The Business of Equality
Toran Spence
The Business of Equality
Toran Spence
Northeastern University
June 8, 2015
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The Business of Equality
Toran Spence
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this essay is to identify the issue between the lack of women in leadership
roles and the increasing value that they bring to an organization. Leadership skills may differ in
men and women, however this difference should not allow for inequality. In fact, it has been
found that women’s leadership style can be more effective. Ultimately what may set women at a
disadvantage from climbing to a leadership role are both social and structural obstacles. Social
issues such as gender biases and stereotypes give women less of chance for advancements.
Structural issues such as the gender wage gap makes it tough to recruit women to leadership
roles when they are aware they will be paid less than their male colleagues. Through awareness
of biases, policies, and the reduction of pay secrecy, organizations will only benefit by allowing
less blockades for women to excel. While this change will take a great deal of time and the
support of both genders, fortunately there have been strides in the equality of gender in the
workplace.
INTRODUCTION
The discussion of men versus women can goes as far back as Adam and Eve, but only
until about the 1960s when women joined the workforce as well as the Equal Pay Act of 1963
did the conversation shift into the workplace (Goldin, 1991; U.S. Dept. of Labor, 1993). Under
this act, if men and women in an organization are doing equal work, the employer must pay them
equally. However, the act allows for reasons as to why men and women preforming the same job
might be paid differently and because of this it has not been the easiest road for equality of
gender in the workforce (Dept. of Labor, 1993). Only until recently have women started to
become noticed as valuable to companies. In a recent study by Credit Suisse, it was found that
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over the past six years, companies with female board representation outperformed those with no
women on the board in terms of share price performance, return on equity (ROI), gearing (net
debt to equity), price/book value (P/BV) and average growth. (Dawson, Kersley, & Natella,
2014).
However, even with these findings, it seems as though companies are still not equally
distributing board seats for women. In 2013, only 16.9% of boards contained women and with a
workforce that has 49% of women, there clearly is some sort of discrepancy (Fairchild, 2014). If
performance does not set women at a disadvantage in the workforce, there must be other factors
leading to fewer women in leadership roles. While there are a myriad of reason as to why women
could be set at a disadvantage to become leaders, there are a few prominent cultural and
structural obstacles (Dawson, Kersley, & Natella, 2014). These obstacles range from the gender
wage gap to biases and stereotypes against working women. With that said, there are solutions to
enabling women to overcome these obstacles, as seen through the strides both women and our
society have already taken.
DIFFERENCES IN JOB PERFORMANCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN
Surrounding the debate of whether women perform as well at their jobs as men do is the
discussion of differences between men and women and if these differences affect their job
performance. While there are no differences when it comes to problem-solving ability, analytical
skills, competitive drive, motivation, sociability or learning ability, psychologists have found a
few subtle differences (Robbins & Judge, 2013). They have found women to be more agreeable
and willing to conform to authority whereas men are more aggressive and more likely to have
expectations of success. Additional evidence has confirmed that men commonly report powerful
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emotions like anger while women report emotions like sadness and fear (Eagly & JohannesenSchmidt, 2001). With increased female participation in the workforce and the reshaping of male
and female roles, we can assume these differences do not actually have significant correlation to
job productivity.
With that said, some researchers have found that these differences may have an effect on
leadership. Within the survey the researchers questioned over 16,000 participants which qualities
demonstrated good leadership. From the data it was discovered that people favor leaders who
lead by example and handle crises calmly and confidently. These characteristics all happen to be
found to more commonly in female leaders (Sherwin, 2014). If women are being found to be
more successful when placed in higher leadership positions, it is perplexing to find that there are
only 3-4% women at a CEO level worldwide (Fairchild 2014). It can be assumed that the reason
for fewer women in leadership roles has no correlation to their outstanding performance.
GENDER BIASES IN THE WORKFORCE
Powerful Women Bias
So how do these differences affect men and women in the workforce? Unfortunately for
women these differences often lead to affecting perceptions. Women are more commonly
subjected to physical and emotional judgment than men (Robbins & Judge, 2013). This can be
seen with how we talk about powerful women. In a recent study, analysts used a database of
more than 450 million words from nearly two decades of resources to discover common trends
with how the media talks about those in power. They found women to be labeled pushy twice as
often as men. Moreover, men were more likely to be described as condescending (Pearson,
2014). While this may be considered as a bias, it is not necessarily equal. To imply someone as
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condescending is an acknowledgement that the person is in power and from there, looking down.
