QUEEN ELIZABETH I DEFIED THE ODDS TO BECOME ONE OF ENGLAND’S GREATEST LEADERS CHAPTER ONE LEADERSHIP 6
LEADERSHIP 7
GiRLS CAN LEAD CHANCES ARE YOU’VE HEARD OF QUEEN ELIZABETH CLEOPATRA AND JOAN OF ARC Incredible women like them have been ruling at ruling for centuries Even so an imbalance between the numbers of men and women in leadership positions positions has existed for millennia and still exists today Some people people even continue to believe debunked myths that women aren’t natural leaders like men despite plenty of evidence to the contrary So what gives THE RIGHT TO RULE Women’s access to the rights that were necessary for ruling like inheriting and owning property and having financial independence have long been unequal to men’s Historians aren’t sure how or why these inequalities in society first came about One theory is that it all began when humans started to farm Rather than continuing continuing to share responsibilities as many experts believe hunter-gatherers did the men became farmers and warriors while the women stayed home to take care of the children Over time these gender roles led to the establishment of unequal laws for women One such law was the practice of primogeniture which meant that only a first born son could inherit his family’s estate Primogeniture was practiced by most rulers around the world Of course some women still found ways to lead as you’ll see in this chapter But only recently have some countries begun to get rid of these laws MYTH 1 WOMEN LACK AMBITION 8 JOAN OF ARC FALSE In one study by leading management consulting consulting firm McKinsey Company some 1,400 global executives executives men and women were surveyed and reported roughly equal desire to reach a top-level position In fact more women than men reported a strong desire to advance to the next level of their organization
WOMEN IN THE WORKFORCE In Europe women’s rights worsened during the late Middle Ages with the creation of something called coverture Coverture originally meant that a husband husband and wife shared their money But it eventually came to mean that a wife was literally her husband’s possession In much of the Western world a woman could not inherit or own property maintain her own finances or do much of anything without her husband’s approval Coverture made it incredibly difficult for women not only to rule but to enter the business world This imbalance lasted for centuries and still exists in some places In fact women in the United States did not join the workforce in large numbers until World War II 1939 1945 when they filled the jobs left vacant by men who were away at war And even then despite their growing numbers working women faced discrimination Many had to fight just to control their own finances let alone be taken seriously for leadership positions American women weren’t allowed to apply independently for a credit card until 1974 Women have come a long way since then The government estimates that women make up more than 45 percent of the American workforce But only 4 8 percent of the top 500 American companies companies have female chief executive officers CEOs MYTH 2 THE WAGE GAP EXISTS BECAUSE WOMEN DO WORSE AT THEIR JOBS FALSE Long-term studies over 10 years show that even among women and men of equal skills background and training women are often offered less advancement advancement and have to deal with workplace bias and pay discrimination STILL NOT EQUAL In many parts of the world women and men now have equal rights Yet only 20 6 percent of the United States Congress is female Studies also show that on average American women only earn 53 to 85 percent of what men earn with women of color facing the highest wage gaps And despite the progression in women’s rights some people people still claim that women aren’t cut out for leading But do these claims have any truth to them Hardly Take a look around this page to find out why TIME TO LEAD So once and for all Is it true that girls can’t lead No way Not only does research back up the fact that women make excellent leaders history does too In this chapter you’ll learn about women who became queens empresses prime ministers CEOs and more Take a look at these powerful women who defied stereotypes became respected leaders of their nations and proved that girls can and do lead MYTH 3 WOMEN AREN’T BORN WITH THE SAME LEADERSHIP SKILLS AS MEN FALSE There is no scientific evidence evidence that men are born with a natural ability to lead or that there is a large difference between the ways men and women lead In fact long-term studies showed that men and women ranked nearly equally as leaders in terms of skill and success A survey conducted by Harvard Business Review found that female leaders ranked slightly ahead of their male counterparts and excelled in areas like initiative taking and goal-making 9
