The on-going political banter between America’s presidential aspirants, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Mitch McConnell, makes interesting reading. What is most insightful are the two Americans’ divergent views on gender and leadership as they both tussle ahead of next year’s presidential race to the White House.
by Simbiso Marimbe
Much more intriguing is the statement attributed to McConnell, who was quoted by websites recently as having said there are millions of Americans who “would love to have a woman president…The question is, a woman president to do what?”
McConnell’s question, probably not a display of misogyny because he went on to qualify his statement, arguing that there was no difference between Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama in terms of policy. But then, one wonders whether or not that question was stereotypical.
It is further alleged that McConnell bragged about how in the 2014 Senate elections he trounced his Democratic challenger, Alison Lundergan Grimes, despite the latter’s claims that McConnell was “insensitive on gender issues such as pay equity”. This indeed demonstrates that McConnel “really doesn’t get it”, as Clinton is purported to have said in response. The question to ask is, what will it take for the United States to see its first female president and how many people out there do not see the reason why the world and not just America, needs more women leaders?
While Hillary Clinton and Obama may belong to the same ideological persuasion as democrats, having a female president in America or elsewhere in the world may have a far-reaching impact than not. It is not the intention of this article to campaign for Clinton or to fan misandry, but to shed light on why the world needs more women leaders in every sector.
Firstly, there is need for more women leaders simply because there are a few of them. Increasing the number of women leaders will improve diversity in leadership and open opportunities for the exercise by women of their rights to participate in world leadership. It is a known fact that women leaders are fewer, not primarily by choice but by circumstances, mechanisms, practices and attitudes that systematically prevent them from taking up senior leadership positions. It is also a well-researched fact that women start careers in business and other professions with the same level of intelligence, education and commitment as men.
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Yet comparatively few reach the top echelons. For instance, world wide, as women climb up the corporate ladder, they vanish. While the statistics vary slightly around the world, this is an extremely consistent pattern. At the lowest levels, more than half of the employees in organisations are female. At the CEO level, worldwide, only 3 to 4% are women.
The gender gap in leadership matters not only because the familiar glass ceiling is unfair, but also because the world has an increasingly urgent need for more leaders. All men and women with the brains, the desire, and the perseverance to lead should be encouraged to fulfil their potential and leave their mark.
Secondly, the numbers need to improve in order to challenge the stereotypes that have presented a “think-leader-think-male” mentality in both men and women. What I like most about McConnell’s statement is the part when he allegedly admitted that Clinton is “smart and capable”. That acknowledgement alone is worth a million women leaders to come. One of the reasons why women leaders are fewer is because of the misplaced perception that women cannot stay the course because they are a weaker sex.
This has resulted in a gender confidence gap that has kept women in the middle to lower leadership levels. The acknowledgement and acceptance by society of women’s leadership capabilities is important, coming as we do from a history that treated women as minors and were required by law to be accompanied to court by male relatives, even younger than them.
Having more women leaders is likely to challenge stereotypes and perceptions that deter women from taking up the challenge of leadership. It would provide the much-needed role models and mentorship for aspiring young leaders. Seeing more of women leaders is likely to motivate some of the women who have been intimidated by a male-dominated world leadership. We are currently living under a record-high number of simultaneous female world leaders. For several years now, the stable status quo has been around 20 female world leaders at any given time. For much of 2014, the number was 22 — a record high. Poland, Argentina, Brazil, South Korea, Latvia, and closer to home, Malawi, Mozambique, Liberia, Senegal and Central African Republic have had female presidents, Prime ministers or similar. Some of the well-off countries such as Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Germany have female premiers.
Thirdly, Hillary Clinton and indeed many other women taking up leadership positions in their countries may just make the world fare better than it is presently. With the majority of men in leadership, the world has missed most of its Millennium Development Goals target. Perhaps, as we prepare to adopt Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it may be worthwhile to try out more female leaders as part of the efforts to achieve sustainability. In fact, The United Nations may have to set a good example by making sure that the ninth Secretary General to succeed Ban Ki-Moon is a woman.
Studies undertaken by the McKinsey Leadership project discovered that women are better leaders than their male counterparts in many aspects. Most women leading corporates are yielding better results than their male predecessors. Women nowadays are becoming more and more noticed for their exceptional success in the male-dominated global corporate world. A number of successful women have shown the world how they are great business leaders, and how their approach to business is strikingly different from men, due to their unique skills and leadership approaches. One wonders if McConnell has come across the 2012 Zenger Folkman study that examines women’s leadership effectiveness and representation in corporate America. It discovered the hard data that describes the overall success that women have when placed in successively higher leadership positions. The same study confirmed that women actually scored higher than men on 12 out of the 16 competencies assessed. The differences on 10 of them were statistically significant.
If Americans and all world citizens really want to know what role a woman leader would play, they should perhaps look at what Ginni Rometty, chairwoman and CEO of IBM; Safra Catz, co-president and CFO at Oracle Corporation; Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook; Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox; Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo; Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, Nicoz Diamond CEO Grace Muradzikwa and Divine Ndhlukula, founder and Managing Director of DDNS Security Operations, the holding company for Securico Security Services, among others, are doing!
So what does it take to have more women leaders? It takes deliberate actions by all stakeholders, including women themselves, to create a path for advancement. Writer and publisher Shahla Khan suggests that both individuals and institutions must get rid of their unconscious bias against women, become more agile and flexible in order to be wholly inclusive and begin to think diversity and mentorship. And if Americans are going to find one good reason to vote for Clinton, it would be on the basis of making the world leadership more gender balanced.
l Simbiso Marimbe is a Media, Gender and Communication Consultant. E mail: [email protected]
