AdobeStock_488884732

We’re Seeing More Women in Leadership… So Why Are More Women Leaders Quitting Than Ever Before?

We’re facing an unprecedented crisis in leadership at the moment and it’s not for lack of leaders. It’s for a lack of women leaders occupying a range of leadership positions across the management spectrum.

We’ve seen some promising changes in the state of female leadership in 2022. According to findings from the 2022 Women in Business Report published by Grant Thornton, there’s been an increase in the prevalence of women in senior management roles around the globe.

The report researches mid-market businesses from around the world, providing important insights into the results of 10,000 mid-market organisational leaders spanning 29 global economies.

Its findings show that since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021, the disruption to workplace practices and regulations has actually benefited female employees and managers, making it easier for them to transition into leadership roles more traditionally occupied by men.

Based on Grant Thornton’s findings, the percentage of women in senior management roles increased to 32% in 2022 from 31% in 2021. Africa has been a trailblazer here, boasting more women in leadership positions in 2022 (40%) compared to the United States and the European Union (both 33%). South Africa has been no exception, seeing an increase of women in senior roles for CEO, CMO, Human Resources Director and Partner.

The question remains: if we’re seeing great strides in the proportion of female leaders entering management and leadership positions in 2022, why are we paradoxically also seeing a global increase in mass walkouts of women who are quitting their senior management and leadership roles, in a phenomenon researchers are calling “The Great Breakup” (which, in itself, is a rather sexist and trivialising term that’s indicative of the inherent bias against working women still prevalent in our society)?

Could it simply be that mid-market businesses are making greater efforts to support women in leadership roles compared to larger international enterprises and corporations?

Are women able to climb the ladder and reach a certain level of management or leadership but are unable to progress to C-Suite positions as easily, as evidenced by findings by IBM?

Or could it be that, while it’s easier for women to transition into leadership roles than before, they still face an array of challenges that make it difficult to remain there?

 

Why we need women in leadership roles

There’s no more room for debate that when women are placed in senior management and leadership roles, companies and their employees thrive. Research has proven this time and time again. In a study conducted by the Harvard Business Review, it was found that employee job engagement and job performance scores were significantly higher under a female leader compared to a male leader.

In addition to this, it’s been found that women leaders build more diverse teams – something that’s been proven to improve company performance and profitability by up to 25% for gender diversity and 36% for ethnic and cultural diversity, according to McKinsey. More diverse teams allow for a greater variety of thought, ideas and input, fuelling innovation, problem-solving and collaboration.

Financial and quantitative metrics aside, research has also found that, more often than not, women leaders score higher on qualitative assessment metrics compared to male leaders. In a study by Potential Project of how managers and leaders handle making difficult but necessary decisions fitting their position, two key qualitative metrics were identified as being necessary to do so: wisdom and compassion.

Their findings revealed that 55% of female leaders surveyed were rated by their followers as being both wise and compassionate compared to only 27% of male leaders. Female leaders were described as being more capable of making difficult decisions and executing them in a compassionate, more empathetic manner.

This is not to say that men have no place in leadership or management roles – they most certainly do! The goal here isn’t to shut the door on men in leadership. It’s to ensure there’s more equal representation of both male and female leaders across the board – something that’s sadly still not happening enough.

 

Why are we seeing more women leave leadership roles?

This brings us back to our original question. With so much evidence supporting the benefits and absolute necessity of placing women in leadership, as well as the promising findings in Grant Thornton’s report that state the percentage of women in management and leadership roles has increased, why are more women exiting management and leadership positions at a faster rate than ever before?

According to the 2022 Women in the Workplace Report released by McKinsey, there are a variety of complex, intersecting reasons at play that consist of opportunity, recognition, microaggression and culture.

The “broken rung” continues to be a barrier preventing more women from being promoted to initial management and leadership roles. McKinsey found that for every 100 men who are promoted from entry-level positions to management roles, only 87 are promoted, and even less so for women of colour, of whom only 82 are promoted.

As a result, there are still far fewer women than men in management positions available to be promoted to more senior C-Suite level positions of leadership, the evidence of which is easy to see when one looks at the percentage of female to male CEOs of all Fortune 500 companies – 8% to 91%. Let that sink in.

Women leaders put more effort than their male counterparts into DEI and the well-being of their teams and employees, something that translates into better financial performance, but these efforts are failing to be recognised. As a result, women leaders are often overworked and more likely to hit burnout and exhaustion, making them less likely to be selected for further promotions.

Microaggressions, sadly, also affect women’s experience in management and leadership. Women are more likely to be passed over for a promotion due to personal traits and characteristics such as having children, compared to men. They’re also twice as likely to be mistaken for someone more junior.

For women of colour, the microaggressions pile up even more. Black women are four times as likely as white women to hear people express surprise or even “compliment” them on their language skills and abilities, while Asian women are three times as likely.

LGBTQ+ women report receiving more comments about their personal appearance or demeanour along with unsolicited suggestions of how they should change. Differently-abled women are more likely to have their competency and skills questioned and challenged within their areas of expertise.

Many organisations also don’t offer the kind of culture that many female managers and leaders are looking to work in. DEI and mental health in the workplace are rated as being of greater importance to women in management and leadership and they are 1.5 times more likely than male leaders to leave a position if the work culture doesn’t focus on DEI and employee well-being enough.

Hybrid and flexible work also remains a crucial component that female leaders seek out, allowing them a better work/life balance and they want the freedom to choose. Agency is critical here, as women leaders who can choose between working remotely or on-site report lower levels of stress and burnout and higher workplace satisfaction levels.

 

Conclusion

While there’s no doubt that great steps have been taken by many companies, particularly at the mid-tier level, to create more inclusive working practices and spaces for women in leadership roles, barriers to success do remain. This seems to particularly be the case at larger corporate and enterprise-level organisations where management is more stratified.

It’s important to understand that men are not to blame for these gaps in equality in leadership opportunities, rather, it’s a system passed down and inherited from previous generations – one that we need to actively work together to dismantle to make leadership more diverse, inclusive and accepting of both men and women.

Share this post