Women Excel in Leading Positions, but Glass Ceiling Remains

Research from Harvard Business Review revealed that women are excelling in every area of leading positions. However, there continues to be a gender gap preventing women to access such executive positions. This was the case in the study carried out in the US, but the issue is relevant in countries like Mexico, too.

Efforts to demonstrate that women are as effective as men in leading positions are ongoing, but statistics often prove that women are equally or even more effective in taking initiative, acting with resilience, practicing self-development, driving for results and displaying high integrity and honesty. Women outperformed men in 84 percent of the skills that Harvard Business Review measured. Nevertheless, the gender wage gap, prejudices and glass ceiling continue to exist. Data from several research studies present compelling evidence that this bias is incorrect and detrimental to women, but also for the workplaces that limit their own capacity, for example by fretting too much about potential pregnancies affecting team performances.

Despite this stigma, more women are moving to the corporate sector in Mexico, but very few have accessed senior executive positions at major companies. This infers the existence of the glass ceiling, which refers to the limit of how far a qualified woman could advance within her organization. “The role of women in Mexico is changing and the real challenge for women in Mexico, and elsewhere, is to increase the numbers and the breadth of their participation and say in the way things are run,” said Shannon O’Neil, David Rockefeller, Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director of the Civil Society, Markets and Democracy Program, the Council on Foreign Relations.

Despite company efforts to diversify their workforce and legislation toward equal opportunities, women are still in the minority of decision-making positions. According to business analysts, companies have much to gain by increasing their efforts here: the better that employees of all genders are treated, the higher profits and productivity that organizations gain in return.