However with the term pushy, it carries no such meaning. Not only does this label make women
seem unpleasant and inappropriate, it also further places women less in power than men.
Additionally, women could feel less entitled to be assertive in their roles for fear they could be
seen as pushy or aggressive. This dilemma often is referred to as the Double-Bind Paradox
(Flynn, Heath, & Davis Holt 2013) Women assume they can only be perceived as competent or
liked, but ultimately not both which in turn leads to women not showing their full capabilities.
Working Mother Stigma
Another bias that women face within the workplace is the working mother stigma, which
assumes women lose their career focus once they have children (Fox & Quinn 2014). In a recent
survey, only 28% of US employers planned to hire working mothers in the year (Goudreau,
2011). This was found to be due to the assumption that working moms are less committed, less
flexible, will leave shortly after training to have another child, and have out-of-date skills. This is
clearly an outdated view of thinking with women increasingly becoming co-earners or even the
sole breadwinners. These perceptions however can only add an obstacle that women face, even
to the point of being hired.
This problem however does not stop with hiring. It was found that half of working
mothers have faced discrimination at work, while only 27% of fathers have (Davidson, 2014).
These discriminations include giving less responsibility or the assignment of degrading tasks.
This only places women at a disadvantage from being noticed for their talent or feeling as though
they are contributing to the company. If women were to be taken just as seriously as men, they
would be able to prove that although they are mothers, this does not affect their work. To further
the lack of competency this bias holds, out of the 24 female Fortune 1000 CEOs, over 80%
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reported that they are also wives and mothers (Fairchild, 2014). Once again, the effectiveness of
female leadership should hold no correlation with the fact they may potentially be mothers.
Gender Wage Gap
Additionally there is a bias when it comes to equity of wages. Women working full-time,
year round earn about 78 cents to every dollar that a man earns. With about 49% of the
workforce being women, it is clear there is a lack of fairness. It was recently discovered that only
in sixteen cities are women paid more than men, which is about .08% of cities (Nerdwallet,
2014). Although these statistics do not account for different jobs, the numbers do not look better
for women when viewing over 535 full-time jobs. In all but one did women earn more than a
man (Baxter 2015). Besides the most obvious economic struggles women face from this
compared to men, after noticing inequities women can be left feeling unmotivated and from this
limit their career opportunities (Robbins & Judge, 2013). If women hold the same qualifications
as well as role, there should be no discrepancy when it comes to pay for men and women.
IMPROVING EQUITY IN THE WORKFORCE
Now that it has become clear that women improve effectiveness within organizations, the
question for how to give women more access to leadership roles arises. One way is to be aware
of biases. If people are aware of certain biases, they can minimize their impact. Companies can
also improve or implement discrimination training for employee to help them be aware of any
subconscious biases.
Another option is for companies to make sure to diversify their workforce. They can do
so by setting employment and hiring policies to create equal access and opportunities to
individuals regardless of gender (Robbins & Judge, 2013).
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While there has been little progress to lessen the gender wage gap, there are many ways
to combat it. Companies can create policies that enable women to balance work and family such
as paid sick days and paid family leave (Baxter 2015). By doing so, not only will women’s
compensation packages improve, but ultimately allow for pay transparency. It has been found
that companies keeping pay secret contributes to greater pay dissatisfaction and worse pay
administration (Lawler, 2012). If companies were to reduce the secrecy, the awareness of
inequalities could only lead to more discussion and ultimately improve the equity of the
workplace. Overall, if companies were to improve the equity in the workforce, their company as
a whole would improve.
GENDER EQUALITY STRIVES
While minuscule, there have been advancements for equality in the workplace. In 5 years,
the number of women CEOs in the Fortune 1000 has completely doubled from 12 to 24
(Fairchild, 2014). And while women have only been able to raise their hourly pay 1.5 cents since
2012, the level of awareness has increased (Baxter 2015). In the 2015 State of the Union,
President Obama acknowledged the unfairness of the current wage gap and the importance of
fighting for equal pay for women. While these advancements are helpful towards creating equity,
the knowledge that women in leadership bring more value than those without is something that
will only lead to more opportunities for women. As shown throughout this essay, combating
gender discrimination is associated with better performance as a whole and isn’t that what
companies desire? It has been proven that women can bring value to a company and now the real
question is can companies start applying such knowledge toward improving their organizations’
effectiveness.
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