Women in Leadership: What Hinders Aspirations? Welcome to Knowledge at HEC Masterclass HEC series number eight. What hinders aspirations for women in management. Over the past few decades, we have observed that women are generally underrepresented in positions of management and researchers, practitioners, academics have been attempting to approach this question from different angles today to present. Introducing Professor Ekaterina Netchaeva Her perspective is HEC Paris Assistant Professor of Management and Human Resources at Ekaterina Netchaeva. Her academic background is in organizational behavior and psychology. Her research has been published in various academic journals as well as various media outlets, and in addition to her research, she teaches organizational behavior, leadership, diversity management, high performance teams to Masters and PhD students at HEC Paris. We're delighted to have her with us today to discuss some of the elements which hinder women to aspire for high management roles. As this is a live session, don't forget to prepare some questions for professor. We'll have a Q&A session at the end. Without much further ado, over to you, professor. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ben, for the introduction and good afternoon everybody. I'm absolutely delighted to be here today. As mentioned, my research focuses on women's experiences in the workplace. One of the questions and topics that I've been really interested in lately is trying to understand the leadership gender gap specifically. Why is it that there are fewer women than men in leadership roles? Over the past several decades, the dominant view has been that prejudice and discrimination kept women away from leadership roles. Organizational decision makers, for various reasons, tend not to want to see women in these roles. While undeniably true, we wondered if there might be another explanation for this gap. Specifically, we wanted to focus on gender differences in leadership aspirations. In other words, we wanted to investigate whether women are less interested in pursuing these roles compared to men. We thought that this was a very important question because the gap tends to persist despite the widespread adoption of policies and programs meant to combat discrimination by offering women various opportunities, sponsors, and trainings. Meta-Analysis Methodology Are women less interested in leadership opportunities compared to men? To address this, we conducted a meta-analysis. A meta-analysis is known as a study of studies. First, we conducted a thorough search of the existing research on the topic, specifically for studies that measured the levels of women's and men's aspirations in leadership. Then we performed an analysis which aggregated these gender differences across all studies to produce an overall effect size, an overall gender difference in aspirations. We found that across 174 studies and almost 140,000 participants, men significantly show higher interest in pursuing leadership roles compared to women. Key Findings: Gender Differences in Leadership Aspirations This confirmed our hypothesis that gender bias and discrimination is not the only explanation for the leadership gender gap. Our study also revealed several insights: Across the last six decades, women consistently show lower interest in leadership roles, and men consistently show higher interest. The gap tends to be smaller in occupations and organizations that are female dominated or more gender balanced compared to male-dominated organizations. The gap tends to increase after college. At high school, boys and girls show similar levels of aspirations, but after college, men's aspirations continue to increase while women's levels plateau or drop. Explaining the Results: Self-Stereotyping My research team and I have speculated on possible factors that might explain these results. The first reason is self-stereotyping. Self-stereotyping is a process wherein men and women internalize gender-specific stereotypes, the social expectations for how men and women are supposed to behave. For women, this might mean being helpful, kind, supportive, and cooperative. For men, it means being powerful, assertive, and dominant. People start to use these gender stereotypes as a compass to guide their interests, behaviors, and activities to align with social expectations, sometimes overriding their genuine interests. Past studies have drawn upon this notion to explain gender differences in delegation, negotiation outcomes, and willingness to take on non-promotable tasks. For example, women are more likely to organize birthday celebrations or serve on committees rather than advancing their competencies, while men are more inclined to pursue leadership-related activities. Early Career Experiences and Mistreatment Past work has shown that women routinely experience mistreatment and prejudice in the workplace. Women are less likely to be invited to lunches with management, given interesting tasks, or listened to. Early career experiences like these might dissuade women from pursuing leadership roles. Work-Family Balance Challenges Between the ages of 25 and 45, women experience greater caretaking responsibilities than men. Recognizing that these responsibilities require time and effort might lower interest in leadership roles that demand similar investments. Making Women Feel More Included: Three Categories Since organizations cannot directly affect self-stereotyping or work-life balance, we focus on interventions that can help women feel more included. There are three broad categories: diversity recruitment, diversity training, and mentorship relationships. Diversity Recruitment Interventions Examples include: Advertising or featuring diversity in recruitment materials, showing statistics or images of women in leadership roles. Using careful and intentional language in recruitment ads. Phrasing such as “we are committed” aligns better with gender stereotypes than “we are determined.” Instituting quota-based systems, with awareness of potential drawbacks, such as perceptions of women as diversity hires or disruption of work-family balance. Ensuring gender bias is eliminated from hiring practices using blind evaluation or joint evaluation. Diversity Training Programs Effective diversity training includes: Employee orientation programs to understand the advantages of diversity. Skill training on conflict resolution, sexual harassment management, and communication. Awareness training on stereotypes and decision-making. Self-regulation training to help employees reflect on their goals and behaviors. Establishing strong organizational norms emphasizing transparency and meritocracy, while being aware of the “meritocracy paradox” which can produce unintended negative consequences. Mentorship Relationships Mentorship relationships, especially informal ones, improve women's self-confidence, socialization, and network access. Mentors can help reduce decision-makers’ biases. However, mentors must avoid raising unrealistically high expectations that might discourage women from leadership roles. Q&A: Cross-Country Differences Meta-analysis focused on US participants, but the self-stereotyping process exists globally. Women and men internalize gender-specific expectations across countries, suggesting similar patterns in aspirations, with possible variations in size depending on local context. Q&A: Role of Educators and Counter-Stereotypical Role Models Exposure to counter-stereotypical role models increases women’s aspirations. For example, seeing female pilots or doctors demonstrates alternative career possibilities. Q&A: What Can We All Do for Gender Equality Better treatment of women requires action from organizations and individuals. Women can balance warmth and competence to avoid backlash and maintain credibility. Competence involves being prepared, proactive, and willing to take on challenges. Q&A: Optimism About Closing the Gap DEI initiatives are increasing and exposure to counter-stereotypical role models helps. While the exact timing is uncertain, these efforts are expected to narrow the leadership aspiration gap.