Remove hurdles that stop women from going up leadership ladder
Studies show that while the percentage of female CEOs has been on an upward trend for many years, the progress has been uncomfortably slow. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
We need women to come into leadership roles in bigger numbers and at a faster rate than they are today.
In Africa, McKinsey’s Women Matter 2016 report found that few leadership positions are made available to women.
According to the report, only five per cent of CEOs, 22 per cent of Cabinet members, and 24 per cent of parliamentarians in Africa were women.
The recent announcement that PepsiCo’s CEO, Indra Nooyi, will be stepping down has caused a stir in corporate leadership circles. Nooyi has been one of the global faces for women in leadership. Her identity as an Indian and a woman – recognising the intersectionality of gender and race – makes her more inspiring.
Nooyi’s exit brings to the fore the important subject of women in leadership. The New Yorker article, Indra Nooyi and the vanishing female CEO, generated a heated conversation. Despite the progress women have made in the workplace, they still account for a small share of top leadership roles. There is a consistent pattern in today's large organisations; as women climb up the ladder they vanish. Women get into entry-level positions successfully, but when they get to middle management, things stall. This is true across different fields including corporate, non-profit, politics and government and academia.
