How many female leaders are there in your company? According to a recent report released by LinkedIn, the proportion of women in leadership has not changed significantly in the past seven years, and one cannot help but wonder what we can do to get closer to diversity and inclusion.
Recently LinkedIn released the "Progress and barriers in global gender leadership", pointing out that women account for only 30% of the leadership level, and this number has not changed significantly in the past 7 years, and the number of female leaders in the world has shown a downward trend.
We are curious about why companies are still far from equal rights under the initiative of DEI's concept of pluralistic inclusion. And what can companies do after recognizing the gender imbalance in leadership?
Before answering these questions, let me take you through three points to see what the LinkedIn report reveals.
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LinkedIn report on three major findings and solutions
1. There is an imbalance in the gender ratio of leadership, and the higher the position, the more pronounced it is
According to LinkedIn, the percentage of women in senior leadership worldwide is only 32.1%, an increase of just one percentage point in the past seven years, and the number of women in leadership is now about half that of men.
A closer look at the report reveals that none of the countries in the report has a female labor force ratio of more than 39%. The countries with the highest overall female labour force share were the United States (39 percent), Canada (37 percent), France and Brazil (36 percent), the United Kingdom (35 percent), Mexico (33 percent), and India (28 percent). The gender ratio at the executive level is even more unbalanced, with the global average of only about 20% of women holding senior positions.
2. The imbalance in the sex ratio can also be seen across fields
As positions become higher, women's participation declines, and even in occupations such as health care and education where women are more represented (64.7% compared to 49.4%), fewer women remain in leadership positions. It also shows that women do face prejudices and challenges when it comes to promotion.
Not to mention that in occupations where women are already underrepresented in construction (22.3%) and manufacturing (31.9%), the proportion of women in leadership positions will be lower (16.1% and 24.3%, respectively).
(Same screening: Norwegian sovereign wealth fund intends to say no to all-male board of Japanese companies!) Increasing women's participation is trending)
3. Focus on technology over experience, flexible work as a solution
LinkedIn's analysis reveals gender disparities in the workplace, and to reverse inequality, the report recommends that companies should start with a fair recruitment process.
Assuming companies consider only the skills of job seekers, not just their past work history or degrees, the chance of female admission on a global scale increases to 24%.
This suggests that the underrepresentation of women is not due to a lack of skills, but may be due to bias in recruitment. In addition to eliminating unconscious bias in the recruitment process, the LinkedIn's report also found that flexible working models can also improve women's chances of advancing to leadership.
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The results of the report may discourage you from the global march towards true equality, because behind these numbers are a real person and family, but by deepening our understanding of existing inequalities, we still expect that the timescale will be pulled back to a future day when the proportion of women in leadership positions will continue to increase, rather than just pawns for companies to demonstrate their diverse and inclusive values.