State of equality between men and women in companies

June 18, 2017, was the end of the second round of legislative elections, and women won 220 deputy seats. Today they represent 38.7% of the elected members of the National Assembly compared to 2012, where they were only 26, 9%. Politics is considered a high place of masculine power, and this feminine breakthrough indicated strong women leaders. Also, it shows their aspiration to exercise their natural leadership in fields where men are over-represented.

In some sectors such as logistics, transport, industry, construction, and security, the place of women is weak. They total to just over 20% of the overall workforce. Even with the changes in management trends, the accession of women leaders to management positions is daunted with challenges in large companies. A good example is gender stereotypes that are tough on them, making them lack character, respondent, and authority. The misogynistic and sexist behavior of some employees adds to their list of challenges.

Thanks to diversity and inclusion that are changing mentalities in the workplace. Female leadership is actively campaigned for by the French Building Federation that aims to “build for women.” The SNCF also carries out programs and interventions in middle and high schools, making young girls aware of their profession and workplace gender diversity. This company specializing in transport has collaborated with Elles Bougent, an association fighting for gender diversity in the industrial and technological sectors. SNCF also promotes equality of both genders, and it deploys measures to increase the rate of feminization. Female leadership is considered a hot topic by approximately 83% of companies. For these reasons, there has been an emergence of workplace diversity programs supporting women’s careers and setting egalitarian objectives.

What is female leadership?

The definition of female leadership

A true leader is defined by their ability to inspire confidence and guide their team due to their charisma, emotional intelligence, and good nature. A leader influences and motivates their teams. A leader is more of a social recognition and a profession too. Here is why we are discussing women’s leadership instead of leadership in general.

Female leadership is a term that is increasingly used in vocational training plans. It is part of diversity management that aims to improve diversity in the workplace. The goal is to help women develop managerial skills, leadership skills, self-confidence, and self-knowledge, which helps them establish themselves more in masculine sectors.

For the longest time leadership and management were represented by men. Though, in recent times it has been shattered with the increase of digital culture. Today female leadership is more valued and sought after with concerns for equity, diversity, and gender equality.

Differences between female leadership and male leadership

Women are associated with gentleness, discretion, empathy, and listening, which makes them exercise more participatory leadership. This type of neuromanagement increases productivity and creativity in the organization leading to added benefits. On the other hand, men practice directive and authoritarian leadership that promotes rigor and is often associated with toxic managers.

Finding the right balance and inventing the right leadership style is essential for everyone. It is part of managerial innovation. Regardless of gender, everyone must learn to tap into their emotional intelligence to create links with their teams. Blending qualities such as communication, benevolence, listening, assertiveness, firmness, and agile project management are all part of exercising effective leadership.

How to develop and promote female leadership?

The following are handy tips that companies can use to promote female leadership.

Awareness programs

Before anything else, it is essential to understand the representation of women in the company. The way it is perceived and the social injunctions weighed on her. In a company full of men, numerous barriers need to be broken down for women to succeed as leaders. Stereotypes need to be deconstructed, and workshops and seminars provide the ideal medium to break them down. To break these impressions, employees need to be shown that inequalities are real and should be dealt with. This awareness-raising initiative is important because it strives for gender equality and establishes parity values in the corporate culture. Even with the dawn of the pandemic, the awareness programs should be designed so that they will still be effective even for those in the remote culture.

Sponsorship and exemplarity

It is the responsibility of the leading manager of the company to make the female executives visible. It will foster collaboration in matrix management or a business with fewer women leaders. The interest is to set a good example to other women in the group that they can progress and attain higher hierarchical levels. Using performance management, the company’s CEO can illustrate to the rest of the workforce how excellent a worker has been, which will help others change their attitudes towards them. Better yet, they can even be mentors to the young generation in the business.

Women’s leadership development programs

The egalitarian company should put in place career development programs for its female talents. Through innovation management, talent can be put into practice as well as using frugal innovation> to conceptualize their creative ideas. The company should ensure that its employees are offered training or professional coaching courses to allow the women to reveal their potential and climb the ladder.

Motivating through transformation

A recent study suggests that women lead through inspiration. They transform attitudes and beliefs more than men. Transformational leadership can be provided even in managing remote employees, so long as the leader is committed to leading effectively. Team engagement, performance and productivity are some of the benefits of transformational leadership. It also leads to a liberated company which allows members to be more responsible with their tasks.

Focusing on elevating others

Compared to male leaders, women are more likely to mentor, coach, and develop the workforce. They help people grow irrespective of gender and are true talent agents. This explains the recent HR trends of openness to hiring far better people than themselves. It enables people to unlock each other’s potential and promotes effective cooperation in holacracy. Self-centered and self-focused leaders are likely to turn people into low-performing teams.

Putting your people ahead of yourself

To have a high-performing team, you need to be selfless. You need to put their needs first and do everything in your power to ensure they are a high-performing team. Men are more self-focused, leading selfishly, whereas women are the complete opposite. Women are kind and caring, which makes them emotionally connect with their followers. For this reason, we need to develop and promote women leaders to get the empathy, appreciation, and kindness they offer.

In Conclusion

At CoachHub, we offer a tailor-made coaching program, “Female Leadership: Breaking the Glass Ceiling.” Our personalized and proven approach brings more parity between men and women and female representatives in your company. We use digitized learning methods that go in line with remote management. Our coaching is done in a fully digitalized way on an agile and complete coaching platform. Are you ready to do female management?