The challenge and opportunity for women in leadership

Leadership and gender equity remains a significant issue for business and public sector organisations. 

Globally women still make up only 26% of C-suite jobs globally (McKinsey, 2022) and 26.5% of national parliaments (UN Women, 2023). 

In New Zealand this looks like women holding:

• 28.5% of senior leadership roles in NZX-listed companies;
• 38% of Executive/GMs within organisations participating in the Champions for Change reporting; and,
• 55.9% of senior leadership within public service organisations.

We need more women in leadership.

Period.

However, if you need some specific – business case focused – reasons, here are FOUR.

1. For the diversity of thinking and experience, organisations need to respond to complex global issues. The research consistently demonstrates that businesses with greater gender diversity are more profitable and outperform those without (see Forbes 2023).
2. To reflect the markets in which businesses operate, and respond to the increasing purchasing power of women. According to Forbes (2022) women already drive the majority of consumer spending. We also saw just how much of an impact the purchasing power of women had with the Barbie movie grossing 1.446bn in box office sales in 2023 and the Taylor Swift Eras tour contributing $5bn to the US economy.
3. To address acute talent shortages. Despite AI threatening to take jobs, and what’s going on with the economy, there is still a shortage of great talent (see Forbes 2024), particularly people who have, all important, people skills.
4. To involve women in decisions that affect their lives and improve their financial, economic and social outcomes.  For example, despite women and girls experiencing disproportionate hardships (including food insecurity and risks of poverty and violence) as a result of climate change, women made up only 10% of the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai last year.

While organisations are making efforts to address these business needs, and investing considerable resources in doing so, we’re still not seeing this flow through to representation.

According to McKinsey (2023), women are leaving their companies at the highest rates in years because of ‘opportunities to advance’. In 2023 the Champions for change reported that the representation of women in senior management dropped 6% from 2022-2023. It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds in 2024

Forbes (Corbett, 2020) and Deloitte (2024) also point to the challenges women continue to experience progressing their careers with reasons including:

• women still shouldering the majority of child-care and domestic labour,
• risks of marginalisation and discrimination because of menstruation, maternity, and menopause; and,
• the lack of visibility of gender-diversity in senior leadership teams and opportunities to advance.

There is a missing piece to this puzzle, one that our research points towards, but isn’t currently being addressed in practice. The work we do supports organisations to advance their leadership and gender equity goals by applying the research in this space.

Read how we’re applying this research to make a practical difference to organisations or get in touch if you’d like to know more.