Women's career equality and leadership in organizations: Creating an evidence‐based positive change

• Author: Ellen Ernst Kossek,Patrice M. Buzzanell
• Published date: 01 July 2018
• Date: 01 July 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21936

GUEST EDITORS' INTRODUCTION

Women's career equality and leadership in organizations:

Creating an evidence-based positive change

Ellen Ernst Kossek

1

| Patrice M. Buzzanell

2

1

Department of Management, Purdue

University, West Lafayette, Indiana

2

Department of Communications, University

of South Florida, Tampa, Florida

Correspondence

Ellen Ernst Kossek, Krannert School of

Management & the Susan Bulkeley Butler

Center for Leadership Excellence, Purdue

University, Rawls Hall-office 4005,

100 S. Grant Street, West Lafayette, IN

47907-2076.

Email: ekossek@purdue.edu

Funding information

Purdue University

Research on women's career equality and leadership is growing in importance for advancing

social justice, equal employment opportunity, and global and national economic goals. Despite

the increased attention being paid to gender equality for decades, progression has slowed or

stalled around the globe, in many countries, such as United States. The goal of this special issue

is to address the persistent research-to-practice gap in developing and implementing practical

solutions for a positive change to advance women's career equality. In this introduction, we pro-

vide a brief overview of the approaches used to study women's careers and discuss how

research and practices that are more inclusive of women's needs, values, and career experiences

should be broadened to include more expansive and less-gendered notions of careers. Then, we

introduce the articles in the special issue that inform current directions in (a) career and leader-

ship theory, research, and methodologies for gender equality and (b) the application of scholar-

ship to organizations. We conclude with a summary of some lessons for future research and

practice on closing the women's career-equality gap.

KEYWORDS

gender diversity, gender equality, women and leadership, women and work, women's careers

1|INTRODUCTION TO THE HRM SPECIAL

ISSUE ON WOMEN'S CAREER EQUALITY

Scholarly and practitioner interest in human resource and organiza-

tional initiatives to enhance women's career equality has exploded in

recent decades (c.f., Joshi, Son, & Roh, 2015; McKinsey and Company

and Lean In, 2015). The reasons for this growing attention are com-

plex and varied across organizations, industries, and nations, often

including societal justice, equal employment opportunity, and eco-

nomic objectives. Although women are seen as equally qualified to be

corporate and political leaders, about half of the U.S. public believes

the gender leadership gap persists due to gender bias (PEW Research

Center, 2015). Indeed, women remain underleveraged as a source of

talent and leadership in nearly all occupations around the globe—from

CEO positions to corporate board members, (Catalyst, 2017) from col-

lege presidents to Silicon Valley executives (Fenwick & West, 2013)

and software developers in rapidly growing well-paid STEM (Science,

Technology, and Engineering Math) jobs (Lubinski, Benbow, & Kell,

2014). This gap endures even though women are about half the world

population.

A recent World Economic Forum (2016) report cites persistent

gender inequality as a top global economic risk, noting the inability of

nations and employers to fully use women's paid labor talents is slow-

ing world economic growth. Analysis by a nonpartisan economic think

tank of nearly 22,000 companies in 91 countries reported that half

were lacking senior women in key leadership positions, and a 30%

increase in representation could generate a 15% increase in profits

(Nolan, Moran, & Kotschwar, 2016).

Yet, progress in women's career equality has stalled in many

nations, most notably in the United States, which used to be a

leader—but now at 45th in the world ranks far from the top (World

Economic Forum, 2016). While women's labor force participation has

grown over the last few decades and continues to grow in many parts

of the world, it also has peaked in some nations (e.g., United States in

1999) and has declined globally between 1995 and 2015 (from 52.4

to 49.6%) (Catalyst, 2017). Furthermore, equality in women's career

paths, rewards, advancement, and retention remains uneven, at best,

and discouraging, at worst. Globally, women earn 77% of what men

do, and pay and advancement vary depending on the career stage,

DOI: 10.1002/hrm.21936

Hum Resour Manage. 2018;57:813–822. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 813