The pitfalls of female CEOs

The proportion of female CEOs is still very small, and there are quite some reasons for this. The latest Fortune 1000 list includes only 46 female CEO's. (http://www.geolounge.com/fortune-1000-companies-2014-list/).

Reasons for this have often been called the ‘glass ceiling’ or the ‘sticky floor’.

The glass ceiling refers to the resistance women encounter on their way to the top. Women who want to grow in a company are often prejudiced because of the fact that they won’t be the perfect mother/housewife. The glass ceiling is the “unbreakable” barrier that keeps women from rising to the top of the company, regardless of their qualifications or achievements.
Sticky floor refers to the fact that women who do not apply for challenging positions due to a lack of confidence, which limits their development in a company.

 In some cases women are given top positions that carry a greater risk of failure more often then men. Women are more easily promoted to top positions, especially in times of crisis, but they also have a greater risk of failing. Studies showed that women remain in their CEO position half the time compared to men. Wouldn’t you agree with them? Women are only considered the perfect fit for the CEO-position when the firm is going through hard times, so they have to ‘save’ the company and face a lot more pressure. This makes it fairly obvious why women quit this position sooner.

In my opinion, these terms of sticky floor and glass ceiling aren’t the most appropriate, we should say that it is a labyrinth for women to reach the top management.

It might take until at least 2030 before a third of all top-level positions are taken up by women.  Unfortunately, women are less likely than men to show interest in a job, since they often have the feeling that they should be approached. Otherwise they have the feeling that they are not competent for the high function. An explanation for the limited number of female top-positions can be that women are not applying for a job when they are planning to start a family in a few years.

 Quotas may be a solution, but it isn't  a perfect one. Solving the problem through the regulatory framework has often been shown as an unsuccessful approach. Quite some women oppose the idea because they don’t want to be favoured. For the moment I don’t think these quotas will make a huge difference in the amount of female managers.  It’s a pity, because this slows down the process while there are a lot of corporations out there who are engaged to grow the amount of female CEOs.

Women are more often hired for high-risk positions, because recruiters feel women have the abilities to solve a crisis or because it is less of a tragedy for women to fail.

The stereotypical image of women at the top: they are though. A man who has a tough approach is considered ambitious.

Or as the COO of Facebook said: “A little girl who is bossy is called bossy. A boy is immediately called a leader.”