Women leadership, biases and biology

Came across this interesting research which shows that women are better than men in a vast majority of leadership competencies measured - Research: Women Score Higher Than Men in Most Leadership Skills (hbr.org)

The summary of the study is in fact misleading, stating that women are every bit as effective as men. Wrong. By this data, statistically, women are clearly better and more effective than men in every competency measured except two where very marginally men are better. 

The study points out another interesting aspect where women rate themselves much lower. This is no surprise to me, as I know people of my gender are masters at doing this. We constantly tell ourselves to be humble and firmly believe that there are many ways of doing the right thing or getting a job done. This somehow gives the idea to the other gender that we are indecisive or lack the capability to take immediate and rash decisions as they mostly do. We do lack the arrogance that our male counterparts seem to be born with and that society loves to encourage in men starting right after their birth!

A woman achieving success in a corporate environment is a mix of sheer hard work (many times more than men), talent (needs to be proved constantly to compete with men and there is no scope for errors at all), and multitasking like a super human being (you have no idea!). All this while fighting biases continuously, tackling them from subordinates and superiors. 

As the research tries to explore, why do most women step out of the race? Many times they are forced to! Senior leaders, men mostly and some women, are very united in their thoughts to not allow a woman to be elected into senior positions. Or at a certain point the women give up the fight. In spite of all the hard work, who would want to deal with constant pressures and biases and bad mouthing by colleagues for no reason except that she is a threat? 

After all this throw in biology. If the woman wants a family, she is doomed. Please don't try to give me the far and few examples of some women who have made it while also raising a family. They are a rare exception and the other 99.9% of women are proof of this. Women work with guilt all the time if they have kids. They plan their work while at home and plan other home errands while at work too. This is a superhuman requirement that only seems to affect women. Men are never expected to do this and they would never be bothered even if someone expects them to. 

This post - Why Women Do the Household Worrying - The New York Times (nytimes.com) - regarding the mental load for women to bear is very interesting and bang on. Cognitive labor divided into four parts - anticipate, identify, decide and monitor is solely left to women in most cases. 

Women also deal with fluctuating hormones everyday (menstrual cycle), pregnancies, menopause and many other hormonal problems at different stages of life. These are amazing statistics that in spite of all this, women shine in leadership skills. Kudos to all the exceptional women in any level of professional career and relationship status. What you all do is completely exceptional and magical!

#women #leadership #cognitivelabor #equalparenting #mothers #men