By Sabine Ebanks, Y10
Sabine had planned on hosting a conference on the 26th of March to present her passion project but due to the closure of the school, that was not possible. Instead, she wrote some of it below:
Only 6.6% of the world’s 500 most valuable companies were led by women in 2019. This isn’t an issue that only exists in the developing world, as many other women’s rights issues are often dismissed. It’s something that is also present in the most advanced companies on the entire planet. Only 17% of European senior executives were women in 2019, despite making up nearly 50% of the workforce. There are far too few women in positions of global power, and it’s time we addressed it.
These statistics were the basis of my passion project, which I chose to do on women in positions of leadership and how they are seen by society. As part of the project, I interviewed ten women for their thoughts, experiences, and beliefs on the issue of female leaders:
- Ebba Lepage, Head of Corporate Sustainability at Lombard Odier
- Katie Hall, Head of Media at the International Trade Center
- Vanessa Erogbogbo, Head of SheTrades at the International Trade Center
- Julie Bindel, feminist activist
- Sanjukta Sharma, Head of Student Life for Years 9-11 at LGB
- Deepti Kandhol, Engineer at CERN
- Patricia Danzi, former Regional Director of Africa at the ICRC
- Hanan Ezzeldin, founder of Amal Adult Education Program
- Marie Oh Huber, General Counsel eBay
- Hortensia Cid, Head of World Languages Department at LGB
Here is what I discovered. In my search for answers, I found many explanations for why fewer women are in leadership positions when compared to men. Ms. Bindel summarised them almost perfectly by saying, “the men talk louder, they’re listened to, they have more confidence, entitlement. They don’t have babies. They’re usually not carers.” Many of the women I interviewed said the way society raises women holds them back, that women aren’t being raised to be forceful leaders but instead to be more passive and supportive figures. There were also those who argued that broader discrimination against women in the world leads to fewer women in leadership. “Gender discrimination starts from home. You can see men not cooking, not working. It’s the female who, even if she works, cleans the house,” Ms. Kandhol said.
Women’s role in raising children is also a large obstacle to women in leadership. The women I spoke to said that far too many talented women ended or put on hold their successful careers in order to take care of their kids. Ms. Sharma explained how, in her previous company, “women, even if they made their way up, tended to drop off once they had children and started families.” Many also said that women who had kids were far less likely to get promoted into leadership roles due to a fear that they would not be fully devoted to their jobs. This led to a feeling of having to choose between their careers and raising their children.
There were also issues specific to big businesses, such as the lack of women in roles that deal with finance. Both Ms. Lepage and Ms. Huber said they feel that women are far less likely to occupy P&L (Profit and Loss) roles where they are dealing with the company’s finances, and much more commonly in positions of HR and Communications (which they were eager to avoid belittling). However, this tends to prevent women from showing off exactly how valuable they are to a company and leaves them less likely to be promoted to CEO positions.
Another common issue in business was that women in meetings are not as good at speaking up. Ms. Lepage said women “need to sometimes think ‘I’m going to say something in this meeting, even though I know I don’t need to,’ because, when you listen, a lot of the things the men say are also things that are obvious and that everyone knows, but afterward, you will remember, ‘Oh Bob, he spoke so much, he is really strong.’”
Networking was also cited as important for women, as Ms. Erogbogbo explained. “Through networking, [women] can identify new economic opportunities, whether that’s new jobs, or start new businesses, and new markets.”
What about solutions to helping more women get into positions of leadership? “[Women’s empowerment] is all about education, it’s about breaking down social norms and educating people from a young age and working its way up: equal opportunity,” said Ms. Hall, and this was a view shared by many of the women I spoke with. Ms. Bindel said that “I don’t think that we can really achieve anything about empowering women in leadership roles until we’ve sorted out the oppression of all women.”
On the corporate side, “it’s really up to the organisations and the culture they set,” said Ms. Huber, especially in terms of establishing policies that work for women. Ms. Sharma, Ms. Lepage, and Ms. Huber all agreed that a sense of trust between the employer and their employees was necessary to ensure that women who had children could go take care of them in an emergency without this being a career-limiting move. Flexible hours were cited as an excellent way to allow female employees to perform their best.
From my perspective, based on the many discussions I had on the issue, I believe the best way to empower women in leadership is to listen to women and do what they need in order to be empowered. What’s important is not what we think women need or what we think needs to be fixed about the way women behave, but what the women themselves feel is necessary. Because, in the end, the women are the ones who are going to be female leaders, and if we do not listen to them now, how can they be true leaders? As a society, we need to accept that the lack of female leaders is a real issue, and not something that will simply go away by itself. We need to support women from a young age, acknowledge and fight bias where we see it, and give women the tools to rise to the top. There is not a lack of interest in leadership for women, there is a lack of accessibility.
As for what young people can do to support women in leadership: almost every woman I spoke to said it was all about awareness. Know what obstacles women face, continue to stay engaged on the issue, and get men involved too because women’s empowerment cannot happen without the support of men who believe in equality. As Ms. Danzi said, “Women have a huge potential in peace-building, in community building, that is not enough explored.” Now is the time to make sure this potential is explored.
