What is the primary reason behind the fact that women don’t represent the top corporate world proportionally as men? Is it because they don’t want to experience power and success? Or is it because of the fact that women lack the appetite and ambition needed for power that is required to move up the ladder of success? Women are not represented proportionally at the upper levels of the businesses. While women constitute 47.6% of the Fortune 500 workforce and 52% of middle management, in these companies they represent just 15% of the executive officers, 7.5% of the highest paid and 4% of all the CEOs.
If you delve deeper, you will see that there are lots of theories on why women don’t get selected for higher positions or why they stall out while climbing the organizational ladder. The workplace and offices usually recognize and value masculine over feminine ways of acting, thinking and leading and this is what creates a disadvantage for women. The business women who usually operate in feminine ways aren’t seen as leaders. They might not look like a leader and hence they might not be able to try out any role. Successful business women learn to operate in different masculine ways and if they operate in an extreme masculine way, they start being disliked.
The theory behind women who don’t wish to reach out to the top takes different forms, where women shun off the power, lack ambition and women fear leadership. Nearly a decade back, there was a post which sparked fire which dealt with what kind of power women actually wanted. The point established was that younger women have been receiving the message that leadership can be daunting because they should have it all and do it all in the perfect manner.
Do women have very less interest in power? Or do women define ambition in a different manner? Are perspectives of women different from that of men, especially in workplaces? Could this different be the main reason behind so many less ambitious and less comfortable women who are in need of power?
Ambition from the perspective of a masculine is about winning and competition. It’s all about getting to the top of the ladder. On the other hand, the feminine version of achieving goals and ambition is more involved in purpose rather than status. So, what is it? Are women less interested in power or less ambitious? They just define and demonstrate it in a different manner. You may check out e-counseling.com to know more on women and success.
