Commentary

Where Are All The Female Speakers?

Study after study shows that corporations with higher proportions of women in top management lead to business success — from operating results and stock price to increased employee satisfaction and positive public image.

So, if all the research suggests having more women leaders will lead to better business outcomes, then why are we still talking about this? Why is it so difficult to move the needle on building female leadership?

The "role-model effect" suggests seeing women in positions of leadership shift our perceptions and is key to closing the gender gap. It’s usually cited in examples of female executives. But the truth is, it extends well beyond the boardroom table.

Conference speakers reflect who we consider to be credible leaders and influential voices. And if they’re mostly men, what does that say about our faith in female leadership?

Consider some of these statistics: In the UK, 30% or less of public speakers or authors of articles in the press are written by women.

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I spoke at the South by Southwest Interactive conference today on this topic. Last year, only 38% of speakers were female, when the gender split of attendees was 50/50.

So it’s not that women weren’t there, they just weren’t speaking up. Having a seat at the table doesn’t matter if you don’t say anything when you’re there. To move the needle on building female leadership, we need to amplify female voices.

When it comes to securing speakers, many organizers informally recruit speakers based on first or second-degree connections, save for a few heavy-hitter women, the usual suspects we’ll call them.

The ugly truth is that informal recommendation networks don’t favor women, who tend to have less connections than men. Women simply have fewer opportunities.

For women just getting onto the leadership track, there are also common themes of fear, lack of confidence and inadequacy, exacerbated by being fed a steady diet of the few “rock star” female conference speakers out there.

The effect, similar to being exposed to only models in magazines, may also lead to women not even thinking opportunities to speak exist for "someone like them."

Despite these barriers, getting more women to speak up starts with acknowledging these dynamics and being more aware of the unconscious biases, both internal and external, that fuel them.

Then we must ask, what are we going to do about it?

To affect change on this issue, we need to employ both push and pull strategies. This includes women taking the initiative to find their voice and making their own luck by seeking out opportunities to speak.

We must complement this with a collective commitment to renounce the all-male panel and actively recruit more women to speak, and not just at women’s specific events.

Those at the top need send the elevator back down and be generous with speaking opportunities to give more voices the chance to be heard.

We need to encourage more women to get loud and use their voice to get ahead.

 

 

 

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