to Face Termination than Men.” Ladders | Business News & Career Advice, Ladders | Business News & Career Advice, 1 Feb. 2019.
Headley describes that between 2000 and 2014, a study publishes by Journal Management stated that there had been 641 CEO dismissals and out of those women CEOs were 45 percent more likely to be dismissed than male CEOs. Headley explains that both males and females were fired if the company was not performing well but when the company was performing well more women CEOs were consistently dismissed. Some of the reasons that women were found to be dismissed more was because they were said to be too intimidating, aggressive or bossy. Most female CEOs are not liked by companies and thus they are always in jeopardy of losing their jobs as CEOs or in high ranked leadership positions.
Headley is a reporter who uses current studies to talk about the prevalent issues in the gender gap that female CEOs face as compared to male CEOs. Headley has written multiple articles which have been reviewed about gender and wage gap. This source is credible because it directly links in studies used to justify major points. Headley uses new studies to discuss and mention why female CEOs are at risk more than men and how that plays a role in why there are more male CEOs than female CEOs and females in leadership positions. The views in this article correlate with the views in Ahrens article and Mohans article because they both also describe that one of the reasons that women are not as successful in attaining CEO leadership positions is due to the fact that they are more likely to face termination, especially if they are newer to the positions.
Landmann, Andreas. “Gender Preferences in the CEO Successions of Family Firms: Family Characteristics and Human Capital of the Successor.” NeuroImage, Academic Press, 28 Apr. 2015.
Landmann explains that in American Family Businesses, female leadership levels are still slow and a minority, but their representation as CEOs in family businesses has increased over the years. The journal describes that in 2010 the American Family Businesses Survey highlighted that female leadership is slowly becoming prevalent in family firms. The survey also stated that 24 percent of family businesses had reported that they had female CEOs and presidents and 31 percent said that they might have a female successor but, considering the number of males as CEOs in family businesses women would continue to represent a minority. Landmann describes that recent writings on parental gender preferences states that the fathers still favor their sons over their daughters, and thus daughters are not given such high, or any leadership positions in comparison to their brothers. The journal shows that gender preferences in family businesses leads to the success of the business, and since mostly males are chosen as the successors, success of businesses is tied with male figures. This source further explains that the reason for the constraints for female labor is due to gender bias, where the capabilities of females are overlooked. The daughters of predecessors feel as though they are less apparent as compared to their brothers, which motivates them to do more to demonstrate their abilities to their parents. Landmann uses a study based on 40 interviews of Californian family businesses to evaluate the idea that the management abilities of the family’s daughters are always underutilized despite them having proper management experience and education, and thus they have to continuously prove themselves to be competent workers.
Dr. Andreas Landmann is the junior Professor of Development Economics at the University of Göttingen Faculty of Business and Economics. Landmann studied economics with a focus on development economics and applied economics at the University of Mannheim and at the University of Toronto. He completed his doctoral studies at the University of Mannheim. Landmann was also a research fellow at the Paris School of Economics in France, and currently serves as an evaluation expert in German development projects. This source is credible because the Landmann is a writer who conducts research supported by various studies, which he also references in the text to proves and establish his statements and claims, while simultaneously backing them with numerical data. This source was chosen because I find it interesting how even in family businesses if a new CEO had to be chosen it was most often the male heir that received the position rather than any female who was equally as qualified, and sometimes even first in line to have that position. This source really shed a light on how different parts of the business world have similar and different views on why such gender gaps exist and how they affect female CEO, and leadership positions in these respective companies and businesses on a much broader scale, and what this means for women and men currently and in the future. This source is helpful with my research because Landmann further breaks down the overall idea presented by Ahrens about the causes of gender gaps in CEO leadership roles and focuses on the problems that female CEOs in leadership roles face in a more centralized and specific business type: The American family businesses.
Mohan, Nate. “Compensation Differences between Male and Female CEOs for Publicly Traded Firms: A Nonparametric Analysis” Journal of the Operational Research Society. Pergamon Press., 2015.
This source describes how gender is used to determine the wages for many corporate executives pays. The journal shows that the average pay for men is around ten times more than that for women. It also explains that the lack of evidence there is between why female CEOs get paid less is because there is a lack of evidence about salary differences and thus the wage gap problem has not been resolved or taken steps forward to be closer to being resolved. The journal states that although females have the same experience and sales, they still get a lower compensation for men due to gender bias and gender inequality. Mohan writes that the percentage of women who were CEOs, Chairs and Vice-Chairs, were less than 1 percent, and the ratio of pay between these women and men was marginally significant. Mohan explains that a study by Judith Oakley explains that women face hurdles such as lack of training programs and experience because it is more difficult for them to get these positions to begin with. The female leadership style does not fit within a traditional male CEO style, and even if a female passed all other hurdles she would still be seen as less capable as any male applying for the same position.
Mohan received his master’s Degree in Economics and has a special focus in gender wage gap. This source describes, in detail, many of the ways that women are purposely set inequivalent to men and how that is detrimental to their lives since it is one of the major reasons for the wage gap that they have to face. The reason this source was chosen is because it further exemplifies the unequal treatment between female and male CEOs and positions in power, and how factors like the wage gap are another issue in why there exists a minority of females in leadership positions. This source is useful in my research because it relates to Mook’s article explaining how the wage gap further hinders the ability for women to pursue leadership roles and how once they do they are still unequal to their male counterparts. This article also relates to Ahrens article because they both state that women are mostly given risky leadership goals and are more inclined to be removed from their leadership positions than men are.
Mook, Magdalena Nowicka. “The Nonprofit Gender Gap: How To Get The Female Leadership You Need.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 14 Feb. 2019.
One of the problems that many women face today is that they are not given equal representation and credit in leadership positions. Currently, Forbes has just released an article that describes the differences of female leadership in nonprofit organizations. Forbes states that even in top-tier nonprofit organizations, women that earn raises averages to 4.9%, whereas men are receiving an increase of 8.4%. In this article Mook explains that the gender gap in workplaces is decreasing. but the decrease is very slow especially when it comes to leadership roles. Mook specifically talks about non-profit organizations. She states that although majority of the workers in nonprofits are female there is still a gap in the salaries that men and women get. The gap is not due t the shortage of women who want to acquire a leadership role, rather a research by The Chronicle of Philanthropy states that 72 percent of women under 35, and 64 percent of women between 35 to 44 wanted to hold leadership positions. Mook writes that investing in women’s professional growth can help reduce the gender gap and allow women to use their full potential in leadership positions. One way that the problem of the gender gap in leadership roles between men and women can be resolved is through leadership coaching of women. Mook explains that a professional coach can help women strengthen their leadership skills, and self-awareness. By providing educational workshops and seminars organizations can understand the gender gap in nonprofits and invite more women to speak about their leadership experiences.
Mook is an Executive Director and CEO of the International Coach Federation, she has a Master of Science in Economics and International Trade from the Warsaw School of Economics in Poland and completed the Copenhagen Business Schools Advanced Program in International Management and Consulting. Mook also is a trained coach through the College of Executive Coaching. This source is helpful in my research because like Landmanns article this article focuses on another type of business. Mook writes about nonprofits and how in this type of business there is still gender gaps and preferences over one gender to have as CEO and fulfill leadership roles. This article also falls under Ahrens article, going further in detail how some specific business further have to deal with gender gap issues. This article is specifically helpful in my research because it references problems with women in leadership positions in nonprofits, but it also proves information on how these nonprofits are dealing with the unequal ratio of men to female CEO ratios, and how these nonprofit organizations are attempting to further decrease the gap.