Chapter 2: Are Women Better Suited Than Men To Lead In Diverse Settings?: A Look At Nations, Organizations, And Teams

Who do you visualize when you think of an ideal leader? And how does the level of racial/ ethnic diversity in the context affect your answer to that question? Although women are still underrepresented at the highest levels of leadership, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of female leaders over the last few decades across nations, organizations, and top leadership teams globally (Adler, 2001; Bullough, Kroeck, Newburry, Kundu, & Lowe 2012; Perkins, Phillips, & Pearce, 2013; Pew Research Center, 2019). The number of female heads of state has tripled in the last 30 years (see Figure 2.1); the current cohort of 22 female presidents and prime ministers represents approximately 10% of all world leaders. In organizations, women now make up about 5% of CEOs and over 20% of top management team members (e.g., corporate boards) of Fortune 500 companies (Pew Research Center, 2019). In the U.S., this is a small, yet powerful cohort of 27 female CEOs. Outside of the U.S., women currently represent 15% of the top leadership teams in European countries and 4% across Asia (Global Gender Balance Scorecard, 2018), and in some countries, gender quotas for board membership promise to increase the representation of women even further (Terjesen, Aguilera, & Lorenz, 2015; Wang & Kelan, 2013). This represents a multifold increase of women in leadership positions compared to the end of the last century, and yet these numbers are still nowhere near parity.