Gender shouldn't be a factor in whether or not a person can be a great leader — a person's leadership abilities should depend on their individual strengths and personality traits. However, in many cases, women aren't encouraged to take on leadership roles as often as their male counterparts, contributing to an imbalance of who's in power. According to the Huffington Post, last year, only 23 Fortune 500 Companies were led by women. But women are just as qualified as men are to lead, so why is there such a huge disparity between them?
A 2015 study by talent management system Saba Software, conducted by the Harris Poll, found that 60 percent of male employees expect their companies to play an active role in their individual career options, versus 49 percent of female employees who expect this. Emily He, former chief marketing officer at Saba (now the CMO at DoubleDutch), said that this supports findings from other studies that women are more hesitant to speak up about their career ambitions. But Saba also discovered that women are driven more by intrinsic motivations about work, rather than what their jobs or employers demand from them.
"In contrast to men, who tend to be career-centric and want to maximize their financial return from work, women view work more holistically, as a component of their overall life plan," He told Business News Daily. "Therefore, they're more likely to approach their careers in a self-reflective way and value factors such as meaning, purpose, connection with co-workers and work-life integration.