Companies not helping women to close gender gap in leadership positions : survey

Most women across the globe feel that their employers are not doing enough to close the gender gap in leadership positions, says a survey. About 90 per cent women are concerned that their employers are not doing enough to narrow the gender gap in leadership positions, according to a survey by Skillsoft, a global learning and talent management firm.

Further, it found that more than half of the respondents (54 per cent) stated it’s important for their organisations to offer leadership training specific to women. However, nearly 70 per cent believed their employers do not provide adequate resources and support to help them drive their careers forward.

The respondents’ perceptions mirror the current state of women in corporate leadership globally, including in India. In the United States, women hold more than half of all professional-level jobs, yet comprise only five per cent of Fortune 500 CEOs. In most European countries, women comprise less than 20 per cent of all corporate boards and women represent just six per cent of corporate boards in Asia, the survey opined.

“The lack of women in leadership positions is not because women are not capable of hard work, strategic thinking and management it’s that boardrooms have not made a mixed gender leadership pipeline a priority,” Skillsoft Vice President – leadership product strategy and corporate development – Priti Shah said.

The study also revealed that work-life balance is the top concern for 63 per cent of women. To hone in on women’s leadership development, organisations must acknowledge the key factors inhibiting their career progression, it added.

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