Mind the gender gap

Posted by Carlo Marques on 7 Aug, 2017 4:08 pm

A research by Thomson Reuters claims that companies with mixed boards perform marginally better than the others. Another research by Credit Suisse seems to point out in the same direction as it indicates that companies displaying greater board gender diversity display excess stockmarket returns.

MBA Anabela Possidónio, Executive Director of The Lisbon MBA

What does this mean? Can women be a decisive factor for a company’s success? The truth is that data seems to indicate that the key for these companies’ success is not to have mixed teams, but rather that they have implemented meritocracy systems, where people get promoted according to their performance. And when this happens, women are more likely to reach a top position within the administration. A study by Zenger Folkman assessed 7280 leaders worldwide, by asking the opinion of people that work with them, and found that women excelled in 12 out of the 16 considered competencies.

So how can we explain that in Portugal only 7.9% of management positions are held by women, as indicated by data from 2014 Catalyst Census: Women Board Directors?

Some research indicates that society, besides having a descriptive stereotype about how women are – affable, not conflicting, collectivist, generous – also has some preconceptions on how they should behave. The same happens with men – seen as dominant, confident, aggressive, ambitious, independent, traits associated with leadership. However, women who don’t fit their stereotype and have some of the said male personality traits are less appreciated, regardless of their perceived competence, and less able to influence others.

On top of this, this may also be related to women’s profile. An internal research at HP showed that, while men apply for top jobs when they believe they have 60% of the necessary skills, women only do it when they believe they have 100%. Another study from Lloyd’s seems to reinforce this message with data indicating that, although women tend to exceed performance expectations (8%), they tend not to propose themselves for a promotion.

Is it possible to reverse this situation? Studies show that the salary gap between genders is lower when an organization uses objective performance indicators. On the other hand, as more women are assuming leadership positions, this could pave the way for others, as people who have had positive past experiences with female managers tend to better classify them. Another major challenge will be to make women change their self-vision and better promote themselves.

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