Left Out of Leadership!

Today the Washington Post ran an informative article entitled: Our leadership crisis: Where are the women? This timely article states that according to the Whitehouse Benchmark Project on Women, the majority of Americans are comfortable with women leading in all sectors.

The bad news is that women hold only 18% of leadership positions across the 10 sectors examined in this project, including politics, business, law, sports, academia, journalism, religion, film/TV, nonprofit, and military.

This current research indicates that women continue to be under-represented in all arenas in the halls of power, AND if they get there they are underpaid.

The good news is that the 2008 Pew Research Center study found that the public thinks that women - even more than men - have what it takes to be leaders in today's world, scoring women higher than men in five of eight character traits they value highly in their leaders.

A recent report from Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress, "A Woman's Nation," shows that, by and large, everyone believes that the inclusion of women at all levels, from government to business to our faith communities, is good for our economy and our country.

This research supports the fact that we need a cultural shift that values the unique leadership traits and diverse perspectives that both genders - men and women -- bring to the table, and a commitment to having them work side-by-side to tackle the challenges we collectively face.

So, how do we get there from here?

This article gives strategies for closing the leadership gap. It is a great, thought provoking read. You can read the article here:

http://views.washingtonpost.com/leadership/panelists/2009/11/our-leadership-crisis-where-are-the-women.html

If you are interested in reading the entire Benchmark Report, you can find it at this location:


http://benchmarks.thewhitehouseproject.org/