According to the Huffington Post, in 2019, only 23 Fortune 500 companies were led by women. It does not come as a surprise to anyone because when a female child does not see equal treatment and equal opportunities in her family and in her societies, it undermines her demand for equal opportunities at workplaces and no question can arise for women leadership.
Consciously or unconsciously, biases have always existed between the two genders all over the world. Women have always been looked at as being inferior to men and therefore never put on equal pedestals with men. This disparity starts from the time a girl child is born into a family. The son of the family gets the doctor set to play with while the daughter gets the kitchen set. There is inequality in the way education is given to a son and to a daughter which paves the way to future leadership roles.
It is a widely believed myth that men will make better leaders because of their machoism and physical strength. But when you look at all these “possible attributes” you will find that the machoism and physical strength that men boast of is only pseudo in nature. One should never support any kind of bias against any gender in any manner but when the society gets hell-bent on proving that men are the only ones who can prove to be great leaders, women have to come forward with scientific proof and reasons to prove that something called women leadership can exist because leaders are not made out of gender identities but out of conviction and determination.
Following are the points which can substantiate why women leadership is better:-
Table of Contents
WOMEN ARE CAPABLE OF BALANCING PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL LIVES
We have often seen fathers bailing out on the school functions of their children or are absent from the day-to-day activities of their children on account of their work. But women always find out a way to maintain a balance between their work and their personal life because they are aware of their personal as well as professional commitments.
WOMEN ARE EMPATHETIC
Many employees have confessed that it is easier to work under women leadership because they are more empathetic with their employees and their circumstances. This helps them in creating a specific work environment for their employees which is suitable for both parties.
GREAT LISTENERS
Being a great listener is an aspect of being a leader because if one does not listen to the people who work for them, one will never be able to point out their mistakes and train them for better performance. Women all over the world have proved to be great listeners and therefore been able to create a more competent workforce.
FOCUS ON TEAMWORK
As women generally keep the whole family wound together, so does she when she works as a team in a professional space. Under women leadership, everyone gets equal opportunities to present their ideas, voice their concerns, and to divide work equally and efficiently. This system of working brings out the best of employees because it neither puts too much burden on them nor does it try to suppress their individual creativity.
GOOD AT MULTITASKING
A woman in India can do all her household chores since 4’o clock in the morning and still reach the office on time and can again in the evening spend all of her time with her family. That is the basic essence of being a woman and multitasking has been intrinsic to women since their childhood. Therefore women can multitask in their professional space too if need be.
WOMEN CAN HANDLE CRISIS SITUATIONS WELL
Women are known to have kept their calm in the direst of situations. They can prove to be excellent crisis managers thus being beneficial to their workspace in times of crisis.
The former US President Barack Obama was in Singapore in 2019, and he had been quoted saying that he was absolutely confident that if every nation on Earth was run by women for 2 years, a significant improvement would come about in the living standards and outcomes as there is nothing better than women leadership.
In India, many schemes have been implemented by the Narendra Modi government to help women leadership at the ground level such as Beti Bachao, Beti padhao, Swachh Vidyalaya, etc. These schemes will not only empower the women in India but also show them the way to women leadership. The Prime Minister has always encouraged greater participation of women in politics from Panchayat to Parliament.
The MUDRA Yojana has benefitted many women in India. It was launched in 2015 to help increase women leadership and since then, over 90 million loans worth 4.28 trillion rupees have been sanctioned. Of these loans, more than 70 million loans have been sanctioned to woman entrepreneurs. The Standup India scheme which is nearly four years old has done a lot to increase women leadership opportunities in India. The scheme has a provision under which bank loans of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1 crore are facilitated to at least one scheduled caste or scheduled tribe and one woman borrower per branch of scheduled commercial banks, over 81 percent of account holders are women as of February 17, 2020, according to the Ministry on Finance.
The Indian startup ecosystem has taken into consideration the various challenges faced by the women in India and created solutions to help them in leadership such as flexible timings and the introduction of pick and drop facilities.
According to research conducted worldwide, women have proved to be more successful in improving profits. For example, when Indra Nooyi took the reins of PepsiCo as the CEO, the profit of the company was $2.7 billion; under her leadership, the profits rose to $6.5 billion in a year.
Jack Ma, the founder of the world’s most successful e-commerce company, Alibaba, once shared that one of the secret ingredients of Alibaba’s success as they have a lot of women working for them; out of the 18 founders in Alibaba, 6 are women, accounting for 1/3rd of the total number of founders.
Even after all the impetus was given to women leadership to the women in India, the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index (2009) ranks India on the 24th out of the 135 countries in regards to women’s political participation. According to a survey conducted by the Reserve Bank of India between November 2018 and April 2019, only 5.9 percent of all startups had only-female founders and 43 percent had both male and female founders.
There are many books on women leadership which all aspiring women must read to get encouraged. The Next Generation of Women Leaders by Selena Rezvani, How remarkable women lead by Joanna Barsh are some of these books. These books will keep women motivated and help them in understanding how to come about women leadership.
It is disheartening to see that women are not able to come out of the severe repression which they have faced all of their younger years. It will take a long time for women to be confident in themselves and their leadership capabilities. All the current women leaders should try inculcating confidence in their fellow females so that they are able to take up leadership roles easily. But things are changing slowly and steadily for good and soon women leadership will be a normal thing for people all over the world, especially for the women in India.
