Boss Lady

Don Draper’s era of men clinking tumblers filled with premium spirits from the private office stash in their corner bar, and secretaries in stilettos serving coffee is long gone, but the hangover lingers. Some employees still do a double-take when the person calling the shots is a woman, revealing that cultural expectations have evolved more slowly than dress codes or open-plan offices. The question isn’t “Can a woman be the boss?” anymore, it’s “Why is it still sometimes considered remarkable when she is?” 

Progress is real but fragile. According to the 2024 Women In the Workplace report by McKinsey & company, in corporate America’s “broken rung,” only 89 white women, and just 79 women overall are promoted to manager for every 100 men, leaving fewer women in the queue for senior roles. And the statistics are even bleaker for women in the C-suite. Collectively they hold just 29 % of C-suite seats while women of color hold only  7 %. 

When women do reach the top, they often excel. In a 2020 study of 60,000 leaders in the Harvard Business Review  titled, Research: Women Are Better Leaders During A Crisis, women out-scored men on 13 of 19 critical competencies, including taking initiative and driving results, and were rated even higher in overall leadership during the chaos of the pandemic. If women do better than men in a difficult situation, does it mean that it should be the woman who grabs the baseball bat to investigate that strange sound in the middle of the night?

Perhaps the most important impact of gender-diverse leadership is the resulting increased profitability. Companies in the top quartile for both gender and ethnic diversity are 9 % more likely to beat peer profitability, and boards with balanced gender representation deliver 2–5 % higher annual returns for shareholders (2023-Diversity Matters Even More: The Case For Holistic Impact by McKinsey). 

Yet, despite these laudable statistics, women leaders still walk a tightrope. Show warmth and you’re “not tough enough”; show decisiveness and you’re “too aggressive.” Catalyst calls this the double-bind dilemma, while other research coins the likeability trap, a penalty men rarely pay. 

Women are less likely to get feedback tied to advancement, more likely to shoulder “office housework,” and are experiencing sharper drops in engagement than male peers.

Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In mantra encouraged women to self-advocate, negotiate, and “sit at the table.” That advice boosted confidence for some. Critics, however, note that “leaning in” sometimes can tip a woman into exhaustion if the ladder she’s on is still missing rungs. Is she still expected to fulfill society’s stereotypical expectations that a woman must cook, clean, provide childcare and be a sexpot in the bedroom?   

So, is having a woman boss a plus or a minus? The research tilts decisively toward plus for engagement, crisis performance, and profit, but only when the ecosystem supports her. The question of “Would you work for a woman boss” was answered positively by many men in the survey contained in my recent book. However, there were some men who thought such a situation would be contrary to their rightful role in the workplace.

It’s time to judge leadership potential by ability, not gender. Until then, the glass ceiling may be cracked, but it hasn’t yet collapsed.