This new panel for the Nova Women in Business Club is an initiative to share insights from Leadership at Nova on the current situation of gender parity in both academia and the workplace. Professor Daniel Traça, Dean and Professor at Nova SBE, and a published researcher in the field of Economic Development, has kindly shared his wisdom on the topic. While focusing on the further support of women in their quest to executive roles in Portugal, we discussed what must be done in order to improve the current odds, the challenges, and the benefits of doing so.
In 2015, there were more CEOs called John in the US than there were women. This number has improved, but the male-to-female ratio for executive positions today is still 19:1. According to Professor Traça, the first steps towards changing that will be cultural change and the need for evolution in the mindset of both men and women. From his view, the culture must change so that women are more impact-driven, and men encourage women to have such ambitions. In Northern countries, organisations have understood that having more women involved deliver better results to shareholders and to societies. Professor Traça illustrated this with the example of the Germanic Iron Age, where the Vikings were already pioneers of equal opportunities and advocated for women’s right and independence. In Portugal, there is still lack of ambition and too little urge for change regarding women in power. Women must make choices and look at implications of certain trade-offs, to find a balance between impact and evolution and personal fulfilment. “Women that have the power to lead and to make a difference have the responsibilities to live it through”.
The barrier is not business, as there are no costs. The challenge is in the minds of those paving the way for the generations that will come after us. Once the mental barriers have been broken through, we must build organisations and societies that enable and facilitate such changes. Women should no longer have to choose between dedicating themselves to their career or enjoying motherhood. But how can they fulfil both aspirations when they are too often left to handle the latter? This is not even to mention other societal barriers, such as the expectation that women are less fit to lead, or less attractive to hire.
From a very young age, women should be given an environment where they can aspire to make a difference. It all comes from role models and education that can nurture ambition. Organisations must understand that women have a fundamental role to play to their development, and that having more women in power gives them access to more talent and unexploited skills. Female inclusion as well as their access to leadership can seem like yet another emergent but short-lasted trend, but it will be a key driver of innovation and performance. Organisations that have put women in leadership positions have ultimately become more attractive; there is a reason why companies are doing this and it goes far beyond preserving their image or satisfying social expectations. It is because they have realized the lost potential in not doing so, and the risks of not adapting, and not adopting, such change.
“Women must accept that our differences will make us lead differently than John, but that does not make us any less capable to lead than John does.” My personal take away from this inspiring discussion would be like the example of companies years ago deeming the use of computers unnecessary and deciding they had all the tools they needed for their day-to-day operations. Those companies sunk after all the others saw the opportunity when this innovative technology was suggested to them. This is exactly the sort of choice and chance that I see for companies, when deciding whether to include women and offer them roles where they can truly have an impact.
When asked where he saw the women of Nova in 10 years, Professor Traça said he envisioned them as the role models that will be invited back to share how they have overcome the issue and created tremendous impact whilst balancing all other aspects of life. He sees us coming back to Nova SBE and setting the examples to the future generations, showing that there are ways of managing it all, and shaping a world in which they are encouraged to do so. Let’s hope we can live up to those expectations.
This article was written by Camila Bianchi.
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