Ever considered why female leaders are almost always referred to as ‘women leaders’? Why must the gender of the person be highlighted? It is because having females in leadership positions is still not the norm yet and women leaders are celebrated when they make it to the top in spite of the odds. On the flipside, for males, the adage that ‘privilege is invisible to those who have it’ rings true as leaders are assumed to be male, unless otherwise stated. Consequently, the privilege that males have is to be easily recognised as leaders while women have to put in greater effort to show their competency.
Watch this speech to hear the anecdote of conversation between a white and black woman (at 1:02), illustrating the invisibility of privilege:
Women in the Workplace, an annual report published by McKinsey & Co and LeanIn.org that studies the state of women in corporate America, shows dismaying statistics. Women only make up 22% of C-suite positions, whereas 48% of the entry-level workforce are made up of women.
Gender equality is the state in which access to resources and opportunities is unaffected by gender. In the workplace, having equal access for both males and females means that decisions made for rewards, promotions, and treatment are unbiased against any gender. Unfortunately, not only are women not being promoted at the same rate as men, women are reported to more likely face everyday discrimination such as being talked down, having to produce more evidence of competence, or being mistaken for someone more junior.
State of gender equality in Singapore
While progress has been made in how society has less entrenched traditional views of gender roles compared to the past, and education attainment are almost equal at tertiary level, there are still gaps to be worked on. One such issue is that gender pay gap still exists and the challenge is a systemic one. The World Economic Forum predicts that it will take 217 years for the wage gap to close. In Singapore, the median salary difference between males and females is at 18%, and even up to 40% in certain industries. Guidelines for fair employment remain voluntary, and the onus is on the companies to ensure that their policies do not systematically perpetuate the wage gap.
Call for women to step up, and lean in
“Do not leave before you leave” was Sheryl Sandberg’s advice to other women in her book ‘Lean In’ published in 2013. Five years ago, she urged women not to hold back, or check out of their careers years before they even start a family. She believed that some women lowered their own expectations of what they can achieve and that paved the way for them to make the decision to put a halt in their careers for family.
Lean In was a movement that propelled the feminist movement forward, but also one that received criticism of being insensitive to less privileged women who may not have access to the same resources that would allow them to ‘lean in’. It is still a question of whether women can ‘have it all’, and resources such as spousal support and child care options are just two of the enabling conditions.
For both genders to be truly equal, it takes the the community, corporates, and individuals to make the effort in setting the right conditions.
Questions for further personal evaluation:
- What are the gender norms you believe in?
- Do you think it is possible for society to achieve gender equality?
Useful vocabulary:
- ‘pipeline’: a channel or system supplying resources (can be human resource)
- ‘platitudes’: a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful
- ‘reproach’: express to (someone) one’s disapproval of or disappointment in their actions
Here are more related articles for further reading:
- World Economic Forum: It’s a Catch-22 situation where women leaders are needed for more promotion of women.
“Our data shows that when women are better represented in leadership roles, more women are hired across the board. This holds true even when considering disparities in the size of female talent pools across industries.
This is not necessarily surprising. Numerous studies suggest that, consciously or not, individuals are more likely to hire people like them. Female candidates may also self-select into companies with higher proportions of leaders who are women, attracted to companies perceived as having more opportunities for advancement or mentorship. Additionally, prior World Economic Forum research indicates that female CEOs actually pay their high-earning women more than male CEOs do, which may create a financial incentive for women to join such companies.”
- The Atlantic: A journalist observes the lack of women representatives in stories covering science – and makes it a point to find them.
“Women in science face a gauntlet of well-documented systemic biases. They face long-standing stereotypes about their intelligence and scientific acumen. They need better college grades to get the same prestige as equally skilled men, they receive less mentoring, they’re rated as less competent and less employable than equally qualified men, they’re less likely to be invited to give talks, they earn less than their male peers, and they have to deal with significant levels of harassment and abuse.
Gender biases are also entrenched in the media, where, in the words of the sociologist Gaye Tuchman, women are being “symbolically annihilated.” As Adrienne noted in her piece, “both in newsrooms and in news articles, men are leaders—they make more money, get more bylines, spend more time on camera, and are quoted far more often than women.” Again, there’s plenty of data on this. Several analyses show that in news stories, male voices outnumber female ones, typically by a factor of three—the same ratio Adrienne found in her work.”
Picture credits:https://unsplash.com/photos/U2BI3GMnSSE