Two weeks ago, the Pew Research Center released the results of a national survey on women and leadership - results that still show major challenges in public life and the corporate C-suite for women in the U.S.
We all know the big scores: 44-0 for the U.S. Presidency and the noted dearth (just 4.6% of the S&P 500) of women in the CEO role of major companies. There are 104 female member of the U.S. Congress - the most ever - but it's somehow seen as a victory that a shade over 19 percent of elected representatives in our national legislature are now women.
The Pew study showed that attitudes are slowly changing - but that hurdles to parity (and fairness) still exist. According to the survey, women are far more likely than men to see gender discrimination in today’s society, and that "women and men are seen as equally good business leaders, but gender stereotypes persist."
Reports Pew: "...the public does not see major differences between men and women on key business leadership qualities. Where they do see gaps, women have a clear advantage over men on honesty and ethics, providing fair pay and benefits, and offering mentorship to young employees. Men have an edge when it comes to being willing to take risks and negotiating profitable deals."
That got me thinking about my own sector: nonprofits, philanthropists, social ventures. Where I go to work every day, the gender gaps tends to run in the opposite direction - and yet even here, the glass ceiling remains stubborn.
Go to a philanthropy conference or a fundraising convention or a summit on social entrepreneurship or a roundtable on corporate social responsibility. Women predominate. The programs I've taught in here in New York - first at NYU and now at Columbia - are filled with ambitious and talented women seeking masters degrees to help them attain senior executive ranks in the social sector. In my own consulting practice over the last decade, working for nonprofits and foundations large and small, the person I report to (usually the executive director or development chief) has been about two times more likely to be a woman than a man. And I daresay, there's at least parity among the strongest social sector writers, analysts and public intellectuals.
According to a 2013 survey by the White House Project, fully 73 percent of employees in the nonprofit sector are women. Yet, by all accounts, women have not yet reached parity in terms of leadership positions or pay.
"The social sector has a long way to go to meet gender equity in executive compensation," said Guidestar research chief Chuck McLean last fall, when the organization released its annual report on nonprofit compensation. Guidestar found that women who are nonprofit chief executives made 11 percent less on average at organizations with budgets of $250,000 and 23 percent less at organizations with budgets between $25 million and $50 million. Further, the raw numbers are also troubling: when budgets are small, women make up the majority of executive directors and CEOs. As the budgets increase, the number of women in charge decreases; just 17 percent of nonprofits with budgets of more than $50 million had female leaders.
It's hard to explain why this glass ceiling still exists in a sector so dominated - and frankly, made possible - by the work of women. Last year, the Chronicle of Philanthropy teamed with NYU to survey female nonprofit executives about their careers. The research found that 44 percent of female nonprofit workers "think their organization favors men over equally qualified women for chief leadership positions." The survey found that big organizations also don't take women donors as seriously as they do wealthy men - clearly a mistake in the changing world of U.S. philanthropy, where some are starting to urge a specific gender lens be applied to giving.
In its annual report on the state of governance of nonprofit boards of directors, the organization Boardsource cited a continued gender gap in leadership - with smaller organizations often led by women, but organizations of medium size (over $1 million) or large (over $10 million) employ female chief executives at a rate of just 37 percent. More encouraging was the data on women and board participation and leadership: the survey showed that women trailed men only by 52-48 in board membership, and by 54-46 in chairing nonprofit boards. This mirrors my own experience in the sector, and I think it's encouraging.
I do believe that attitudes are changing, particularly among younger people. While parity in national politics and in the big companies is still far away, it's a lot closer farther down the power pyramid. In this shift - which is happening now - the social sector can proudly claim its own leadership, and take pride in leading society forward.
