Women's underrepresentation in upper management: New insights on a persistent problem

Abstract

In 2008, women comprised 46.5 percent of the U.S. labor force, and occupied nearly 51 percent of all managerial and professional jobs, yet women holding the titles of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), chief operating officer (COO), and executive vice-president (EVP) remained at about seven percent of the population of U.S. executives, according to the non-profit research group, Catalyst. Although women’s representation in lower and middle management positions has improved, the same cannot be said for upper management. Women have made few strides in breaking through the glass ceiling (the term popularized in the 1980s for invisible barriers that exist for women and other minorities that limit their upward mobility in organizations) when it comes to senior leadership positions. Underrepresentation of women in senior leadership is problematic for several reasons. First, a lack of women in senior positions may indicate to lower-level women that aspiring to an upper-level position is untenable. Highly qualified and experienced women may thus not apply for upperlevel positions. As a result, organizations lose the opportunity to capitalize on the skills and talent of a portion of their workforce. Further, when employees perceive a lack of women in upper management, they may form ideas about the implicit values and culture of the organization, such as it being an ‘‘old-boys club,’’ or discriminatory in its hiring and retention practices. A second reason women’s underrepresentation in upper management is problematic is that when there are fewer women in senior leadership positions, women lower in the organizational hierarchy have few, if any, female mentors with experience in upper management. Without seasoned female mentors to guide women through what can be a politically driven succession planning process, women may feel unprepared for upper-management positions and thus not apply. In sum, the glass ceiling is problematic because it stymies the opportunity for a substantial