Women and Leadership
I’ve written about gender differences in the past (1 and 2). But now I listened to a very nice interview with a teacher from the Psychology Faculty from Bucharest. I really enjoyed what differences he mentioned — the interview can be seen here. I really liked it because things from it can be applied into the business domain, but also into a romantic relationship. Everything is said with a little bit of humor, but also with a lot of respect.
In Romania, 35% of the management roles are taken by women (in UE, the mean is 37%). The situation is better for the senior executive roles (department leader): in Romania, there are 34% women, in UE there are 18% women. Women use to lead in industries like HR, finance, education, health, but males use to lead in engineering, construction, and transports.
Why do we like women in leadership roles? Because they are better at sustainability and long-term development.
Why do we avoid women in leadership roles? Because they can have some requirements that might affect their activity (like maternity leave). We agree that this can be an absence from the workplace, but during the last years, we saw an increase in paternity leave which be seen as an advantage for women. Also, companies encourage work-life balance and companies proposed different benefits that help women.
For the same role, in UE women are paid less than men with 15%. In Romania, women are paid less than men with 3%. Differences can be caused by the industry where they work, the number of hours worked per day, or other financial benefits (in addition to salary).
Women and men are different in leadership style, but also different in social skills. Because of this, we have to assess each person in particular and to take from it what we need. Let’s forget about prejudice and choose the best people we meet.
In the end, some recommendations from McKinsey on post-pandemic recovery for women in the workplace.
