Free Women And Corporate Leadership Essay Sample

In the modern corporate world, different forms of discrimination like racism, gender inequality, age limitation and disability are strongly discouraged. Various legislations have been enacted to help fight discrimination. This however is not enough because in addition to the law, you also need the affected groups to step up. An example of this is where women opt out from seeking higher levels of corporate leadership despite organizations having put structures and policies that encourage them to do so. The following are some of the reasons why women opt out from corporate leadership.
The first reason is fear. Due to the gender discrimination that exists in most work places, women have developed a “failure phobia” (Belasen, 2012). This is because there is a general perception that if a woman fails, it’s because of her being a woman and not other short comings associated with men. This perception creates a negative attitude towards corporate leadership as well as ruining most women’s confidence in seeking promotions in work places.
Secondly, there is a lack of motivation to make women want to seek high levels of corporate leadership. This is mainly seen in payment discrepancies where men earn more than women for similar positions and responsibilities. Research carried out in corporate America indicate that women executives are underpaid compared to their male counterparts. This payment inequality has discouraged women from seeking executive promotions and instead they have focused more on trying to remove these discrepancies (Belasen, 2012).
The third reason is family responsibilities (Belasen, 2012). Domestic responsibilities are mostly shouldered by women. Therefore women who seek corporate leadership have to balance work and family and most of them tend to choose the latter. Society has also created a negative perception on this issue such that a female executive who comes from a broken family is judged differently at work compared to her male counterpart.
This trend if not addressed urgently will hurt organizations in the long run. This is because organizations and governments across the world are reviewing their laws and policies to ensure gender equality. A corporate policy may require that an executive is not succeeded by a candidate from the same gender. The policy may also require board membership to represent gender equality.

Reference

Belasen, A. T. (2012). Developing women leaders in corporate America: Balancing competing demands, transcending traditional boundaries. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger.