I have been looking into facts on women in leadership recently and came across a few interesting statistics that I want to share with you.
- In 2012 women made up 46.9% of the labor force
- Women hold 91 or 17% of the 535 seats in the 112 US Congress – 17 of the 100 seats in the Senate and 74 of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. This number declined from the 95 women in the 111th US Congress.
- Women are 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs.
- 89% of Americans are comfortable with women in leadership but only 18% of our leadership positions are held by women. Overall, 82% of leadership positions in America across all sectors are held by men.
- Women comprise 5% of directors and 14% of film writers in the top 250 grossing films.
Those are some interesting numbers and they show that even though women leaders are amazing and competent, leadership still seems to be held mostly by men.
Women’s advantages are not at all confined to their traditional strengths. At every level, more women are rated by their peers, bosses, direct reports and other associates as better overall leaders than their male counterparts and the higher the level, the wider that gap grows.
As leaders in organizations look hard to find the talent they need to achieve exceptional results, they need to be aware that many women have impressive leadership skills. These skills strongly correlate to organizational success factors such as retaining talent, customer satisfaction, employee engagement and profitability.
Let’s start spreading the word about the amazing women leaders we are aware of. We need to support each other.
