“The financial crisis and various corporate scandals have caused widespread concern over the way corporations are governed and their responsibilities to stakeholders.” Regulators and academics have emphasised the importance of board diversity in improving the strategic and monitoring role of the board, and preventing further business failures. The discussion has recently concentrated on the poor representation of female members at board level, which seems to be a common problem in most countries, including the United Kingdom. It has been suggested that women can provide boards with “unique qualities and resources that can improve board dynamics, strategic decision-making and firm performance.
Using reputable Academics, country specific comparisons and relevant business theories, this essay will analyse why women, “due to their different values and moral orientation, are crucial to boards as they have a high chance of influencing companies’ performance in both financial and non-financial areas.”
Gender diversity is undoubtedly important for companies, especially from an ethical and economic perspective. Firstly, it is unethical to exclude women from board positions based on gender. Secondly, women arguably add different qualities to the decision-making process that men do not, which could definitely benefit the company economically in the long term. However critics have also questioned the need for corporate responsibility as a whole and have taken the Friedmanist approach that argues, “The only responsibility of companies is to maximise profits and add shareholder value.” Some also follow that CR activities arguably “conflict with companies’ economic goals and shareholders’ interest and they are rarely given the opportunity ...
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...tors.” Burberry definitely combatted the gender discrimination barrier with Angela Ahrendts as their previous CEO who “developed a global reputation for excellence not just in the ‘financial markets’, where its stock price has surged by more than 250 per cent since her arrival in July 2006, but in ‘Silicon Valley’ as well, where the company is held up as a shining example by companies like Facebook and Twitter for its forward-thinking, savvy approach to digital marketing, commerce and community-building.” Ahrendts is also a good pioneer for Billing’s theory that ‘Women can contribute something special,’ which mainly draws attention to the dissimilarities between the sexes but in a positive light, “celebrating and exonerating female difference, instead of the perspective that women imitate male agenic features with an androgynous sprinkling of communal qualities.”
In the American society, we constantly hear people make sure they say that a chief executive officer, a racecar driver, or an astronaut is female when they are so because that is not deemed as stereotypically standard. Sheryl Sandberg is the, dare I say it, female chief operating officer of Facebook while Mark Zuckerberg is the chief executive officer. Notice that the word “female” sounds much more natural in front of an executive position, but you would typically not add male in front of an executive position because it is just implied. The fact that most of America and the world makes this distinction shows that there are too few women leaders. In Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In,” she explains why that is and what can be done to change that by discussing women, work, and the will to lead.
...le. Overall, the author identifies with the overall context of the article which is clearly directed towards pointing out how natural selection has provided women with the rightful capacity to become good leaders. However, this fact should not shun the idea that above women, men were expected to serve as the head of the household. This principle could be applied even in organizations today. Men have the talent to direct, however women tend to become more understanding and more reasonable at times. In this case, the work of men and women in an organization as leaders provide the best source of foundation for a better working system that employees could follow through in relation to how they complete their tasks as expected.
First, our company should understand the importance of gender diversity. In the first article “Why Workplace Gender Diversity Matters”, Anne Marsan pointed out directly that most tech companies lack of gender diversity. Then she explained several reasons why gender diversity matters to companies. Using logos, she mentioned that women in U.S. purchased 50 percent of computers, 50 percent of cars and 80 percent of consumer goods. In other words, organizations with gender diversity are better to connect with
Positions of Power: How Female Ambition is Shaped by J.D. Nordell of Slate Magazine details the female disposition in the workplace. Nordell writes, “...women account for 35 percent of MBAs but only 2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs. Women now make up 16 percent of congressional seats - and 0 percent of U.S. presidents…” (Nordell). The statistics provided above show an obvious discrepancy in the amount of influence women have in the workplace. A popular theory is that this discrepancy is caused by the influence of gender roles on the workplace - men are not taking women as seriously in the workplace. Females’ introduction into the major economy is still a relatively new concept, and the underlying archaic gender role that women should tend to the house and children is preventing women from being taken seriously by the men of the business world, and thus constraining their performance in the economy. This is further supported by the case of Ben Barres: “Recently, the transsexual neuroscientist Ben Barres, who has worked as both a woman and a man in science, noted that he is treated with more respect and interrupted less frequently now that he is a man” (Nordell). This further elaborates on the phenomenon that women are taken less seriously in the workplace. Considering the excerpts from Positions of Power: How Female Ambition is Shaped, it is easy
Hook argues that Sandberg neglects to acknowledge the influence women have on society, but rather works to change it: “The vast majority of men in our society, irrespective of a race, embrace patriarchal values; they do not embrace a vision or practice of gender equality either at work or in the domestic household” (668). In short, we are not equal if one gender controls the other. Sandberg illustrates and describes her trickle-down theory showing women being at the top of corporate ladders would make a positive impact in the workforce. She backs up her theory by claiming that “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchal corporate worlds Sandberg want women to lean into encourages competition over corporation”
Gender bias is very common in the corporate world. Throughout history, males have been dominant in the workforce, whereas women have been excluded. Currently, only 4.6 percent of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, women rarely even work outside of the house. In this novel, Harper Lee shows the differences between the roles of males and females, specifically the distinctions between occupations and social values in the 1930s.
