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Are Women the Leaders of the Future?

Uploaded by dylanb98 on Oct 31, 2011

This paper considers the question of women executives and the problems they face, and how they can succeed in business.

I Introduction

It should come as no surprise that women have proven themselves as capable as men in all fields of endeavor. Women serve in the House and Senate; command the Space Shuttle; practice law and medicine; drive trucks and race Indy cars. Their abilities should not be in doubt, and in fact they are not; what women still lack is opportunity. This seems to be a societal problem, and until both men and women can learn to view women as individuals, not merely as stereotypes defined by their gender, the prospects of women actually achieving the things they are capable of doing is not promising. There has been progress of course, but not as much as we might think.
This paper discusses women executives and the problems they face, and how they can become leaders in the future.

II The Problems

As I said above, women have the talent to lead, but they are rarely given the opportunity to do so. In a very revealing article, Margaret Heffernan recounts the disconnect between what women are being told and what’s actually happening. They are told that things are much better, that women hold senior executive positions and sit on various corporate boards. Investment firms develop portfolios for a target market of women who are substantial investors. One out of every four women out-earns her husband; women “control about 80% of household spending … buy 81% of all products … buy 75% of over-the-counter medications, make 81% of retail purchases, and buy 82% of groceries. … They also head 40% of all U.S. households with incomes over $600,000, and own roughly 66% of all home-based businesses.” (Heffernan, PG).
But this is only part of the picture. The foregoing list discusses purchases for the home, such as groceries and medicines, but the downside is that this places women squarely in the traditional role of homemaker and caregiver. Of course they do all the shopping—they’re supposed to! The other side of the coin is bleak:
“The wage gap between male and female managers actually widened in the prosperous years between 1995 and 2000. In the communications industry … a woman earns 73 cents for every $1 a man takes home. Five years earlier,...

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Uploaded by:   dylanb98

Date:   10/31/2011

Category:   Management

Length:   7 pages (1,467 words)

Views:   2937

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