Working Women in American Society: Women Underrepresentation in Corporate Leadership

Women Underrepresentation in Corporate Leadership
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Women Underrepresentation in Corporate Leadership
Michael McDonald and James Westphal have a very informative article about how low mentorship of females and minority first-time directors have adverse impacts on appointments to top most positions in the corporate world. I have learned that women and minorities are usually underrepresented and their number in the corporate board seats is limited. Although some organizations have responded to the increasing pressures from external stakeholders pertaining to appointing females and minorities to their board seats, they are not willing to improve the mentorship of these demographics (McDonald & Westphal, 2013). In that light, women and minorities do not have significant influence in corporate leadership.
I concur with McDonald and Westphal that women and minorities have limited opportunities of climbing their career ladder to the top, particularly due to less mentorship. Organizations cannot say that these individuals are underqualified, less skilled, or experienced, or that they cannot handle the responsibilities that come with corporate leadership. Instead, there exist intrinsic and extrinsic barriers that hinder females and minorities to become chairs of board committees or chief executive officers (CEO). I also agree with the authors that the representation of women and minority groups can have positive effects on the company’s reputation (McDonald & Westphal, 2013). In reality, some corporations are appointing females and minorities in board seats to show the world that they embrace equality so that they can improve their reputation.
In my opinion, everyone should be given the equal opportunity during the recruitment of potential candidates in corporate leadership. Individuals’ differences, such as gender, race, culture, ethnicity, skin color, religion, and age, should not hold specific demographics hostage such that they are automatically disqualified from the applicants’ li...