Upadhyaya, Preeti, and Lauren Hepler. "Why hiring women may make your business more money."Silicon Valley Business Journal [San Jose] 11 September 2013, n. pag. Web. 13 April 2014.
Many writers have addressed the popular question of women and the relationship between gender and leadership. These vary from women not possessing the quality and traits necessary for managerial work to the negative stereotypes attached with women striving to succeed in a male dominant quarter. 3% of CEO’s in the Fortune 500 companies are women [10], therefore this gap in leadership means that there are many obstacles barricading women in senior positions to make that leap through the glass ceiling that is holding them back. In this essay, I will be explaining a few obstacles women in leadership face and what can be done to address them.
Many CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are male, and of these CEOs only 5 percent of them are women. Of America’s most recent list of the 200 highest-paid CEOs, only 11 of them were female, and on average they were paid
Harvard Business Review. Women in the Workplace: A Research Roundup. n.d. 15 November 2013 .
Diversity is a value that shows respect for the differences and similarities of age, sex, culture, ethnicity, beliefs and much more. Having a diverse organization, helps notice the value in other people and also how to teach respect to people that might not know how. The world is filled with different cultures and people that might believe in different things as you, but that doesn’t mean you need to treat them any different. It is imperative for people to grasp diversity because it’ll help people how to engage with others in a respectful yet a hospitable way.
The goal on gender equality and impact of gender discrimination varies from country to country, depending on the social, cultural and economic contexts. Anti-discrimination laws have performed a critical role in expanding work place opportunities for women, yet they are still denied full equality in the workplace. Even though they can now secure powerful professional, academic and corporate positions once reserved for men, the ever present glass ceiling still deters the advancement of large segment of the female workforce (Gregory, 2003). Interest in the careers of females remained strong among both scholars and practitioners. Women have made considerable progress in entering the managerial ranks also but not at the highest levels. However, the promotion of women who hold top management positions increased only slightly during the last decade (U.S. Department of Labor, 1992). Shrinking gender differences between men and women in job related skills and aspirations may not reduce employer discrimination that is rooted in the belief that women’s emotions prevent them from managing effectively (Kanter, 1977). Stumpf and London (1981) identified criteria that are commonly used when decisions are made about management promotions. The specified job-irrelevant criteria, such as gender, race and appearance, and job-relevant criteria, such as related work experience, being a current member of the organization offering the position, past performance, education and seniority.. The central question is whether the hiring, development, and promotion practices of employers that discriminated against women in the past have been remedied or continue in more subtle forms to impede women’s advancement up in the hierarchy
Women make up over 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States, yet only 14 percent of executive officer positions within companies are filled by women. Within the Fortune 500 CEOs, only 21 of them are women. The United States prides itself on equality and justice, but the majority of the population is not adequately represented in leadership roles. It is time for the entire country to reevaluate its internal gender biases. Women are taking strides to overcome the centuries-old tradition of men being the breadwinners and women taking care of the family and having low-demanding jobs. Biases do not just come from men, as it is proven that women are just as biased against themselves. Society puts more pressure on men to be successful while not expecting as much from women. Men typically attribute their successes to themselves, while women underestimate themselves and attribute their successes to luck or hard work. This lack of self-confidence can be traced back to years of women constantly doubting themselves (Sandberg). Women need to follow Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg’s advice written in her book “Lean In”: “But feeling confident—or pretending that you feel confident—is necessary to reach for opportunities. It’s cliché, but opportunities are rarely offered; they’re seized” (Sandberg 34). Willing women have to overcome societal traditions and sit at the table. To do this they have to either get into leadership positions to then break down barriers or break down barriers to get into those coveted leadership positions. These barriers are deeply-rooted into almost every culture worldwide. Sexism and discrimination are constant issues for women in the workplace and not enough is being done to address the...
...d women’s biological purpose has provided men a source of comparative advantage in work. It is, therefore, natural for most companies to think that women cannot be as capable as men in terms of assuming strenuous or challenging positions because women, by default, become less participative and more vulnerable when they start to have family and children. Apparently, this situation has led to various gender discriminations in the labor market.
“There are 74.6 million women in the civilian labor force. Almost 47 percent of U.S. workers are women.” (DeWolf 2017) Today, there are more woman in leadership roles in business than ever before. A leadership role in business ranges from a store manager, branch manager, to CEO’s of large companies. Through the modern and correct view on Feminism more business’ and individuals are proud and happy with the results woman are producing in the workplace. With women in the workplace comes the right for equal pay, which is now coming to fruition more than ever, further pushing the equal rights of women. A prime example of equal pay for equal work is the stance Google recently taken on closing the gap between salaries for men and