Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership

by Alice H. Eagly and Linda L. Carli

IF ONE HAS MISDIAGNOSED A PROBLEM, then one is unlikely to prescribe an effective cure. This is the situation regarding the scarcity of women in top leadership. Because people with the best of intentions have misread the symptoms, the solutions that managers are investing in are not making enough of a difference.

That there is a problem is not in doubt. Despite years of progress by women in the workforce (they now occupy more than 40% of all managerial positions in the United States), within the C-suite they remain as rare as hens’ teeth. Consider the most highly paid executives of Fortune 500 companies—those with titles such as chairman, president, chief executive officer, ...

Get HBR's 10 Must Reads on Women and Leadership (with bonus article "Sheryl Sandberg: The HBR Interview") now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.