Why a women’s leadership program today?

Here is why.

• Confident women are not seen as the leadership material confident men are
• Women do not get as much actionable feedback as men
• Women’s expertise is challenged more than men’s and listened to less
• Great performance does not result in high potential ratings for women
• Women are penalized for negotiating for themselves
• Women are interrupted 3 times more often than men
• Mentors see advocating or sponsoring women as risky
• Women pay a ‘modesty’ penalty if they talk about their achievements
• Successful women are not liked as much as successful men

This is what current, well-validated research tells us.

The problem is not that women don’t know how to be leaders. But when they do, their leadership behavior is experienced and judged differently to men’s (by both men and women by the way).

I am talking about the ‘double-bind’.

The ‘double-bind’ is where outdated gender stereotypes (men take charge and women take care) conflict with the default-to-male leadership stereotype. Women managers need to navigate this trade-off between their gender role and their leader role – between their likeability and their competence – in a way that men do not. All their careers.

You may be experiencing or observing the ‘double bind’ yourself personally. Or your organisation may be seeing high potential, high performing women being tentative about going into a management role, falling out of the leadership pipeline, or simply walking out, or even burning out.

These are real challenges for women managers and for organizations, but they are not insurmountable.