Women's History Month And The Need For More Male Allies

I am pleased to share my latest post to the SHRM blog.

This month, we focus on the contributions women have made, including in medicine, law, business, and literature.

But we must do more than recognize these contributions. We must acknowledge that, at least in the business world, the talent women offer is grossly under-utilized and painfully undervalued.

Late last year, a study on gender and leadership conducted jointly by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Co. was published. According to the study, women account for only 19% of the C-suite executives (based on responses from 132 companies).

The numbers are even more distressing if one focuses narrowly on Fortune 500 companies. The percentage of female CEOs dropped in 2016 to only 4-percent. Yes, 4% (even though women are approximately 50% of workforce).

Needless to say, women are grossly underrepresented at the top. And, that hurts women more directly but men too, because companies indisputably do better when there is gender (and other) diversity at the top.

On the same day as the study was released, the Wall Street Journal published an article written by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg "Women Are Leaning In—but They Face Pushback." As almost everyone knows, Sandberg wrote (3 years ago) the ground-breaking book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead.

When Sandberg wrote Lean In, she acknowledged the obstacles women who want to lead face. She chose to focus more heavily on how women can navigate these obstacles.

In her WSJ article, Sandberg focuses on the wall women hit when they lean in (a meme for "go for it if you want it.") Citing the McKinsey/LeanIn study, Sandberg states: "women who negotiate are 67% more likely than women who don't [negotiate] to receive feedback that their personal style is "intimidating," "too aggressive," or "bossy," and they are more likely to receive that kind of feedback than men who negotiate."

This is consistent with what Sandberg wrote in Lean In:

"She is very ambitious is not a compliment in our culture." "Men are continually applauded for being ambitious and powerful and successful, but women who display these same traits often pay a social penalty." "When a man is successful, he is liked by both men and women. When a woman is successful, people of both genders like her less." "But since women are expected to be concerned with others, when they advocate for themselves or point to their own value, both men and women react unfavorably." Sandberg's article is a...