Studies state Women leaders give better results than men

A study reveals that India is the second worst country when it comes to women leadership, with having only 14% women leaders (lagging only behind Japan.) Canada ranks no. 1 with almost 50% women leaders, US being a close second with 41%. However, the figures for the US do not hold true when it comes to the management level. The Centre of American Progress reports that amongst the top 500 highest grossing companies of the country, only 14.6% of the executive officers and 4.6% of CEOs; are female.

A worldwide survey conducted by Pittsburgh-based human resources consulting firm DDI, reported that even though companies with women leaders perform better; compared to men, they had lower levels of self-confidence. DDI President, Rich Wellins further revealed that over 12% of the male leaders, out of all the surveyed companies, considered themselves amongst the top 5% of performers. On the other hand, only 9% of the women in the same companies gave themselves a similar rating. Wellins added, “If we assume that they have an equal ability to lead, there is a question of why men think they are better than women.”

The survey also noted that more men than women, reported to have taken on international assignments, which gave a further push to male workers’ confidence. Due to familial commitments and reluctance to move to probable sexist environments, a relatively smaller number of women opted for the same. Another reason for this according to Wellins could be gender bias at the workplace.

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The 2012 Harvard Business Review in a similar survey required 7,300 business leaders to rate the effectiveness of male and female managers. Their results were similar the DDI study. Out of 16 different desired traits, the women rated higher than men in 12 of the categories. According to the survey, “at every level, more women were rated by their peers, their bosses, their direct reports, and their other associates as better overall leaders than their male counterparts — and the higher the level, the wider that gap grows.” With both numbers and positive feedback on their side, its difficult to understand why women still face disparity at workplaces.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Forbes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/08/05/companies-do-better-with-women-leaders-but-women-need-more-confidence-to-lead-study-says/