The persistence of gender inequality in leadership: Still a long way to go?

Abstract

In most developed societies, women have gained considerable access to leadership roles over the last century. Since the 1999 Treaty of Amsterdam (Article 2 EC), gender equality has become one of the essential tasks of the European Community. Achieving gender balance within leadership ranks has been guided by social and ethical considerations, such as fairness and legality. More recently, research has provided evidence for the “business case” of gender diversity in leadership. Female presence in leadership roles has been found to be correlated with higher corporate performance, greater capitalization of talent, enhanced leadership, team performance and motivation, and other factors (Eagly, 2016). However, these outcomes are contingent upon particular conditions in which diversity can be leveraged to improve organizational outcomes (e.g., for a discussion, see Dawson, Kersley and Natella, 2016; Eagly, 2016; Post and Byron, 2015).