Overcoming Gender Barriers to Corporate Leadership

When Kristen Howe graduated from college and joined an engineering firm, she discovered she was the only engineer on her team who was a woman. One of her colleagues, “Larry,” took to alternately calling her “Missy” or “Little Missy.” “Never in my life had I known ‘Missy’ to be a nickname for ‘Kristen,’ ” Howe said.

Larry also told her that she “annoyed him,” because when their team worked on a problem, Howe usually had the solution. Now the vice president of enterprise products at SHRM, Howe said she recognizes that Larry’s nicknames were meant to diminish her.       

“Larry wanted me to exhibit what he considered to be the ‘feminine’ characteristics of humility and deference,” she explained during her concurrent session June 25 at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2024 (SHRM24). “But here I was, turning up as what he saw as ‘masculine’—that is, bold, assertive, and confident. So he gave me a diminutive nickname.”

While Howe acknowledged that Larry’s blatantly sexist behavior is now less frequently observed in America’s workplaces, she noted that today’s working women still face obstacles—some of which they erect themselves—that stand in the way of achieving the professional success they want. 

A Broken Ladder

While women are now entering the workforce in higher numbers than men, men soon outpace them in gaining promotions, Howe said. On average, men obtain their initial promotions three years sooner than their female counterparts.

The paucity of women at the top of corporate ladders bears this out, Howe added. Women make up just 8% of CEOs of companies in the S&P 500.

“Besides the obvious frustration this causes for women,” Howe said, “there is a monetary component that can really add up. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, on average, women working full-time, year-round are paid 84% of what men earn.”

Overall, seven hurdles stand between women and corporate success, Howe said:

1. The Inner Critic

Women are very familiar with—and, Howe said, often listen to—their “inner critic.” “It’s that voice in our heads that tells us we’re not good enough, smart enough, experienced enough,” Howe said. Many men are more able to tune out that voice, she added.

Women can silence—or at least ignore—this perpetual critic by showing themselves more compassion, learning to overcome their fear of other people’s opinions, and moving on when they stumble along their path, Howe said.

2. Clarity

Women are less likely than men to take the time to formulate clearly for themselves where they want to be in their careers and then make a plan to achieve it. “If you don’t tell people what you want,” Howe said, “the universe isn’t going to conspire to give it to you.”

She recalled how she once reluctantly accepted a position offered to her by a male colleague because he convinced her he “needed her” in his company. “I left after a year,” she said. “It wasn’t what I needed.”

3. Proving Your Value

Women need to let go of the belief that they can get what they want if they “do it all,” Howe said. Women in the U.S. on average spend twice as long on household chores compared to men. That disparity carries over to the workplace, where women are much more likely to be given “housekeeping duties,” such as notetaking, administrative work, and party planning.

“We call it ‘over-rowing your boat,’ ” Howe explained. “Your rowboat gets heavier and heavier with each new extra task you take on, so your boat gets lower and lower in the water, and you have to work harder and harder to row it. Soon you become too overloaded to take on the opportunities you want.”

4. Networking

While many women build professional and personal networks, they are not as likely to tap those networks when they need them for something big—such as a new job. “We need to learn to reach out to the people who can help us succeed,” Howe said.

5. Recognized Confidence

Howe noted that SHRM research has shown that women are overwhelmingly confident that their skills are as good as those of their male colleagues. But when asked whether they proactively share their accomplishments with their boss at least once a week, only 13% of women said yes.

“You cannot assume that if you put your head down and work hard, your boss is going to notice,” Howe said. “Managers cannot see all of the work that their team members are doing. You need to tell them.”

6. Branding and Presence

Women tend to do well on this measure, Howe said, although they are not always aware of how the presence they project is received or how much it helps them. “Ask your colleagues: ‘What are the first three words that come to your mind when you think of me?’ ” Howe suggested. “And use that information to gauge your impact.”

7. Making the Ask

Women are not nearly as good as men at directly asking for what they need, Howe said. “Unlike women, men were encouraged to be direct and ask for things from childhood up,” she explained. “Little girls are taught to be humble. As a result, naming what we want doesn’t come as naturally to us as it does to our male colleagues.”

 One key to surmounting these and other barriers, Howe said, is for women to help other women get ahead while they work to get ahead themselves. That will help place more women in the talent pipeline that is ultimately tapped for senior positions. “All of us need to lift as we rise,” she concluded.