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Why Female Leadership Under-Representation Matters

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated.

Maya Angelou, poet

Decades of research and studies show that women leaders help increase productivity, enhance fairness, and improve collaboration.

Knowing this, why are there not more women in higher levels of leadership?

When more women are in leadership roles, organizations experience a direct correlation to organizational improvement and growth. Research also shows that companies with more women in leadership have greater innovation, healthier cultures, and stronger performance.

An old advertisement slogan touts that, “We’ve come a long way, baby.” I would add that we have a long way to go. At a time when companies should be doubling down on their efforts, indications show just the opposite.

Women make up more than half of the US population, at 50.5 percent. Yet, according to a McKinsey& Company study from 2024, women are significantly underrepresented, starting at the senior manager/director level up to the C-suite level. The C-suite level includes CEO, CFO, CHRO, CMO, CAO, and CIO positions. Examples of C-Suite definitions are: Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Chief Administrative Officer/Chief Accounting Officer (CAO), and/or the Chief Information Officer (CIO).

The director level feeds placement up the chain to the C-suite opportunities. This same study found that women were still just as driven for career growth at these levels but on their own terms.

At the current rate of progress, it will take almost fifty years for women in corporate America to reach parity. That is if companies in the US continue substantial efforts and progress in this area.1

The research bears out that performance bias exists throughout organizations. Men are typically promoted based on their perceived potential, while women are typically promoted based on what they have already accomplished.2 Further breakdown by McKinsey Study (numbers are rounded).

In 2023, thirty-seven of the top fifty companies’ CEOs were white men. In 2023, the CEOs of the top fifty Fortune 500 companies included six white women, one Hispanic/Latino man, one Hispanic/Latino woman, three South Asian men, one black man, and one black woman.3

A further breakdown by the McKinsey study can be seen below (numbers are rounded):

If you are a woman of color or LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer questioning, intersex, and/or asexual), it is even worse. The McKinsey study had one