5 Reasons Women Don’t Make It to the Top
Ever noticed how the CEOs and board of directors of top companies are all or mostly male? This is an unfortunate reality of the world today wherein more women than ever are working but only a handful of them actually do manage to reach senior and top positions in companies. Why is this so? Check some of the reasons women don’t make it to the top.
1. Marital break
Marriage is quite an important life changing decision for women. Although it is the same for men, they have that ‘bread winning’ nature in their heads and in order to support their new family they continue working the same job or go on to one which pays more. However women tend to take a little break and indulge in things they like such as following a passion or do a lighter job. This unfavorable thing gets seen on their résumé when they go serious job hunting after having properly settled in their roles as wives. Job switching and taking breaks between jobs is more rampant among women than men and these things are not regarded favorably by employers.
2. Maternal breaks
Women often miss out in the opportunity to get promoted as they don’t put in as much work as their male counterparts. This is not because they are lazier but because they prioritize family and child rearing duties over office work. They take maternal breaks from their jobs or leave them altogether until the child is a toddler at least. This lessens the work they have done in their lives as compared to men who work even on the birthdays of their children.
3. Weak art of negotiation
The reasons why fewer women make it to the top have been widely researched and one of the most common findings is that women don’t negotiate as much as men do while getting hired or promoted. It is unfortunate that women are more submissive in nature than men and hence have second thoughts about negotiating. So they tend to take up whatever is on offer with weak or no negotiating. Men, on the other hand, have more self esteem than women and demand their worth without hesitation, on an average. Thus they get what they demand most times and women are left behind.
