Myths about why women aren’t on top

It’s already been established that having more women at workplaces and especially at the C-suite levels is highly beneficial for an organization. But in spite of this knowledge, the number of women in most fields- managerial level and above; is much less than required.

People often speculate as to why there aren’t more women on top. Where reasons like lack of confidence and the glass ceiling are true, there are some myths regarding the absence of women. Here are a few of these:

CHILDREN HOLDING WOMEN BACK

What’s holding women back, is not children but the social conditioning that demands women to be the primary caretakers of children. Women are expected to work outside, take care of children and also manage household work. All the women who seem to be at a disadvantage because of their children are in reality just overburdened with work that ideally should be shared by their partners.

MARKET IS FAIR, WOMEN DON’T WANT PROMOTIONS

Of course there are women, like mentioned above, who are overburdened with work and cannot afford to take more responsibility at work, but that is not true for all women! Gender bias still exists almost everywhere and women aren’t given many opportunities- that are the reasons we don’t seen many women at higher positions.

IT’S NOT THEIR GENDER

Many across the world, including Margret Thatcher believe that if women are capable, nothing can stop them from getting ahead. This, unfortunately, this is just partially true. This argument fails to address most Asian cultures where men hardly participate in household work and women are expected to stay at home. Does that mean none of the women are capable?

ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2014/mar/08/international-womens-day-female-public-leaders