In America’s C-suites, women now lead 41 of the Fortune 500 businesses. The 2021 figure serves as a positive barometer for how women’s leadership rankings continue to rise.
Nationally and globally, women make strong leaders, and their leadership pays off for companies—both financially and culturally.
Profits get a boost. When women fill at least 30 percent of senior management roles, companies often see an uptick in profits. A survey of nearly 13,000 businesses in 70 countries found a strong correlation between women leaders and increases in profitability of as much as 20 percent.
This kind of link between female leadership and financial strength led Deborah France-Massin, a director at the International Labour Organization, to observe: “Companies should look at gender balance as a bottom line issue, not just a human resource issue.”
Often when women hold senior management positions, companies gain a better understanding of their customers; obviously, this can have a positive effect on their bottom line. But just why would this be?
A fundamental shift is at work when women are at the top: companies start to think differently.
Innovation gets a lift. That’s the conclusion of a study featured in Harvard Business Review (which is publishing a Women at Work series of books). The researchers found that, among the 150 companies in the analysis, innovation gets a significant and positive refresh when women lead. Risk becomes less attractive while change becomes more appealing.
This shift has seismic effects, as it opens people’s thinking to more and different strategies for a company’s success.
DEI starts to get its due. According to McKinsey’s 2021 “Women in the Workplace” report, women leaders are committed to DEI. Women are, after all, part of that acronym, representing gender diversity. But a truly diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce goes deeper than that, embracing the differences in races, ethnicities, sexual preferences and more.
DEI reflects the new, true face of America. With the help of women leaders, it’s a face with values which companies are beginning to recognize.
The author Virginia Woolf famously championed the idea of A Room of One’s Own, the title she chose for her 1929 book on the value of women. At CREATiON Companies, we understand the value that the right space and place bring to deep explorations of leadership among both women and men.
Come, find your “Room,” and take a leadership journey in a CREATiON property.